Calling All Techies (and Readers)!

First off, I’m test-driving Disqus, a just-launched comment system recommended by the very knowledgeable tech blogger Paul Stamatiou.

Second (and this is NOT to detract from my very serious plea to follow), I am really starting to get into techies — and I am not just referring to Paul’s smoldering good (Greek?) looks. Computer nerds suddenly became hot as of last week. What’s up with that? Maybe we look for in others qualities we’d like to see in ourselves. And I could use some fluency in this php bullshit.

Third, someone save my website before I destroy it. A few issues I’m having with this baby:

1. My theme Dipdolt White 1.0 (designed by Darjan Panic and Brian Green) is not widget-compatible which is extremely inconvenient. I could attempt to make it widget-compatible but will probably fuck something up in the process.

2. “Preview” is broken on Wordpress 2.3 and I need to upgrade to 2.3.1. Um, I barely got out of the last upgrade alive.

3. I recently allowed readers to subscribe to my updates. I’m subscribed myself but I’m getting two emails whenever I post something. Is this happening for everyone or just me? Sorry if this is annoying you guys!

I’ve been blogging for about 14 months and I’ve learned a hell of a lot about how to use and run Wordpress. I love the fact that I still have yet to succumb to some IT person. (The longest period of downtime this site has ever experienced was just a few hours and that was Bluehost’s fault, not mine.) I may deride my own tech abilities all the time but the truth is that I’m not nearly as incompetent as I make myself out to be.

But — and this is a big but — despite all my stubborn independence, I have to admit that if I don’t start finding a professional, one of these days I probably will break something. There are some things I just don’t know and won’t ever know about programming and computers and websites unless I take a class or something (some people are self-taught, but I guarantee you I am not those people). And considering how terrible I am about these things (never backing up, dropping my PowerBook down a flight of stairs, etc.), the day I accidentally delete Sex and the Ivy is very, very near.

So. I know I’ve asked before and been really shitty about responding, but is there anyone reading who wants to be my go-to IT savior? All that’s required is a ton of patience, minimal time commitment (basically, just during periods of crisis), and Wordpress or general programming knowledge. Catch me at elle [at] sexandtheivy [dot] com if you’re interested, and let’s disqus! (Get it?)

Reach my new Disqus comment system by clicking on the post title in the meantime while I figure out how to add the comment link back. Will fix this promptly and explain why I made the jump in a soon-to-be-written post sometime after midterms, papers, and presentations kick my ass. Butt-healing scheduled for after Thursday.

UPDATE: Thanks to the very helpful Jason Yan, co-founder of Disqus, the comment link has been re-added and Disqus on Sex and the Ivy is good to go!