Why?! - the tabulas journal

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January 9, 2005

Why?!

The switch so far has been less-than-smooth. Let me take a few moments and explain why things were done the way they were.

I realize that a lot of you spent a lot of time customizing your Tabulas, and it has never been my intention to make you waste your work. I apologize to those of you who feel like you've been wronged due to these changes here at Tabulas. To that end, I will retrieve all old custom templates, one request at a time ... until everyone is satisfied.

Why did you change the templating engine?

The old templating engine was very old and not efficient. Furthermore, it was not standards-compliant, which is what a lot of people were complaining about earlier. In order to make a whole new templating engine, I decided to change the tags in order to allow for better features to be developed in the future (in essence, creating a more structured templating engine to build a better foundation).

Why did you delete my template

I didn't. If you had a custom template set-up on your old site, you can import it into your new 2.0 tabulas using our templating import feature. However, if you still want me to retrieve your old templates, leave a message here and I'll go and get the template for you. Please make sure the templating import does not work before you request for your template.

This new templating engine... kinda weird... help me understand it!

Sure! Simply post a message in the Styling your Site forums with your questions and I'll respond to them to help you make your templates better. If you're having stylistic issues (I know the import feature isn't perfect because the two systems are completely different!), also leave a message in the styling forum and i"ll try to answer all requests.

I know change is difficult, but for the growth of Tabulas to continue, this harsh change was required. Let me work with you to make the transition as smooth as possible... just please be patient with me. I'm only one boy ;D

Posted by tabulas on January 9, 2005 at 11:57 AM in General News | 89 Comments

Related Entries

Upgrades May 18, 2003
Warnings for Upgrade June 22, 2003
6 months October 3, 2003
Warning May 29, 2004
Does Tabulas seem a little faster? December 15, 2006

Linked Entries

These are Tabulas entries which have linked to this particular entry.

How to get your old template back by naochan January 9, 2005
hmm by pinacoloda246 January 9, 2005

tabulas has turned on comment autolocking after 2 days.

Comment posted on January 11th, 2005 at 05:59 AM

This new Tabulas is better and cooler! Um, can you please import my old layout or template? The old template is called "pendevous" or "pendevous2" Thanks!

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Comment posted on January 11th, 2005 at 03:46 AM

Hi Roy! Can you please import my old templates (for both accounts--"rocky" and "rock.") I can't figure out how to do it. Thanks,

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iya_akin (guest)

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 03:52 PM

hmm.. i like how the comments are now 'layered.' ^^

thanks roy! i like it!

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 09:03 AM

I liked the new templates, excellent!

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htelil_kawaigaru

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 07:50 AM

d old look of my blog is better..

please.. give 'em back to me!

*worried*

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 07:12 AM

no worries. its much much more user friendly now (i think..) and at least you let us get our old templates back. thanks ^_^

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 06:34 AM

my old template is not so good. Yet, i really love it. Please let me have it again. Hahahah.. Thanks

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icequeen101

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 05:43 AM

i agree.. i still want my old template...... PLEASE!!!

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jiggydogs (guest)

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 05:37 AM

No big. It kinda looks clearer now. But I'd still want my old layout please.

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zeniram_anibru (guest)

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 04:59 AM

i missed to open my tabulas for the past few days and today when i opened it i was like, "who messed with my lay out???" hahaha! :D anyway, changes are all right with me. yeah, if it's for the improvement of our online journals, why not? ;) anyway, hope that this new 2.0 tabulas will be easier to stylize that before... thanks! God bless! mwah! :D :*

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battingcages

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 04:31 AM

please, I am requesting for my old template back. And for that balnk space... I have that too.

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caMz (guest)

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 04:15 AM

i was able to import my old template but i can't activate it..

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 04:03 AM

ei roy, i thought i messed my layout and the change was actually great.. so im planning to keep it.. however, the only problem is, the entries are not on the same line as my tagboards.. there is a huge blank space on my page.. and i think thats the same for everyone else. But nice work for the new year..hope u could help me

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rainbowfizz18

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 02:11 AM

hi! =) i like the new template, but i dont know why my tagboard is not visible when i select a template other than the artemis-blue.=) what should i do?

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 12:29 AM

i dont mean to be whiny and bitchy, but i want my old template back. pleeeease, please, please!

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 11:28 PM

kindly explain to me this new template..tnx..

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 10:45 PM

Alright, people, "all we need is just a little patience".

Roy, you´re going straight to heaven, no questions asked!!! lol

What do you mean "you shouldn´t have changed my blog colors". Or else, what? You have a free account, can´t you at least show a little respect and appreciation for all the effort Roy is putting into making things better for us? yoou don´t have to like the changes, but at least show a little respect...

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Revolving_Drum

Comment posted on January 11th, 2005 at 03:28 AM

what a freeloader- do you even know that you are dissing the one person who made tabulas happen- and you are a free acount for crying out loud stop being bitchy, please.

It still suprises me that roy still allows you to be here despite your bratty attitude, grow up.

I don't understand, sigh

ROY is doing THIS FOR FREE. HE IS DOING THIS IN HIS SPARE TIME. GIVE HIM SOME SLACK.

And if you only looked at roy's announcements he was announcing this a year ago.

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iya_akin (guest)

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 03:51 PM

it takes brains to redo the template, it seems.

Roy has been talking about it since last year.

anyone can react to your comment. you can't change that.

fork, mahiya ka pwede??!!

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 11:33 PM

heheheh...

First off, yes, I do realize it´s hard to redo all templates, but maybe YOU don´t realize it´s a lot harder for Roy to keep not only your journal, but thousands running, while trying to implement improvements and then have people who benefit from his hard work come here and be rude...

Second, notice about the changes were posted in the Tabulas journal... Oh, you didn´t read it? Too bad...

Third, in case you haven´t noticed, Roy stated several times that the templates weren´t deleted. So, you should be able to restore it.

Finally, I am reacting to your comment because I didn´t like your attitude, I think it´s rude, unfair and immature... If you think you have the right to make demands and criticism like that, you should well be willing to take them back as well. At least I´m doing it in an polite fashion. There would be no Tabulas if it wasn´t for Roy´s effort and compromise. You know, I could go on and on, but that´s not the purpose these comments are here for and, either way, I don´t think you´re mature enough to understand what I´m trying to say, so, enough said...

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jopay (guest)

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 02:26 AM

AND DON;T YOU CALL ME IMMATURE BCOZ U DON'T KNOW WHOM URE BUTTING HEADS WITH!!! >=|

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 02:59 AM

I rest my case... :-) I guess your reply just proves my point...

hehehhe
Is that supposed to scare me?

I think you´re the only one not realising you´re making such a fool of yourself... I will not reply to anything else you write, you´re so not worth it!

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jopay (guest)

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 02:25 AM

y know what, IT'S NONE OF UR BUSINESS TO BUTT IN SO SHUT UP!!!:irked:

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 05:00 AM

jopay,

you should like an ungrateful little bitch.

think about what roy has to go through. give him time, geez, it's not the end of the world.

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sharpdisaster

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 09:00 PM

I found a bug...You can't change your username. Just letting you know. Keep up the great work.

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roy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 09:37 PM

What error does it give you? I changed mine fine...

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:53 PM

hey i think the new tabulas is great. its a nice change :) dun worry take ur time.. cheers..

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:25 PM

why does my pics in the gallery below its down down down how can i put them up.. other than that good job though..

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roy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:46 PM

Internet Explorer is a bad bad browser :'(

I've fixed it.

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OnlyADelusion

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:16 PM

do all new custom templates we make now have ads?

when you click on the "website" tab in the cp, then you go to "media files"... theres a bug there... it says theres an error

one last thing... theres a bug where... if you accidently post something without anything in the entry, it just posts an entry with nothing in it -_- is there a way to make a page that confirms the user to post an empty entry

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green_tea_party0

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 07:49 PM

OKAY MAN. when will all of our old shit be up....? soon?

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 07:22 PM

i still like my old template better. i tried using the templating import feature thingy but it didn't seem to work... or maybe i'm just computer illiterate. could you please help me? cheers mate!

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roy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:48 PM

Post in the forums with a specific help request. I can't help if I don't know what the problem is ("and this is not working" is not a good specific description ;))

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 07:14 PM

XD I believe we have no right to complain(free users) anyways nice job, go, go, go.

tabulas would be better than those other blogs in no time.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 06:43 PM

ei...i like the new layout and everything...but i can't delete my old template. i imported my old one then decided to create a new one. i wanted to delete the imported template...but i can't find it. please help me out...thanks! more power 2u

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 07:41 PM

There is a delete link on the edit template page.

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purple_candy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 05:48 PM

err, question: why isnt my usericon showing in my entries?

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roy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:49 PM

Add in the entryicon tags into your entry templating.

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 01:23 AM

what is the entry icon tag?

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roy

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 01:40 AM

ooops, should be

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roy

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 01:39 AM

&;t!--ENTRY['USERICON']-->

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 02:26 AM

uhm, when I added the tag, the entry display messes up if there are no usericons used in the entry. for example, if my display allows 3 entries, and one of those entries does'nt have a usericon, the next entries go up the screen. must be with the div tags..

by the way, I copied the aphrodite entry format and modified it a bit for my entry format.

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 02:27 AM

oh, and uhm, check out my friends page to see the problem. no usericon=page messes up.

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roy

Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 01:55 PM

Post your entry template in the forums and i'll troubleshoot it for you.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 05:36 PM

i love the new tabulas

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mrjoshherman

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 04:15 PM

it's not letting me implement my customized color schemes.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 03:29 PM

wow. 2.0 looks so spiffy.^^

i successfully import my old template.^^ thanks for the directions.

i'm slightly disappointed that the community pages are down (since i am a mod of one) but i'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'd be put back up soon.^^ & yes, the crossposting feature too.^^

umm, one question. will we able to edit the templates of the community pages?

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 06:54 PM

Yes, as soon as I finish that feature.

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 07:32 AM

yaaay!^^

thanks roy!

o.O @ the immature complaints above. *snort* oh well.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 03:09 PM

I'm using the Aphrodite grey and black color scheme, and I'm grateful because it's far better than I could do on my own. However, in my profile, the text is black, as is the background, so that only the links show up. How can I fix this?

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roy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:51 PM

Fixed.

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 12:42 PM

Thank you.

I'm sorry though, I have another problem. When I input extra information, like what I'm listening to and reading, it isn't showing up on my entries anymore.

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klr

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 03:02 PM

its not the template im upset about - its my color scheme. those of us who dont know how to use the CSS are totally screwed and i want my old colors back

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 06:54 PM

As posted in the previous post, the old color selector will make its way back; I realize not everyone is good with CSS. I just couldn't get that little feature done in time for 2.0. Patience, and it will return :)

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 02:44 PM

I was able to import my old template. Thanks for the instructions. HOWEVER, my tabulas navigation bar keeps going to my control panel and user on my entries are double. Why is this and how can I fix this? Thanks a lot in advance.
p.s. nice layout thought guys...I love how you changed it even if it is confusing at first. Keep doing your great work! ;)

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roy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 08:53 PM

In your entry template, replace  with

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Comment posted on January 10th, 2005 at 02:57 PM

haven't tried it yet but will do...keep up the great work!

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 02:28 PM

Thank you so much for the new version, my site finally validate xhtml. And I love the new set up as well as templates available for my account now. Everything lo_ok much cleaner and professional. Keep up the good work!

P.S. I have a question as to whether or not I could remove the 4px gap below where the navbar appear?

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 02:27 PM

in my gallery.. the pics are below not above but below can you help me.. dont know what to do.

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green_tea_party0

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 02:04 PM

what's up with the huge gap between the top of the page and our entries?

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:57 PM

I can no longer have my customized, randomized icon! I use to have Javascript in the page that would check the "USERNAME" replacement, but now instead of returning the name it returns the name wrapped in an anchor tag with quotes in it, which fails when inserted in to Javascript. Do we have some template marker that's just the name ONLY?

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 02:01 PM

Never mind.. Hack-ola and I found a way...

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forceofwill

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:41 PM

sorry to be a nitpicker, but I have another minor bug to report

This is only in the control panel as far as I know

in the nav bar on the top of the screen, the "Tabulas Home" Link links to My.Tabulas.Com, taking me back to the control panel (obviously not where I wanted to go)

Thanks!

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forceofwill

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:21 PM

do you think you could bring back all of the old templates?

Also, I think the template color changer was good in the last version... do you think you could bring it back?

Thanks, and keep up the awesome work!

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:25 PM

Yes and yes to both. The color changer thing needed a big rewrite which is why it hasn't been added back in yet.

But I didn't know people were so attached to the old templates! I'm going to add them back in today.

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forceofwill

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:31 PM

the thing was that they were so simple!

People loved them because they were easy to navigate, etc. and people got addicted

Now everyone is on withdrawl!

Thanks!

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forceofwill

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:35 PM

I personally dont use one, but I speak most of my friends when I say that they were ready to leave because of the [semi]radical change, just thought I could save you some users

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desolation (guest)

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:16 PM

Yeah, though I could probably learn the coding I don't think that I'd have the devotion you have.. so for that alone you deserve kudos. It's quite an accomplishment. A suggestion though.. while you did offer help (yes I have some things askew) it might almost be easier if you ammend the help page otherwise you might get swamped with questions like.. "how do I fix that suddenly HUGE title font on my links page" or "how can I get my header image to butt up under the user menu like it used to".. my issues, yes.. but probably others too. Overall though this is one kickass service.. good job!

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forceofwill

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 01:14 PM

okay... got a slight "bug" to report

on the control panel, when you select a tab, if you run your mouse over it again, it will highlight the tab to the left.

(i.e. if you are in the styles area/tab, you can run your cursor over the tab again and it will highlight the styles tab)

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pei

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:46 PM

"Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/mytabul/public_html/functions/general.php on line 122" error upon changing email address. :x I hope I didn't break anything.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:44 PM

Yeah, giving people time to adjust is probably a good idea :) I think I'll finally sleep (I've been coding for more than 12 hours straight now!)

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abbiexcites

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:39 PM

The changes are nice but please do something with the ad banner.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:45 PM

I need the ad banners to pay off some of the costs of free users...

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 06:15 PM

I DO understand the need for the ads, but maybe we could try to find a way of making them a little more intrusive. There are too many ads showing at a time. Free account users, like myself, must understand the necessity of having ads in their journals and, trust me, I do. All I´m saying is that maybe finding a way to make them look less intrusive could be a good idea and make our journals look a little better. Is there a specific reason why there are so many ads displayed at the same time? Could we just have a little less? Just throwing in my pennies... ;-)

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 06:16 PM

ooops, in the beginning of my previous comment, I meant a little *less* intrusive! lol :p

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desolation (guest)

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:38 PM

Okay, change isn't necessarily a bad thing but maybe next time warn us so we got backup :)

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:43 PM

Well, nothing was *deleted* so there's nothing to backup. You still have access to your old templates; they're just no longer in use since the templating engine has changed.

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pretty_in_punk

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:36 PM

I was thinking of switching journals to livejournal or xanga but I like the changes so i'll stay here. Good work *thumbs up*

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:43 PM

Stick around for a little while longer; I'm working on a true crossposting feature to LiveJournal so your posts from Tabulas automatically appear in LiveJournal as well :)

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:22 PM

i like the changes at tabulas =)
i had to re-design my entry-style but everything works now =)
thanks alot for what you are doing - tabulas is the best online-blog ever!

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roy

Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:24 PM

Thanks for your support :) If you need any help customizing, don't be afraid to ask.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:17 PM

I never thought about the one-man teamness. Have you ever thought about getting other people to help out with the development too, Roy?

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:20 PM

No money :D I barely make any as it is, I couldn't imagine anyone else doing this for no money too.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 06:24 PM

Well, maybe there are other like you, willing to share their skills to offer something to the community. I for one would volunteer at a glimpse, in fact, feel free to contact me at any time. I don´t have programming skills, but I do have designing skills that I´d be more than happy to offer as a way of showing appreciation for the wonderful service i get for free myself!!! And, yes, for no money! I already do this for another blogging system. Contact me and maybe we can work something out, if you´re at all interested. :-)

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:24 PM

I'm sure there would be volunteers... If I could do half of what you can do, I'd volunteer.

:) Keep up the good work! Tabulas is definitley my preferred journaling system and it's so awesome that you've done it all by yourself.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:11 PM

That's really nice of you, to go and get all the old templates and stuff. I'm looking forward to experimenting witht he new template system to see what it can do.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:10 PM

You forgot to answer one question... why'd you steal my comment bullet? =)

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:19 PM

Ahh, I thought you said it was OK? I can remove it if it bothers you. Let me know.

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Comment posted on January 9th, 2005 at 12:27 PM

You asked if you could use it for ONE of your templates... not ALL (or at least most of them) of tabulas's templates.

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