Advertise with Pivot!
Pivotlog.net has been online since July of 2002 and has steadily grown to the point where we are consistently receiving more than 100,000 visitors per month! If you’re looking for a way to sell a product or generate traffic to your site the new ‘Advertise with Pivot’ program might be just what you need! Our flexible new banner advertising & text advertising programs allow marketers/webmasters to build awareness, promote products & services and quickly drive traffic to their web sites.
We are taking an up front approach to protect kids online, advertising and have publishised our text ad, android parental control app and banner advertising prices on the Web. We provide our advertisers with on-line real-time password protected statistics which they can access 24 hours a day! If you would like more information about the ‘Advertise with Pivot’ program, it is available here.
Pivot 1.30 beta 1
We’ve just released the first beta version of Pivot 1.30. This means that we now feel it’s stable enough to drop the ‘alpha’ in the name, and it won’t be much longer until 1.30 will become the preferred version of Pivot.
If you’re feeling a bit bold, and want to start using it now, you can get the files from the sourceforge files page:
- The full version (for new installs)
- The updater (for versions 1.x and higher)
For upgrades it’s as easy as always: Just extract the zip, and upload all the files to your server, overwriting the existing ones. The only thing you need to check after that is whether all folders in pivot/db/ are chmodded correctly..
If you’re setting up a new version, it’s much easier to use the Pivot Setup Script, written by Hansfn:
- Get the latest version here: pivot-setup.zip.
- Extract the zip and open the file in your favorite editor.
- Edit the password on this line: $password = ""; .
- Place the file on your server where you want to install your weblog.
- Then just open the script in your browser and follow the on-screen instructions.
In case you’re wondering what’s new in 1.30 when compared to 1.2x, there’s a full changelog on the Wiki, and here are some of the highlights:
Integration of TinyMCE as the new Wysiwyg editor:
Much better support for internationalisation:
All multiline input boxes in the Pivot interface have convenient resize bars:
There’s a new extension that blocks spam in the last referers:
And last but not least: Full fledged trackback support, a new Moblog extension, and better memory handling for large databases.
XML RPC patch (again)
Another vulnerability has been discovered in the XML-RPC library that’s being used by Pivot, so you should apply the patch to update this library to the latest version. Thankfully, patching it is fairly easy. We strongly advise you to do this at your earliest convenience. These instructions apply to all versions of Pivot from 1.0 and up.
Here’s what you should do:
- Get this file: Pivot XML-RPC patch 2.
- Unzip it.
- Upload the two .inc files to your pivot/includes/xmlrpc-1.0.99.2/ folder.
After that, you’re done. No need to rebuild or re-index. Note that this update will not change the version number on your install, so don’t be alarmed that it’s still the same.
I’ve also updated the most recent stable and development versions to version 1.24.3 and 1.30 alpha 3.2. If you’ve applied the patch linked above, you will not need these.
Pivotlog.net Changes Server
We have just been informed by Isblogging.net Hosting that the Pivot site is being moved to a new server to improve performance and reliability. This move should be almost transparent to our guests except for the possibility of a short timewarp as the new DNS information propagates. A small price to pay for a more reliable server for the Pivot community. We are sorry if this move causes any inconveniences.
We’d like to thank Isblogging.net Hosting for their continuing efforts to ensure that the Pivot community website maintains a high level of performance and reliability. clap-clap-clap!
XML RPC patch
Pivot uses an external library called XML RPC, which has been found to contain a security vulnerability. Thankfully, patching it is fairly easy. We strongly advise you to do this at your earliest convenience. These instructions apply to all versions of Pivot from 1.0 and up.
Here’s what you should do:
- Get this file: Pivot XML-RPC patch.
- Unzip it.
- Upload the two .inc files to your pivot/includes/xmlrpc-1.0.99.2/ folder.
After that, you’re done. No need to rebuild or re-index. Note that this update will not change the version number on your install, so don’t be alarmed that it’s still the same.
I’ve also updated the most recent stable and development versions to version 1.24.2 and 1.30 alpha 3.1. If you’ve applied the patch linked above, you will not need these.
New Wiki
We’ve set up a new Wiki here: wiki.pivotlog.net. It works much more straightforward in comparison to the old wiki, in my opinion.
I’ve also started a new FAQ section on the new Wiki. So, all forum regulars are invited to put relevant questions they from the forum onto the wiki. (or any other Pivot-related for that matter)
1.30 Alpha 4 in progress
I’m currently working on some improvements to the interface of Pivot itself. One of the things I’ve done is that I made it so that you can now either use the old built-in wysiwyg editor, or you can use an extension to change it to use another editor. I’ve made an extension for TinyMCE, which you can see in this screenshot:
I chose TinyMCE because it’s small, flexible, easy to adapt, and it works Properly in Internet Explorer, Firefox (pc and mac) and supposedly in Safari as well.
One other thing I’ve changed is that all input boxes that have more than one line now have small buttons to enlarge them, so you can easily add more text without having to struggle with small input boxes. See this animated screenshot:
1.30 alpha 3: Rippersnapper
I’ve just released Pivot 1.30 alpha 3: Rippersnapper. Lots of outstanding issues with alpha 1 have been fixed. See this page on the Wiki for details. There are still some issues with regard to the new internationalisation code, but otherwise version 1.30 is coming along very nicely. So, if you’re running 1.30 alpha 1, we recommend you upgrade. If you’re on an older version of Pivot and not quite ready to take the plunge, there will likely be a more stable release in a few weeks.
1.30 alpha 3 comes in three variants :
- pivot_130_alpha3_full.zip – The full version;
- pivot_130_alpha3_updater.zip – Upgrade from version 1.x to 1.30a3;
- pivot_130_alpha3_patch.zip – Patch to upgrade a previous 1.30 alpha to 1.30a3.
(And if you were wondering what happened to 1.30 alpha 2: You should visit the forums more often. 
)
1.30 Alpha 1: Rippersnapper
We’ve just released the first alpha version of Pivot 1.30. The ‘Alpha’ in the name means that this is an early release, and it might contain minor or major risks. So, you should only use this version if you’re comfortable with this. Otherwise you should wait until the next release, in which we will fix the bugs that are found in this release.
Version 1.30 has a few new features, like:
- New and full-fledged Trackback support (Thanks to Hans F. Nordhaug)
- Started the change to full Unicode / i18n support. (Thanks to HIROSHIMA Naoki)
- There’s a new Moblog tool
- Added basic metaweblog API capabilities. (Thanks to Mngeoff)
- New default templates.
A more detailed list of changes is on the wiki: ChangeLogPivot1.30.
You can download both the Full Release and the Updater from our Sourceforge Files Page. Get the updater if you’re brave enough to update your existing 1.20+ version, or if you just want to test the new features, you should get the full release. Updating is as easy as unzipping the file, and uploading the files to your site, overwriting the existing files. Details on setting up the full version are the same as for version 1.2x: Setting up Pivot.
Details on using the new Moblog tool can be found on the Wiki: Moblogging with Pivot. The Metaweblog Api is still in development, but I wanted to include it already, so people can test it. Details can be found in this forum thread.
And this time
we’re REALLY back. As you’ve noticed things went horribly wrong last week. Nothing worked! In fact: things went so badly wrong, that I couldn’t even post a note here telling what was going on.
Anyhow, the site’s frontpage and the forum are working now, and Griswald is fixing the webring as I am typing this. The wiki seems to be beyond repair, though, so we’re contemplating what to do with it.. Since it was due for an overhaul, we’re probably going to keep it online but read-only, and set up a new one, that will be better in handling link spammers.
Thanks to the people who’ve written me concerned emails! And to the people who were thinking we’ve abandoned the project i’d like to say: I started writing the first predecessor to Pivot over four years ago, and am still working on it as much as I can. Believe me when I tell you that you’ll have to pry this project from our cold, dead fingers, before we drop it.