Moving from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace V6

So I finally found a theme that I kinda like at Squarespace 6.

At least it’s the best that I’ve seen so far. Like WordPress, Squarespace is really in the CMS/full website building business and is moving away from blogs. With that in mind, I was hesitant to make the switch.

There’s that, and Squarespace won’t let third party apps like Blogsy work with version 6.

I have no idea why this is. I’ve asked, heard nothing. fomola (Blogsy dev) has asked numerous times… nothing.

Seems stubborn.

But after spending some time looking at the UI and figuring out what does what, I’ve figured out something really, pretty important. SIX is damned powerful. It absolutely blows FIVE away. Tons of little things that I’ve wanted to do here, things that I’ve wanted to add that requires custom code, are just built-in options with SIX.

Now I just need to figure out the best way to move my content and move over to SIX.

There are still a lot of things that I don’t care for with SIX, but I think I can tweak most of it. Basically, it’s just not that readable and usable. I don’t like the typography. It still feels more like flash and style than substance. Also, I can’t seem to get autocorrect, text replacement and substitutions to work in the SSV6 editor.

But I guess people like that. I like this theme that I’ve been playing with. It’s a lot of work trying to get the new, old site up; meanwhile, I’m trying to plan out the rest of my writing. I’m going to add an entertainment section to talk about video games and anime. My personal stuff will be elsewhere, entirely (at the moment, it’s called “Bradtastica”), as well as politics. I don’t think I want to deal with all of those insipid comments insults.

By the way, is it just me, or is this Spacecraft website builder look a lot like… Squarespace 6?

Christmas Colors and December News

Yesterday and the day before, I modified the color scheme here at Says Brad. Some simple updates, but sticking pretty closely to the same RWB Americana theme. (RWB just made me think of RWBY, a cool show by Rooster Teeth) Earlier today, while I was planning and writing my upcoming notes apps’ reviews, I thought about the theme change and decided to give it Christmas colors.

Why not? Squarespace makes it really simple.

At least if you’re using a desktop browser. Modifying the theme in SS5 is basically impossible on iOS.

Because of both of these two elements — simple, but difficult away from desktop browsers), I wanted to keep it really simple and be able to switch back after New Year’s. With a click, you can duplicate your current style and create a new name for it, make the appropriate changes, and save it alongside the old theme. Since the two sit side by side, I can simply enable the original when the Christmas theme is no longer relevant. (I suppose that at any other time of the year, it just looks Italian.)

I need to figure out how to do this at WordPress or Squarespace 6… or wherever I start my disability blog at. I know I said that I was going to get right back to writing about apps and stuff, but the recent ruling regarding NSA data-mining and the White House press release, I think it’s appropriate to discuss privacy, 4th Amendment protections (the word “privacy” is absent from it) and a bit about how that is applied (or not) to internet communications and virtually everything else in the surveillance cities and states of the world (London comes to mind). Is all of this information harvesting making us any safer, and if it is, is the price too high? Although political, I think that it’s a tech-related issue.

I also saw this Reason-Rupe poll today that says 58% of Americans think that police militarization has gone too far.

That includes a full 60 percent of both Democrats and Tea Partiers. Opposition is under 50 percent among non-Tea Party Republicans.

I think that this is particularly important as well, because although the primary tools are still primarily various firearms, high-tech weaponry is becoming increasingly affordable and available, and I don’t want to be hit by a microwave weapon gone awry.

So that’s what’s going on.

I just got a copy of Ulysses III from the wonderful, awesome people at The Soulmen, and as it interacts with Daedalus Touch, I’m going to review the two together. I can already recommend Daedalus Touch, especially if you like to work on multiple projects simultaneously or need to organize and reorganize text dynamically. It’s the smoothest, easiest to use document management tool on the iPad and iPhone.

I’m also trying my best to pack and move, but doing that with a disability is very difficult. It’s inspired me to write a bit about the major changes that occurred slowly over the past five or six years that I only notice when I think about it (like a distinct change form extroverted to introverted). In my mind — much of the time — I’m the same… but the reality is often completely different.

New blogging platform Squarespace 6

I've been blogging with Squarespace for several years and it's been a great experience overall — especially so because my focus is on content instead of code. Squarespace is well organized and uses a clean, robust interface (complete with step-by-step guides) for adding widgets, pages and content. It also has a detailed traffic analyzer built-in. Squarespace has great customer service, too — businesses could learn a lot from them.

Oh yeah, Squarespace is also really pretty.

For Says Brad I use Squarespace 5, a platform tweaked and improved over the years that offers customizable templates, fancy modules and flexibility. The templates are gorgeous — much better looking than stock TypePad and WordPress offerings — sites look great from the get-go, and from there, unlimited tweaks and changes can be made to the themes. I like pretty and unique… I don't like to code. I like code itself, I'm just not that great at it. I don't study it, practice it, or keep up with its latest trends. I focus on graphics, design, branding and English. Programming isn't my forte.

Thusly, my website style options are fairly limited and updating the site's visuals is a significant endeavor. Squarespace 6 might be the answer.

Squarespace 6?

Squarespace 6 is a new platform, independent from 5. It uses templates and a beautiful WYSIWYG UI. Adding content is drag-and-drop, colors are chosen from a wheel — the demo I saw made it clear that 6 offers design flexibility that 5 cannot match without custom coding.

So I am thinking about switching. Right now, I enjoy blogging from my iPad using Blogsy; presently, Squarespace 6 is only compatible with the Squarespace app and desktop web browsers. I really like Blogsy — it's a beautiful app made by a dedicated team in South Korea run by Lance Barton — and I don't think I'd switch to SS6 until Blogsy is compatible. The iOS SS app has always had issues: faulty image uploads, lost images, blank posts, crashes, lost content — I don't trust it.

Other factors.

I can't really edit colors, layout and themes from my iPad as is (using Squarespace 5) so I don't expect that 6 will be different in that regard. However, SS6 themes have built-in mobile versions for smartphone and tablet browsing, potentially offering a better experience on the devices I love most. Maybe if/when I get a new MacBook Pro (with Retina display, maybe? *wishes*) I'll reassess.

If I were to switch, it won't be completely seamless and simple. It's not like updating an app on an iPhone; Squarespace 6 is incompatible with SS5 and some things might get lost in migration, as currently, the two lack parity. I read something about an import/export tool, but it sounds… frustrating, like more complications, stress.

I need to really study the themes and perhaps play with them first. Says Brad won't migrate anytime soon, but I want to get a portfolio site up to showcase my artwork and graphic design and Squarespace 6 might be the solution.

I'm looking for opinions and feedback on Squarespace 5 versus 6

I haven't tinkered with version 6 yet so I have no idea about its flaws or bugs, if any. I'm planning on moving away from TypePad because it's ugly and I get a lot of spam comments there, and I'm thinking I could ditch WordPress as well. I'm not actively using WP, but because it's practically an industry standard, I thought I should know how to use it because I occasionally get asked if I can design for it. However, if Squarespace 6 is what I think it is — it could be a fantastic small business solution — I'll eventually work on graphics for those SS6 sites, so…

Perhaps the better face-off is Squarespace 6 v. WordPress?

Brad uses Blogsy