As you may know, spammers have started to invade blog comments, and this site has seen its share of it.
While many developers are working on ways to prevent comment spam (I know there's some serious work going on on the WordPress side, and other blog tools seem to get solutions aswell), and until I can apply one of these automated ways on cafelog.com, I will have to silently check the comments and delete the spam, as I have done these past two months.

So here's the policy:

• If your comment definitely is spam, it is deleted.
• If it looks or feels like spam, it is deleted.
  I don't care if your URL just happens to be cheap-ass-stuff.com or wowlookatgirlz.nu: if your comment is on topic but your URL leads to a site with a crappy URL and the site aims to sell something dodgy, tough luck. You should have commented without an URL, that's all: cafelog.com is not an advertising billboard.
• If your comment is on a very old post, I may just delete it on sight. If it was a genuine on topic comment, blame yourself for commenting a post that no one is going to visit anymore, instead of bringing the issue on the support forums.
• If your comment is a flame/insult, it is deleted.

This is not censorship, it's just keeping the spam out. So if you commented, and you don't see your comment anymore, you know what happened.

Fortunately, if you read and understood this post you are not likely to be affected by this policy.
michel v @ 23:44:17 280
29 comments, 1 trackback, 1 pingback

Problem: There's a security hole in gm-2-b2.php and blogger-2-b2.php in the 0.6.1 release.

Solution: Delete these files once your blog conversion is done, or edit them.

A fixed release will come shortly, and the CVS will be updated.

--

Ontopic:

• Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little are leading the new WordPress branch of b2, that is going to become the new official branch once they get a release out. If you want to help with WordPress, don't hesitate to contact either of them!
• This website will get a minimalist redesign soon. A lot of sections are going away, including the "powered by b2" list. That list hasn't been updated for months on end, and with only 592 weblogs it makes it look like b2 isn't used by as many weblogs as it really is. Judging from the emails I get and the forums' activity, I estimate there are around 2000 b2 weblogs. This is a great accomplishment for me, and for everyone who supported me and the project.
• The "recently updated b2" lists will disappear from the main page and wait for a maintainer to get back on the front. If you feel that you're up to the task of processing emails to add websites to this list, please email me and I'll give you the keys to the list's admin section if I feel that you are serious enough.

Now for the offtopic banter:

• I am still jobless. My evil plans to conquer the world, that kept me busy for the past months, have been put to an temporary halt. This is the cause of much troubles in my personal life.
• I am slowly but steadily redesigning my own website. I'm not opening the doors until I have more than just a weblog to show for it. By the way, the redesign will be based on standards as usual, but will also look different on everyone's computer.
• With some of the money that I made by taking over the world (a small piece of it, for starters), I bought a digital camera, and proceded to photograph various things. I hope to get better at it than I am at PHP.
• The current state of RSS is scaring me.
• Elvis says hi!

Now for some shameless promotion of my beginner photographs:
michelv.deviantart.com (gallery)
michel v @ 02:38:51 360
23 comments, 13 trackbacks, 6 pingbacks

Tim Conner just released version 1.3 of BlogApp, a Mac OS X blog client, now with support for the b2 API (note: you need a little tweak in b2 for that, that will be fixed in the next b2 release).
I really wish I had a Mac with OS X
michel v @ 16:08:21 922
16 comments, no trackback, no pingback

updated b2 archives hack

click.. i will take good suggestions but i dont have enough time to make sure everyone has it working on their site. if you like challenges, go install it. eek.. it's not really that hard actually. but in the past, there seem to be a few customization problems. just discuss them in the forum like you did =)
dodo @ 22:02:56 168
4 comments, no trackback, no pingback

From my personal blog:

It's been more or less a terrible month.
To make a long story short, suffice to say health problems, depression, and lost contacts have brought me down for all that time.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and for being absent on the support forums for that time. I'll try to get back to you all as soon as possible.
michel v @ 19:02:31 043
2 comments, no trackback, no pingback

I'm going to move cafelog.com and tidakada.com to a new webhost tonight, so the support forums and this site will be down for a few days until the DNS resolve to the new server, starting from tonight at 22:00 GMT.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

In the meanwhile, there's a updated version of b2 in the /releases folder, which fixes the bug with categories and comments, and brings true internationalisation of the date functions.
michel v @ 19:41:40 070
5 comments, no trackback, no pingback

Lately I've seen a lot of hits coming from pages that talk about a security flaw in b2.
If you came here from one of these pages, here I tell you this bug has been fixed in the release version... in early May. And I even announced that bug etc (if you look down, it's just two posts below this one).

So now, if everyone could just stop submitting that same bug to every ****ing security sites on the 'net, it would be cool: it's a FIXED bug, for Christ's sake.


Incidentally, I've been working on CaféLog 1.0, from the b2 codebase and I'm not happy of the results; so I may rewrite the whole thing, for a whole lot of purposes: compatibility with PHP 4.2.0 even without register_globals on, Smarty templating (possibly even make the interface templatable), post-via-email, database-abstraction, and all sorts of goodies. There may be a pre-version available in July if I code fast, and then a finished code by September (I'm taking August off for travelling !). Don't consider these release dates as promises though.
When I can, I'll reduce some of the new features as 'hacks' for b2 in the forums (especially the post-via-email interface, which isn't released yet because of a weird bug with Outlook-generated emails).

About the lack of support, email replies, and updates: I'm losing my job by the end of July because the place closes doors, so I'm very busy with searching another one... (anyone could hire a french PHP coder ? pretty please ^_^ ? I don't bite !)
michel v @ 02:28:43 353
5 comments, no trackback, no pingback

Matthew Holger, aka Slide on the forums, has coded a handy Perl script for Palm users.
If you're a Palm user, this enables you to write posts offline and post them to your b2 when you resynch, using HandX webLog for PalmOS.

Download the script here.
michel v @ 12:23:23 807
2 comments, no trackback, no pingback

You now need to register in order to post in the forums.
Announcement is there.
michel v @ 12:35:53 816
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

Lately I found myself answering a lot of questions about b2, by e-mail or IM. While I like to help people out the fastest I can, I found out lots of the questions were similar, and make me "lose my time" if I may say, because I have to answer several times to the same enquiries.
(more...)
michel v @ 22:49:53 242
4 comments, no trackback, no pingback

Please do not email me about the register page on _this_ site, which isn't working.
This is NOT a bug in b2. I deactivated member registration here because you do NOT need to register here to download and use b2.

Any comment, email, forum thread about this will be deleted. Thanks for your understanding.
michel v @ 23:29:06 270
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

I've made b2/CaféLog referral engine aka "send this page to a friend" script.
You can download it in a nice zip or tar.gz bouquet.

More info and help available at my site or in this hacks forum thread.
Ricardo @ 15:17:49 929
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

The install script has been upgraded a bit, with a better response to errors, and no default password anymore.
Now if for some reason your installation fails, it tells you the SQL query, and the exact error it generated. You can then use this information when asking for help in the forums.
And if you can't change your password (I'm working on re-writing the profile page), you're not stuck with an open b2 where anyone could enter with admin/admin, because your default password is now a random password, generated when you install b2.
michel v @ 02:19:17 388
2 comments, no trackback, no pingback

b2 v0.6 pre-release version is out !
It's in the /releases folder, as usual.

I've been working hard to fix all the bugs I could, but it's still possible that you stumble on a bug. If you do, please report it in the forum, or e-mail me if it's a security-related bug (which is very unlikely, but you never know...).

This new version features file/image upload, template tags enhancements, lots of speed improvements, an XMLRPC interface implementing the Blogger API, post preview, RSS syndication, and a new spellchecker (since the old one, spellchecker.net, isn't free anymore).
You can "post to the future", by editing the date of the post: the post wouldn't be displayed until it's the right time in your timezone.
You can post through a SideBar (IE5+/NS6+ only), in addition to the regular bookmarklet (bookmarklet now working in IE5 Mac).
Oh, you can also post multiple-pages entries now. And with the new cookie system, you stay logged in for days until you logout (be careful and logout on shared computers though)

Have fun !


UPDATE: just fixed some bugs with the comments. If you downloaded the file already, download it again and replace the file b2template.functions.php in /b2-include - also, add a line to b2config.php that says $comments_notify = 1; if you want to have comments emailed to you.

UPDATE (10:00): bugs fixed, new versions are online: replace b2profile.php, b2login.php and b2register.php with the new ones.
Those who download the file now do not have to apply these fixes.
michel v @ 20:14:13 134
12 comments, no trackback, no pingback

FORUMS ARE BACK
But they're empty. Your user accounts have been preserved, so you don't need to register again.

Read the announcement.


I wish I could have been, but I won't be there to reply to e-mails, forums, etc, this weekend.
michel v @ 14:45:56 906
5 comments, no trackback, no pingback

THE FORUMS ARE BROKEN.

For some weird reason, all posts suddenly had a wrong timestamp: Unix timestamp 0, which is 1/1/1970; and some posts are listed as posted in 2010.

It might be a defect in the CVS version of phpBB2, or a booboo of my database, or it could be someone found a security breach in phpBB2 and exploited it here. In the sad event that it would be a security breach, I backed up every MySQL databases here, and will probably backup the files too.

In the meanwhile I'm going to re-install phpBB2, this time using the latest RC version instead of CVS. I'll try importing all users there manually, hoping it works as expected.
Please do not post in the forums before I re-install them.
michel v @ 11:01:02 750
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

This morning I could use Radio Userland 8 to update the b2 test blog, thanks to Radio's new Blogger-Manila Bridge feature. It basically is a mirroring feature to mirror your Radio entries to a Blogger-API compliant blog, such as b2's next version, Blogger (duh!), DruPal...
Now you will be able to use Radio, among other Blogger API clients, to update your b2 blog.

Another blog client that I like is Bloggar, I guess I'll volunteer to translate it in french sometime.

I'm not Asian, but if you are asian check this: ImAzn now offers to install b2 as part of their free hosting package !
michel v @ 15:20:10 930
1 comment, no trackback, no pingback

Thought I'd be back by wednesday but I'm spending more days with my family, and since I'll be moving next week, I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend on my own computer (living at a friend's for a month is not really handy). Enough time to fix some of the latest bugs in 0.5.2 and have it released, though.
As for the forums, I'm currently surfing them while I'm typing this in a cybercafé, and I'll try to reply to as many threads as possible. Also replying e-mails. Please bear with that situation, and enjoy the holidays too !
michel v @ 15:00:57 917
4 comments, no trackback, no pingback

Following this thread, I quickly modified shock's code to really integrate it in the interface and now we have a working file uploader for v0.5.2, with some options for customisation in the b2config file.
Still needs some final javascript touches to make it output the <img> tag in the form's text, but this shouldn't take so long.
michel v @ 18:50:36 076
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

The Forums are back. They were down a day for the upgrade to PhpBB 2, and now they look and feel much better and intuitive. I also took down that remaining dayzero.org link, so if you try to go there it will redirect you to the new url.

As for how the development and user-preferences are going, they're in a haze right now, as I'm searching for a clean way to implement all of these, without the database looking like it's been hacked 25 times. Features count, but a clean database design helps too.
I'm waiting for my friend to finish his redesign of CaféLog.com and maybe I'll base the new UI on it.
Or I can do templates: don't like the UI ? Change the template ! Maybe.

And as a reminder, what you see when you log in here, is an incomplete thing, filled with unknown bugs and inconstistencies, and well known problems that will be fixed in time. It is in no-way intended to be released as it is. Heck, it still has every filename bear 'b2' at the beginning, and that will change too.

My computer's cooling fan is reaching the 110 decibels, so I'll go out now (self-reminder: kick that thing, it always helps).
michel v @ 18:39:44 069
5 comments, no trackback, no pingback

For those of you who are going to accuse me of persuading Michel to change things the way I like it, don't. Because simply, I don't use b2 on a daily basis any longer.

The feature in question is the prompt that is shown when posting. It can't be turned off, and it doesn't serve as much as a purpose as a Preview button (as suggested by many a user in the forums). Which means that I can type my post, but whether I am typing something that I do not want to remains in question-- which is why a Preview button (which is not made compulsory by default) would serve to be a better alternative.

I understand the kind of flaming that I will receive -- which is why I will distance myself from any ideas toward the development of Cafelog (or any other bugs that I may think that applies) as far as possible in the future--I am certainly not a selfish, unscrupulous maniac.
ian @ 15:34:54 940
4 comments, no trackback, no pingback

In reference to Ricardo's Javascript fix for OS X on the bookmarklet thing: it doesn't work, and isn't supposed to work in the first place. I don't know what the problem is but one of the guys at the ADC told me that IE doesn't support this JavaScript too well. Maybe it's because I have the beta.

Anyway, his suggested fix was similar to the one I sent to Michel, however it also doesn't work too well... I sent an e-mail to Microsoft. We'll see.
ian @ 08:06:02 629
6 comments, no trackback, no pingback

Today, we have:

• an IMPORTANT BUGFIX
• a Blogger-2-b2 importer script (beta-tested on Eatonweb)

michel v @ 22:01:01 167
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

If you're seeing this, you're seeing b2 on the new server. You can get back to posting/commenting again, weeee !
As a reminder that this is a development status blog, please be so kind as to redirect your questions and/or bug reports to the forums.
michel v @ 01:49:18 325
15 comments, no trackback, no pingback

A lot of coding and db upgrading has taken off last night, and it'll be likely that you see weird things displayed on this page in the next days as I'll be putting everything back together, and in the meanwhile switching servers.

Here's good news: there's no b3 anymore, a db upgrade way has been found, that makes multiple blogs possible very easily. Oh and I picked a name from this thread and that will be b2's new name soon (end of next week ?).



Oh, and if anyone can tell me what the fuck is up with Atelier.no, that has a nice little page about how his copyright is sacred while he so conveniently removed my footer copyright notice from his b2's footer and replaced it with a nice Atelier - ©2001 notice on his other site, and also replaced the name and link to b2 on his login page by a link to Atelier.no.

He even had the guts to make an hyperlink to the Norwegian agency for copyright holders ! Needless to say, I contacted these guys.

Since that guy so conveniently ignored my e-mail, and just erased files from their previous locations to put them on pso.no's webroot, I sent a second, corrected, e-mail to Kopinor.no, and I'm decided to sort out the issue quickly.

On a related note, why are copyright infringers so keen on putting a big ass COPYRIGHT section on sites/things they just copied ? This defies common sense...
michel v @ 20:43:51 113
12 comments, no trackback, no pingback

There was a glitch and the template tag the_ID() wasn't in the distro. It just got included, aswell as the tag permalink_single() that makes a link to a post, long version, with comments.

For those with already running b2s, check that minor fix in the config file, to fix a sunday problem on the tag the_weekday().
Instead of re-downloading b2, you can copy and paste the new code of b2template.functions.php, there.
michel v @ 22:16:14 177
4 comments, no trackback, no pingback

Surprise, the GM 2 b2 importer script is finished ! You can find more about it, and apply to beta test it here.
When the beta test phase is over, it'll be downloadable on this page.

Here's another surprise: click this link: (more...)
michel v @ 13:15:40 802
3 comments, no trackback, no pingback

A quick Hello to our readers from HotScripts.com ! (I re-listed b2 v0.5 after the bug-fixes, so we're back to first page, woohoo)
Unlike last time, you won't be allowed to test and comment the system here, however you're warmly welcomed on the forums, or the IRC channel.

And in other news, I have almost finished a GreyMatter import utility. That should have been a surprise, but I couldn't resist telling the info
michel v @ 22:21:28 181
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

oh yeah there is. The login box is still broken, no fix yet.

By the way, I couldn't post to the forum, so if there's anything I'll post it on Prozac.
ian @ 14:31:49 855
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

It's been a tough decision, but since the development is slowing down a bit on b2, I will now release nightly b2 releases. These would be the result of today's work.
There'll be no support on these releases, so don't even ask. If you find some bugs please do not cry and complain: report the bugs, that's more effective.

So with this said, the impatients among you will want to go and download today's release, aka v0.5.1 pre release.
Most behind-the-scene bugs have been fixed there, including some nasty install bugs. However, the template engine has had some changes too, which are not listed in the readme yet, but are used in the sample b2.php file.
michel v @ 23:39:25 235
3 comments, no trackback, no pingback

I toyed around with the UI, template-functions, and categories stuff.

Added some browser recognition so some CSS wouldn't display on Netscape 4, added custom weekdays in the template functions, and started coding a little posts' navigator bar. Also the team listing now has two lists: Active users, and Inactive users; inactive users are those whose level is still zero. Categories are now deleteable; and when you delete a category, all posts under that category go back to the default one.

That's all for b2's idle development. b2's successor, which has yet to have a name, is in the works as you may know if you visit the forums. Go check the 'b3' section for more info.
michel v @ 19:03:10 043
no comment, no trackback, no pingback

Updated the template functions file, and the comment posting file. Now comments' time format is customizable right on the template and people won't post name,@,http://,comment anymore.
Changes were reflected in the zip files.

Also, there are forums now. So go & register if you want to tell us about bugs, suggestions, feedback or just anything
michel v @ 05:16:58 470
1 comment, no trackback, no pingback

Featured there too. Wow.
That sure is the kick start I needed to start coding new features and launch forums.
michel v @ 22:40:34 194
no comment, no trackback, no pingback