Now Smell This has a new home — www.nstperfume.com. If you link to us from your website, we’d be thrilled if you’d take a moment to update the URL.
Everything works pretty much the same as it did at the old site, with a few exceptions:
Comments & User Accounts: If you’d registered for a user account at the old site so that you could comment, I’m sorry to tell you that you’ll need to register again in order to comment here (for anyone who missed it, we took a vote on the issue). And as I warned, we not only lost all the user accounts in the move, but all the old comments are now (sadly) attributed to “Anonymous”.
In addition, the comments are formatted differently here — among other things, we’ve got gravatars. You can read more about the new commenting system here.
To encourage everyone to register, we’re going to be holding a series of giveaways for registered readers starting next week. Your first comment will always be held for moderation, so if you want to be prepared, you might want to leave a comment somewhere on the site before then.
Categories & Tags: We’ve now got tagging capability. It’s going to be awhile before we manage to go back through all the old posts and get them tagged, but eventually you’ll be able to look at all the posts tagged “rose” or “olfaction” or “candle” or whatever. Several of the old categories — celebrity perfumes, cheap thrills, interviews and dearly departed — have also been converted to tags.
To Do: There are a number of things that still need to be done. Here’s my to do list, in case anyone is interested in what is to come:
- Fix any remaining formatting messes. Mostly done — do let me know if you see a page that has formatting errors.
- Restore the Google Coop search function. Done!
- Find the missing comments. Right now, we've got about 70,000 of the 78,000 (or so) comments from the old site. Update: I've found many, but not yet all of the missing comments.
- Tag all the old articles, and add a tag cloud page.
- See if I can figure out a good way to let people subscribe to comments via email again. For now, your only choice is to subscribe via RSS.
- Over the next, say, 10-20 years, edit back in as many commenter names as I can manage. It has now been over a year since our move, and I have not even finished tagging the old articles. I'm afraid editing commenter names is simply never going to happen!
As always, if you have complaints or suggestions (and if you’ve managed to get a user account already!) do comment. If you find any broken pages and don't have an account, you can email me at robin at nstperfume dot com.
Update: if you have problems logging in on the right hand sidebar — it appears to accept your login information, but then it doesn't appear to have logged you in (in other words, the fields go blank and the title doesn't change to "Welcome"), try pressing the login button again without entering anything else. This is a bug and I'm working on it...
The new site looks lovely!!
Thanks so much!
My, what a nice place we have here! Exciting!
I’m not really sure what you mean by “first comment held for moderation….” xP
Anyway, congratulations on the move. I hope things go smoothly.
Now let’s start sniffin’ things! =3
(Totally lost time editing this comment and can no longer claim 1st comment. Bummer.)
You’re not first, but you have the longest user name.
The new site really does look great (not that the old one was shabby!). I’m excited to register and post–I’ve been lurking for quite a while.
Welcome, and sorry we had new registrations turned off for so long. I thought we’d have been done moving about a month ago. And thanks
No worries–I’ve actually been lurking quite a bit longer than that, so it’s my fault I didn’t de-lurk sooner!
Just testing to see if I can the gravatar to show up.
You look quite distinguished.
Congratulations Robin!!!
Thank you ma’am
Long time lurker, first time registerer
Welcome, nice to see people delurking!
Congratulations! That must have been a lot of work.
Looks great, but it’s the content that keeps me coming back.
Everything is more work than you think it will be, isn’t it? We’ll try to catch up on content too…we’ve lost a few days.
Congratulations, Robin. The new site looks lovely.
Thanks!
Love the new header with the ‘We’ve moved’ star! Hope the change over went smoothly for you.
Could have been better, could have been worse…at least we haven’t crashed yet
congrats robin!!!!!!!!! i love your fabulous blog keep up the high standards.
Thanks perfume addict!
I’m a long time lurker just commenting to say how much I enjoy this blog. The new format looks great. Well done!
Welcome, and hope you’ll stay de-lurked!
So sleek, modern and minimalistic…..yet totally user-friendly and still feels like “home” (yikes, I’m starting to sound like a Hallmark card).
I love the layout, the cool “cut-out” graphics/icons, and I especially appreciate your color choices. I’m a Lighting Designer for dance and theater, so I am familiar with the task of assigning color(s) to a particular mood…..and this place just makes the content of the site that much more enjoyable.
Bravo,
Marko
Hey, we’ll happily accept a Hallmark card!
Really glad you like the colors. I love them, and just hoping I’m not sick of the palette within a month, as I so often am.
I like it! Cleaner and easier to read, especially the comments. Bravissima!
Thanks! I’m trying to decide if maybe the comment font is a wee bit small? We’ll see if anyone else complains.
Congratulations! Looks lovely. Some of new rules are always a matter to get used to them. Wish you inspiration with new interesting reviews and posts!
Thank you!
I’ve been reading for a bit and now I can finally post! Hi
Hi Bunny, love your gravatar!
Thanks! I though a nice nose would be appropriate for the title of the blog.
It’s perfect!
What a nice surprise – for some reason I wasn’t expecting it to look any different to before. Looks great Robin; fresh, clean and spring-y.
It doesn’t look *too* different though, does it?
NTS blog, you look so neat!
I will only complain about gravatars (ugh).
Comments look very nice in their boxes, they just seem to take so much place that you loose the view “d’ensemble” thing.
But I love the new look!
thank you Robin for the hard work.
Zazie, so you hate the gravatars because they make the comment boxes bigger?
OK, I’m stumped. Don’t see a way on the Profile page to add an avatar. How do you do it? Thanks, Robin!
Karin, you can click on the link to “gravatar” in the article above, or just go to http://www.gravatar.com. Make sure you use whatever email address you used to sign up here.
Got it! Thanks, Robin!
Karin: how’d you do that? I’ve signed up & made one, but how did you link it? thanks!
It’s working!
CONGRATS Robin! Welcome to your new home. Long may you live here. And now I’m sweetlife over here as well as everywhere else. (Was ahtx)
Have to agree with Zazie — one loses the sense of a “thread”–or at least I do, with these boxes. But, y’know, I’ve found I’m very, very conservative when it comes to my various electronic layouts. And then in a week or two I’ve forgotten all about my objections. And I can see where they would make it easier for some folks. I don’t think the font is too small at all.
I’m conservative too…one of the reasons I love MUA is that they’re one of the last forums on earth with the “old style” forum layout.
We’ll see how this goes. I’m open to tweaking, but need to get everything working first, which will take a few more weeks.
And I will TRY to remember that you’re ahtx. It’s hard.
Oh I’ll keep reminding you! (And everyone else.) Just seemed to make sense to use the same user name here that I’ve been using on Posse, PST, and so on.
Wow!!!! Cool site!!!!
As for improvements, I agree with Zazie. I love the look of the comments, but we’ll have to scroll like crazy to see everything. Each comment takes up quite a bit of vertical space. Perhaps it’s just a matter of adapting. After awhile we’ll get used to it.
And I think it’s cool to have the option of avatars!
It’s true, it takes way more scrolling. But is it easier or harder to follow the threading? It seemed on the old site like people frequently commented in the wrong place (in other words, underneath a thread when it was really meant to be a “new conversation”.
True…the boxes help. Perhaps it’s just a matter of getting used to it…
Very nice look! Thanks for all your hard work, Robin.
Glad you like it!
congratulations, you managed the move quite well! I like your colour scheme. I have to get used to some changes… I would suggest putting the monday mails as a menu under “browse by topic”, I also find that the space for comments is maybe a bit too big, I can’t display more than 2-3 at the time, whereas before you could really see how the threads were working, well it’s just a detail!
all the best and keep on with the inspiring work
Bee, it’s true, the comments are much bigger. I find them easier to read that way, but if we get complaints I’ll consider changing them.
I’m trying to keep the number of categories small. Right now, you can access Monday Mail in the same 2 places as before: on the bottom menu, and from the About page.
Did I really manage to upload a gravatar?
The member formerly known as Vanessa
You did, and welcome!
Hey! Congrats Robin! This new look is very nice, and user friendly. Looking forward to more of your team’s great reviews.
Thanks Blimunda!
Hi there everyone! One more “survivor” here, glad to continue on this nice site. It’s looking very good so far!
LOL at “survivor” — that’s what I feel like!
Yay, I’m back!
Nice new site, still exploring …
Wishing you all Many Happy Reviews!
Thanks Nile Goddess!
Lovely, state of the art, just LOOKING GOOD!
Nice that you use open source WP now.
I have a question – trackbacks work automatically, don’t they? Between WP blogs.
*heartNST* andreea
I’m pretty sure trackbacks aren’t set up…really, I think you’re the only one who has ever asked for them — and for that matter, trying to think if I’ve ever seen trackbacks on a perfume blog before (?) If I get more requests I’ll look into it.
Nice layout! It will take me a day or two to get used to it, I’m totally surprised!
Hope you’ll get used to it…nothing’s that different except the comments, is it?
The new design looks great, Robin- congratulations! Another long-time lurker and fan here, inspired to come out of hiding. Spring must be in the air!
Welcome, glad to see more de-lurkers!
Congratulations, Robin!
I love the new design and love your site so much!
Helena
Thanks Helena!
Yay!
Very thrilled. Yesterday I was imagining this like a “flesh and blood” move, with furniture (well, perfume cabinet) and all. Like waiting to visit the new address of our virtual country club
Thanks for all your work. There’s really nothing else like NST.
It was an awful lot like a flesh & blood move, actually…tons of aggravation, LOL…
Nice job! The site looks great. Your hard work is much appreciated.
Thanks Momlady!
Yay, the lift off! It looks gorgeous and minimalistic, but of course the content’s what matters.
Congrats!
Glad you like it! And cool gravatar.
Hi!
Looks almost like the old one.
But I have a question: Will you close the comments session for the articles with time or will the comments be open for as long as is the article?
Unless we start having tons of spam, my plan is to leave them open just as we always did.
Yay! Supporting my habit of searching for the review of whatever I’m interested in at the moment and leaving my fingerprints (wordprints?) all over it… Thanks.
Oh, and I find the new site very clean and easy to negotiate. Congrats! Thanks for all the work you and the other reviewers (Angela, Kevin, Jessica, everybody) do. I know it’s a labor of love.
I like leaving old articles open to comments too, and it’s one plus of forcing people to sign in before they comment…less worry about spam.
Well, well, well….
This weekend 3 important things happened.
1) My vacations are finishing (I’m flying home today).
2) The series finale of Battlestar Galactica aired (I’ve watched the show from day one, and as a TV addict, it is very rare to see a series you love reach a conclusion, if any)
3) NST, one of my favorite websites, completed its move!!!
Dear Robin, I wish you and all the NST team the best in this new stage you’ve begun.
Site looks terrific, fresh and snappy (as in “fast and responsive”)
As a former computer programmer, I am tempted to ask. Can’t you ask some database wizard to make a process that INSERTS the user name INSIDE the comments BEFORE importing them to the new site?
By this I mean: take the old comments, untouched, from the old site, then run the process. The first line of the comment should show the name of the original poster poster. THEN import them all to this new site.
The user will still be “Anonymous”, but at least by looking into the comment, we could be able to identify ourselves!
And as a learning, I will be always signing my posts!!
Over and out!
Kaos.geo
P, so sorry your vacation is over, along with your favorite show!
The export file created by the old site did not export the commenter name field due to a bug, and sorry to say I could not afford a database wizard to do anything about it. Believe me, if I had a way to bring the names over, I would have — it makes the old comments nearly useless.
Well, I rather look at it as starting with a clean slate
Kindest!
kaos.geo
But what will you watch now? I used to be a massive Star Trek fan, but don’t have any sci fi shows I love at the moment.
Well, Battlestar was almost 6 years, so, besides looking for a made for tv movie from the series called “The Plan” due in the fall, I guess I will remain away from scifi TV shows for a while. I am intrigued about a show called Fringe, that just premiered this side of the globe (it already finished its first season in the US) but other than that…
I’ll stay “clean” from TV addiction if I can!
Oh, BTW, I did get a gravatar! I love cats, big and small, so this is it.
Kindest!
P.
Great gravatar, P! I’ll have to check out Fringe.
Looks great, congratulations on the move!
Thanks Pimpinett!
Another long-time lurker newly registered. The new site looks great.
Congratulations!
Thanks and welcome!
I can’t imagine this site being even more fabulous. I think I reference it daily
It looks great and thanks for all your tremendously hard work!
Hopefully we’ll get even fabulouser
Welcome to your new home,Robin!
Thanks Parfumesse!
Oh thank goodness! Three days without NST was so, so, so EMPTY!!
ok, enough with the drama….the new site looks wonderful, and I greatly appreciate what a tremendou task moving this is/was and how much time and effort it takes to run it daily as well.
Thank you and Good job!
Sorry we took so long! Love the water lilies.
Nice site! thank you & welcome back!
Thanks Suzanne!
Wow! Looks really, really great! Thank you so much for this move — this new layout is readable & the colors are lovely.
I can’t believe I missed NST so much this weekend! There was a great documentary on PBS last night, entitled “The Power and the Glory” about Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein. Complete with shots of old cosmetic and perfume ads. I’ve been waiting to post about it, like, forever.
Oh cool — I wonder if they’ll show it again? I will have to look it up at PBS.
Man, I wish I had known about that! It sounds so much more interesting than what I watched, which I can’t even remember now…
Congratulations. The site looks great. I re-registered and updated the link from my blog, so we’re all set here
Thank you for changing the URL, I know everybody forgets
Looks awesome Robin, welcome back. Thanks for all your work in keeping this blog a great place to visit.
Thanks PairOfNines!
Whew, I was getting NST withdrawal! It looks wonderful, Robin — congratulations. Now all we need is smell-o-vision…
Hey, cool picture, although I can’t quite tell what it is?
Why, it’s an octopus chandelier, of course!
LOL…I thought it was an octopus something or another! I want one!
Welcome back, guys. Blog looks great!
Thanks, and love your gravatar!
I’ve read your blog for quite a while now, but your move prompted me to finally register so I can leave comments
You do a fantastic job, I just love reading all your reviews!
Great, always happy to have another de-lurker
Great new site, Robin – congrats on the move!
Thanks Kizzers!
WOW…. Looks Great!
Thanks Tara!
Yay! Congratulations on moving – everything looks great! And good to know we can still have some familiarity with registering again:)
Yep, I recognize plenty of people!
whoa, lovely site, just gotta get reoriented…yay for finally completing the move! congrats!
Hope it is easy to get reoriented…most things are pretty much as they were!
The new site looks great!
Thanks Jemi!
Wow! Congratulations! Finally! Lots of comments already. It will be a bit of a learning curve to get used to all this.
I’ll have to figure out if I can remove that little gravatar thingy from my registered name, lol. Also, is there any way to check another user’s profile in case we want to contact them (if they’ve chosen to share their email, etc.) — user names don’t seem “clickable” in the comments, so just curious.
LOL — but I like that gravatar!
And no, not right now, but hope to add something like that in the future.
I’m with Joe on being able to privately contact fellow NST-ers. I like making friends here and being able to chat off-site. Hope that function becomes available eventually. I mean, obviously, you have Copious Free Time to give us Everything We Ask For, right? Right?
LOL — I promise, it is on my to do list! You should see my list
Ohhh i like this new look! Looking forward to the things getting back on track!
I am too!
congratulations, robin!! this is super cool!!
-nikki c
Thanks Nikki!
Wishing you all the best at your new Digs!
Carlos.
Thanks Carlos!
Congratulations on the new site. I’ve been lurking and learning for about 6 months now. It’s great to be registered now. Best of luck.
Hi and welcome, glad you registered & hope you’ll comment again!
ExS!#nh3yccK
Say what?
I think the internet sneezed on my post.
It happens!
Congratulations! I love the flower-dotted “i”.
Thanks monkeytoe.
A suggestion in formatting…change the line spacing from double to single space in posts. I’d rather read more in a small amount of space than have to scroll.
Otherwise, great look!
LOL…I changed the line height because people complained about it at the old site. I think I’ll have to do a formatting poll!
Ha…funny! I guess everyone has their preferences. I think single spaced is so much easier to read.
If you have the patience for a poll, that would be a good way to solve it! Perhaps there are other layout questions that could be answered with a poll, too. But most of these are probably just nits. As mentioned above, content is the most important thing! Format definitely enhances readability…but most of us will plow through if we really enjoy the content.
Anyway, thanks so much, Robin, for the time and effort you put into this blog. It’s SO AWESOME!!!!!
Thank you for the kind words! It is really hard to please everybody, but promise to revisit formatting issues once everything else is settled down.
Beautiful look for your new site! best of luck with it. it sure seems like there’s a lot of work involved in switching over. so i just want to say, as a daily reader, how much i appreciate all the effort you put into the site. it really shines through!
it’ll be fun to have those gravatar things, too! hugs! ms. rose
Thanks Ms. Rose, and look forward to seeing your gravatar!
What a lovely, fresh new look! So glad you’re back online.
Thanks Damselfly!
Oh, it’s so pretty! I love the new color, Robin.
Good, I like this color too. Was VERY tired of the blue.
Add another longtime reader but new commenter to your new site.
Nice, hi and welcome!
Oh pretty! Hopefully it’s all working well……
A few bugs here & there, but at least it hasn’t crashed yet
hi,
Another long-time reader, but first-time posting a comment. the site is lovely. thanks so much for all you do.
Glad to see another de-lurker!
Long time lurker (I loooove this site, one of my bread and butter sites), first time registered. The new site looks fantastic! So crisp and fresh!
Great job!!!
So glad you like it!
Yay, glad your back! Now I can get back to not getting any work done and just perusing your site for hours!
Looks great, btw. Congratulations
Hey, I thought you’d given up the internets at work, LOL…
I tried, i tried…;-)
OMG! Now that you’ve moved I can finally register and tell you how much I loooooove this website! I’ve always loved perfume, but a few months ago I started researching online trying to find the notes in a new perfume, discovered this site, and since reading here, I’ve become totally addicted. Thank you so much for such great postings! And congratulations on your move.
Welcome, and many thanks!
Robin, congratulations on the move! I’ve become obsessed with perfume in the last few months and have been lurking at NST for a while. I’m glad I can finally register and comment. I love this blog and have learned so much here.
Hey poshnerd, sorry we kept you waiting…I didn’t think the move would take this long. Love your username!
Thank you! I don’t know how posh I am, but I have the nerd part down…
Well, that’s the important part, I should think.
Congrats! The site looks great!
JAntoinette, glad you like it
Exploring the new site…and liking what i find.
Crmax, glad you like it!
Hi! Congrats on the layout change! Love it! Good luck!
Thanks, and we’ll need the luck
Hi Robin. Me again! Just tried Search…it seems to only search NST? Will this change? I loved the old search that had the ability to search so many different sites. In fact, I often go directly to the NST search and skip Google altogether!!!!
Hoping to restore the Google Coop search soon — see above, it’s on the to do list in the article
Might be another week or two before I can get that done…
Sorry…duh…just read that! Note to self – READ THE POST BEFORE REPLYING!!!!
Thanks for being so gracious in your reply!
No worries…everybody skims on the internet anyway!
Happy housewarming!
Nice new digs!
x
Nadine
Thanks Nadine
New site is looking great! It was very easy to re-register.
Good! Some people have had registration problems, but they seem to be few & far between so far.
Looks great Robin! Congrats on the successful move
Thanks Trish!
Congrats on the new site -I didn’t have any trouble registering, btw.
Good, glad to hear it.
add another delurker to your list! great site! I smell much better since discovering it.
Welcome, and glad you’ve found some new scents you like
Hello Everyone! Sorry to be late to move with you all but ya’ll know how life goes sometimes. So glad it’s finally spring and the new site is great – thanks for all your hard work!
Better late than never, and glad you like the new site!
the blogharbor is blocked in China for a long time~
happy to know you moved to this new site:)
I didn’t even know that, thanks!
I really love the new site, the gravatar aspect is very nice. I know it was a lot of work but i`m glad you switched, thanks.
Glad you like it, and your gravatar is perfect!