This is the 2nd feature I've added recently, the first one being the Bloggerfeeds section, which shows feeds from 18 and counting Mom Blogs at the moment. Some blog more often than others naturally, but I'm getting good stuff for the most part.

I realize I'm happy working on my sites, and frequently when I go out such as attend events and whatnot, I compare how fun it'd be to working on the sites. Other than the fact that it's great to see something work out, it's great to actually make 'web services' that aim to help people. Jesus Christ I know that sounds corny, but I think about Book Reviews, for example, and I envision a time when a parent would find an interesting review there and buy the book for their kid. Wouldn't that be fun? Wouldn't that be far more helpful than, say, declaring on Facebook or making a blog post about how you want to eradicate illiteracy, but stop short there? Wouldn't that be far more effective and efficient than, say, joining a rally on the streets?

I know in effect I'm patting my own back after writing what I just did, but it really really makes me feel good to do stuff like this. I know for sure that yeah it might not catch on real quick, or that people might use it for whatever other purpose it might serve them (such as self - promotion or whatever), but I figure the benefits outweigh whatever bad stuff it might do. I figure most people would catch on to what I'm trying to do, and get with the program. I certainly hope so.

Well that's it. It's 747pm on a Thu night and tomorrow is another fun day with my wife - to - be where we'll attend an event (!), and hopefully catch a movie.

After which on Sat or next Mon or whenever I can, I'll work on something else. I sooooo love what I do. Now if it were only more profitable.

x backup momex db
x backup momex files (everything)

x create mom1 (backup of wp)
x make mom1 work

x activate zen / momex
x activate offline mode

x download momdrupal in delayed inserts (works with bigdump)

x delete all modules in stock momdrupal
x copy all modeuls in 192momdrupal
x upload all modules from 192momdrupal to new momdrupal

x edit settings.php

Some terms:

• Mom1: the previous MomEx in WordPress.
• Zen: The amazing Drupal Zen Starter Kit theme that takes the pain (well, not totally but still quite a lot) out of Drupal theming. Love it.
• momdrupal: The 23mb. sql backup.
• 192momdrupal: My test momex installation on my server.
• bigdump: The absolutely essential open source tool that allows you to migrate large sql dbs. Absolutely essential since php only allows uploads of 2mb., so if you've got anything larger than that, you're in a fix. Oh did I say absolute essential? Just in case I forgot to add: Absolute Essential.

The only thing left is a weird clean urls issue that prevents me from using the permalink structure wordpress was using. Losing the permalinks is gonna be a disaster SEO wise, so I gotta try and make that work. Seems like I have hope though, with PathAuto, which seems fit for the job.

I haven't read through it yet since at this point, I've gotten tired. At the moment if you go to MomEx you'll see a 'we are offline' page which is an edited version of Drupals. I added a Feedburner Subscribe form to increase my subscription whilst working on the site. Cheeky, but I think it's useful.

At this rate MomEx will be up either tomorrow or Wed.

Now it looks like this:

I have to admit, two recent individual's reaching out to MomEx one after the other to work with us in various ways and help grow the site have inspired me to get a move on in releasing MomEx 2.0.

I've decided to use the extremely powerful Zen theme, which describes itself as the 'ultimate starting theme for Drupal' for good reason. It has ready - made CSS files which act as 'placeholders' for whatever styling rules you wanna use. You just slap in code, refresh your site and voila: results! Provided you understand CSS, which admittedly isn't the easiest of things to grasp, especially absolute and relative values which I remember, when I was starting out, may as well had been written by extra terrestials since I couldn't understand head nor tail.

But again like all coding, it's really a mix of RTFM and experimentation, in my case, 20% of the former and 80% of the latter. Literally I just delete files or comment or uncomment lines in code, refresh, and keep doing so until I get desired results. At that point it becomes easy.

Anyway, I think I'm 10% away from releasing version 2.0. It's gonna have exciting features that will promote self - sustaining content from and by the users, and the value of becoming a member will exponentially increase from the number of things they can do with it. Sorry if I am intentionally indirect but a lot of this is pretty new stuff - much like what MomEx was when it started out - so I wanna keep things in wraps until the release.

I'm flattered so many people find it valuable to their lives, enough to want to invest so much in enhancing it.

However, it's my baby. All my sites are my work and therefore, extensions of me in the sense that they are products of my thoughts on how the Internet should be used by ordinary people. When I started working on the Exchanges all these were just untested thoughts in my head. Now that they've become influential I look at them with pride, as well as serving as validation for my theories.

Drupal now allows me to grow them even further. I have ideas which I think will enhance what we already have and make them even bigger, even more influential. I know I may sound like I'm blowing a lot of hot air right now but whenever people congratulate me about the sites, I feel like saying they haven't seen anything yet. The stuff we're gonna do is gonna be earth shaking. Right now, people see the sites as occasional entertainment - a respite, something to look at when you're bored. By the time I'm finished, they're gonna see them as absolute essentials. Websites that they absolutely positively cannot do without in their lives. Not just something interesting to read, but something they absolutely, without question, need to access in order to, say, buy the right item, or choose the right school, check if a product is safe or outright purchase something for their use.

The proper way to use the Internet isn't just for viewing things passively. That's so TV. The Internet allows for interaction, a two way experience between user and a web based service which serves as a way for them to interact with others still, and others even more.

One person sharing a thought or opinion, either by uploading a video or showing or explaining something on a website doesn't seem to be worth much, but a lot of them, collectively, sharing thoughts, ideas, opinions and using different media, makes that web service far more powerful. THAT is what I wanna do. THAT's what the 'net is all about. THAT is why I called it 'Exchange'.

Which of course, isn't worth crap if I don't finish it. But like I'm said, I'm really close. Baby Steps.