now Octopress uses partials

source/index.haml

@@ -1,17 +1,21 @@
 ---
 layout: default
 title: Blog
+author: 
+disqus: 
 ---
 .blog
   - site.posts.sort_by(&:date).reverse[0..9].each_with_index do |post,index|
     .article
       %h2= link_to(post.title, post.url, {:class=>"title"})
+      .meta
+        - author = (page.respond_to?(:author) && page.author) ? 'by: ' + page.author + ' |' : ''
+        #{author} posted: #{post.date.strftime("%B #{post.date.day.ordinalize}, %Y")} 
       = preserve rp(post.content)
-      - if page.respond_to? :disqus_short_name
-        .footer
-          - if post.data["comments_off"]
-            %em.comments_off Comments disabled
-          - else
-            %a(href="#{post.url}/#disqus_thread")Comments
+      - if page.respond_to?(:disqus) && page.disqus
+        - if post.data["comments_off"]
+          %em.comments_off Comments disabled
+        - else
+          %a(href="#{post.url}/#disqus_thread")Comments
   .footer
     %a(href="/archives.html" title="archives") « Blog Archives