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I don’t know how many of you mobile blog (using a smartphone to write and post thoughts) but I do more often than not… I just can’t seem to find the time (or energy) to blog once I arrive home, and often I am much too busy at work to break away to blog for a few minutes. Also, I admit it, I would rather read a few pages in a book than blog at lunch unless I have something really pressing on my mind. In all honesty, right now I am sitting in the bathroom monitoring my almost 2 year old in his bath while trying to get this post out. You can see why I might want to leverage the power and resources of my iPhone to post while I am waiting for a meeting to start, or sitting waiting for an oil change, or on a train, etc… however, for the last 3 weeks I have been cut off from posting a mobile entry and just today I got an answer to why…
Let’s go back to July 4th. I posted using the WordPress iPhone app right from my phone just after watching a fireworks display. Shortly there after, the Wordpress application stopped connecting to my blog… needless to say I was unhappy. I did all of the usual trouble shooting… checked my blog, checked the app, reinstalled the app, and then I went to the developers website (automattic itself), and low and behold a number of folks were having the same issue… so many in fact that right now on their main page are this post, and this one. So, I did what any good techie would, I tested a different app to see if it would connect. While I was sitting in the oil change shop, I downloaded Blogpress for the iPhone. and Viola! I have aconnection to my blog again… (and I can post multiple pictures to boot!)
So, I was off blogging again… until last week Saturday… then BlogPress stopped connecting to my blog. I checked their forums, and found a couple of references to connection issues, but no real fixes. I was tempted to download another iPhone blogging application (iBlogger $9.99), but I was concerned that I would have the same issue… I even began thinking that it might be edublogs.org itself. So I started doing a bit of investigation that way…
Running through edublogs.org support site, I got no returns from queries there… Then I checked the forums and the last post referencing mobile blogging was 8 months ago, with “coming soon we are working on making that better” as the result. So, I created a new discussion with my specific issue, and within a few hours Sue Waters replied that edublogs.org needed to turn off XMLRPC access because of stability issues… I am not sure what that means, however, right now, I cannot get to edublogs, so I am getting concerned.
Update: edublogs was going through an update which provided a new dashboard… that is why the service was up and down while I was creating this post. (yet another reason I use a blogging client and do NOT prefer to post directly online.) Still not XMLPRC support… and therefore no mobile blogging…
3 responses so far ↓
1
Sue Waters
// Jul 30, 2009 at 10:44 pm
As I said we had to turn off XMLRPC temporarily for stability and security issues. The reason why is it was being used by spam people which started causing problems.
We couldn’t provide an exact date of when it would be switched back on because it depended on the timing of the upgrade and dealing with an issues that might arise as part of the upgrade. There is an enormous work that happens for months behind the scenes before and while the system is being upgraded.
Stability and security issues have to be our first priority. Now that the upgrade has happened. We have switched XMLRPC back on and it is currently available for all users. However we may need to consider limiting it to Edublogs supporter blogs and blogs that have had ads disabled by an Edublogs supporter blog to minimise use by spammers.
So at present any application uses XMLRPC should work and WordPress for iPhone should also work. However its not possible to promise that all 3rd party applications will work any blogging platform. We have no control over 3rd party applications or changes to their systems.
2
vanishingpoint
// Jul 31, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Sue,
Thanks for commenting and I really appreciate all the efforts of the edublogs team. Now that you have explained it further I completely understand the balance you need to achieve between security and stability and features and functionality for your users. Especially if having a connector open is allowing spammers to interrupt your clients usability. One of the reasons I moved from a self hosted platform was to get away from all of the hassles of keeping the backend going and staying on top of the constant updates to protect the security of the platform.
Additionally, I cannot express how much I appreciate the re-activation of the XMLRPC connector. I have full acess back into my blog from all of the various external writing and mobile blogging apps I use.
I’d like to thank you also for your support and guidance to the blogging community here at edublogs.org.
Scott
3
vanishingpoint
// Jul 31, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Update for anyone following this post… Edublogs has only implemented XMLRPC for Edublogs Supported Blogs. While third party applications can now be setup (attached) to all edublogs user accounts, only those blogs whose users are paying edublogs supporters can actually post with these tools.
Again, I maintain that I really appreciate all that the edublogs team does, and the security and stability that maintaing this platform necessitates. Again I am concerned that currently edublogs (whose main focus is educators and students) is hosting 336,111 blogs that are under such attack where blogger, typepad, Spaces, and other hosts (some hosting many more blogs especially blogger) are not, or at least are maintaining the stability while allowing XMLRPC to remain an open conduit for users…
I have enjoyed the last couple of years here, but if this is going to be the final decision and direction of the edublogs team, I am going to have to begin looking for other hosts to migrate this blog. I imagine that I will have a separate actual post about that decision process and if I finalize a choice to move.
Scott
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