Well, that happened sooner than I expected. I've switched from WordPress to Habari, and so far, I like what I see.
The default template is rather crufty, and it uses a loose DOCTYPE, but I was going to give this place a makeover anyway, so no big issue there. The PHP code looks considerably healthier than that in WordPress, and the use of PDO for database connectivity is reassuring, as the prepared statements and bound parameters should guard well against SQL injection attacks.
I had a slight issue when importing my WordPress data, because my WordPress user and Habari user both had the same name. Simply changing one or other username solved the problem, allowing me to import all posts, comments, and pages, and I was then able to delete the default Habari user, and make the imported WordPress user (and all of the associated posts) my primary account.
The spam detection is pretty good, even with using something like Akismet, and has only missed one so far - it had no links in it, and looked innocuous enough at a glance. Comment moderation is turned on by default, though, so that caught it. I'd like to see some way to set the options for the included spam plugin without having to edit the PHP file, and I hope that Habari introduces comprehensive options regarding commenting in a future release, such as auto-approving subsequent comments from approved posters (Habari might already do this, I don't know). There essentially are no options regarding comments at present, beyond a per-entry "Comments: yes/no?" choice. I also need to look at how it parses the comment body, and what markup it (doesn't) allow.
It's still rough around the edges, but the whole architecture of Habari feels more friendly than that of WordPress - I'm looking forward to further improvements from the Habari team in future.
Apologies in advance for any issues due to the switch - leave a comment on this entry if something doesn't work as expected, and I'll try to fix it.
Welcome to Habari!
The default spamchecker plugin looks for obviously spammy things: BBCode, more then 3 URLs, more linked text than non-linked text, etc. It's fairly simple, save for one little trick that works extremely well to detect most junk. If you have opinions, do please feel free to share them on the Habari mailing lists, or file bug reports for them.
There exists a "community repository" (slowly moving from Google Code to the habariproject.org domain) which contains a lot of useful plugins and a few themes.
http://habari-contrib.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/
Chris J. Davis wrote a PreApproved plugin (available at the URL above), which does automatically approve comments from frequent commenters. It's not enabled by default or built-in because it's possible to submit two legitimate comments manually, and then blast through with a wave of automated spam. So you need to intentionally enable this plugin's functionality.
We're often on #habari on irc.freenode.net, and we're always on the mailing lists. Do please participate to help smooth out the rough edges!
Welcome as a Habari user! Feel free to pop into #habari on freenode.net (IRC) and say hi! :-)
Wow. You guys have a welcoming committee! :D I could get used to that...
Thanks to both of you for the welcomes, and especially thanks to skippy for the very helpful info - though I must confess I'd already discovered both how the spam-checker plugin works (very well, in short!), and also Chris J. Davis' PreApproved plugin. I've been meaning to post an update to that effect for a couple of days - I'm sure I'll get to it eventually. I was going to learn how to write my own pre-approval plugin if one didn't exist, but was very pleased to find that one did.
I have one or two bugs to report, which I'll get around to this week or next, when I've the time to write them up coherently. Nothing earth-shattering, and I guess I should upgrade to the SVN version first...
I'm a frequent IRC lurker, so I probably shall drop by #habari to see what you're all up to. And to skippy: I think I just might dig in and get my hands dirty with this one, since Habari looks so much more worthwhile than the alternatives. You may come to regret soliciting my opinions, though, as I tend to have rather a lot of them! ;)
Cheers, guys.
We're happy to have as many people participating in the development of Habari as we can. Bring your ideas, and be ready to listen to others: community is what makes Habari so great. The richer our community, the richer our product!
Fantastic. :) I'm all for constructive debate and an open forum to throw ideas around and exchange good critique in. I'll definitely check out the IRC channel in the next couple of days.
i think this interface is better than the other one, and i have hearded nice things about habari
so, good look!
Looks about the same as wordpress - and habari.com doesnt seem to provide the extensive support that wordpress.com has.
I'm working on the switch. I was very euphoric on the beginning but i miss some features on it. still, i try to switch!