Up until today, CodersBarn was based on BlogEngine 1.1. using XML. I was having ongoing problems with the comments system, and honestly believe that without feedback from readers, nobody gains. So, for the past week, I have been working on porting it to the new 1.3 version using SQL Server. 

The comments system is now up and running :-) Please feel free to comment on any existing posts or to make suggestions on what content you would like to see from an ASP.NET point of view. Use the contact form to ask questions or to request code snippets. I will attempt to respond to all emails. Over time, the goal for this blog is to move closer to a real community, a community that shares the knowledge rather than guarding it like some trade secret known only to the few.

The CodersBarn blog only began last summer and is already receiving over 5,000 page views per month, roughly 2,300 unique hits. It takes a little time to find a niche that needs to be filled. In the future, I see this blog offering up more and more practical, "How To" articles and code samples. It's not a news blog and doesn't attempt to create traffic by throwing up cheap links to other people's work. The original idea was to create a place for students of software and professionals alike, to speak candidly about this great profession and where it's heading.

Hats off to Mads Kristensen and his colleagues who put BlogEngine.Net together. It's an amazing piece of blogging software and was sorely needed. Prior to the launch of this free blog engine I was already procrastinating for over a year on coding my own engine... a case of the mechanic's car? The availability of this software and the ease of installation saw this blog designed, a name chosen and registered, and the first post published, all in a single weekend. This migration to a databased version was made particularly easier by the availability of intructional installation videos from Al Nyveldt.