You probably didn't know the archives ever were broken-- and they weren't, exactly. But when I first switched from Greymatter to Movable Type, I didn't bother trying to keep my old individual entry links the same. Didn't realize it was possible, actually. 'Cuz I imported 500+ entries from one system into the other.
Well, Wednesday night I pulled an all-nighter and sorted things out. It involved much repeated importing and exporting, repeated deletions of my main movable type database, all sorts of stuff. A bit maddening, really. But now archives and permalinks for 2001-2003 should be fixed. Unless, of course, you linked to a specific entry in the last couple of weeks-- (oops).
Frustrating to have put so much work into this weblog with so little result. At least not much you can tell is different if you're just looking at this main page, waiting for me to get my act together and start updating more frequently.
Some things I learned during my all-night fun:
If you intend to import Greymatter entries into Movable Type, be sure you "Open" all "Closed" entries before following the instructions on how to do that if you want permalinks to matchup later on (and were archiving to individual pages). (I about went mad wondering why my links were sometimes off by 5 entries until I realized it was because I didn't take into account "Closed" entries. Argh!).
When you import Greymatter entries into Movable Type as instructed, Movable Type will number entries in reverse order from what Greymatter does. The only solution I know? Export those entries from Movable Type, then reimport them into an empty database (then they should be numbered correctly). (Much insanity could be saved if there was a way to tell Movable Type to renumber entries or which way to number them).
By default, Movable Type pads individual entry archives with two fewer zeroes than Greymatter does. Easy fix, add two zeroes to the front of the standard individual entry archive file template (more about this at leather egg).
Have I mentioned I love both tools in spite of the headaches I had? I really do. I still use Greymatter on TVPicks.net because it's the best tool for that job (does some nifty things Movable Type doesn't). And Movable Type is better for this weblog. It's all good.
