Wriging

I've built my own blogging/publishing/forum system and I run a dev copy locally so I can test new features and things before pushing the binaries up onto the production server.

You should also run it from a different database but you should try and replicate the real data so you see things as they would be.

It's the only way to do things safely and this is true of all applications.

I have a local host edition, that is wear I play with my blog.

Before I moved, anything I did to my site, I would do before actually posting. Granted it wasn't much, it was better to have the bugs worked out than to post something and then change things around. It's a lot better to use a separate environment when you're coding too.

I currently have a dev location for IWriteThings.com that I am using to slowly develop my new theme. Same plugins and everything as my main blog, but with an older version of the database so that I can get a basic look at how things will be.

I have had a test site since day one - best thing I did in many ways, not just for testing new designs, plugins etc but for checking out how a post will look before posting

I have always meant to do this in the past, but like my system backup and recovery, its been ignorned for far too long. Our iMac took a hit, I am hopeful that it will recover but at this point I don't have high hopes.

If it does, and even if it doesn't, I am going to put some recovery options in place.

I have a local install where I develop and test new additions/themes.

Yes, me too keeps a local copy for development. I mostly develop themes so it is *very* useful.