MetaChat - For my 100th post, my question is about blogware.

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03 January 2008

For my 100th post, my question is about blogware. I've been considering writing again, and wonder about blogware/hosts.→[More:]

I had a blogger account for awhile, but I quit it, and deleted it when I didn't update it for some time, and I didn't like what I was writing about. I have a more clear goal now, and want to combine photos with prose. Gives me a choice to keep a regular updating schedule. There's several hosting sites out there, what does the bunny hive mind suggest? Please share your good or bad experiences.

(Oh and 3 more comments to get to the 100/1000 club. Do I get a toaster, or do I have to quit and start over?)

post by: eekacat at: 19:33 | 3 comments

What ever happened to blosxom? That was what I used to use before my host lost my data.

Oh, I see, it's moved here. Hmm, maybe I should make getting likeicare.net running again a resolution for 2008.

Blosxom is super lightweight but has tons of features (through plugins). The directory structure is automatic and intuitive. I like that I can post by e-mail. It's probably a bit much for beginning users (no me habla Perl, but I have friends who can help me), and might require backend access (chmod ftw), despite its claims of ease (they say you'll be blogging in under 15 minutes; I had to e-mail my webhost for help with permissions—helps that my site is hosted by friends). Once you've got it running, it's supersweet, esp. if you run OSX (it's designed for OSX, hence blOSXom).

So yeah, if you're the kind of geek who has an SSH client on his phone (guilty), you'll probably love it. If not, you may need a little time to adjust. I like it much better than Moveable Tripe or Wordstress, and it's freeware (yay!).

If you don't want to host your own site (it's not that hard!), LiveJournal has gotten really awesome with their services. I can now take a picture with my Treo and post an entry with it pretty quickly and painlessly. Great for "moblogging". Much better than uploading everything by hand (take picture, put picture on computer HD, upload picture to my website/flickr, find picture URL, copy URL, paste URL to journal entry. UGH.).

posted by Eideteker 03 January | 20:59

In the hosted and too-cool-for-school category is Vox, which allows easy posting of words and photos and videos, even making posts private or friends-only like LJ does.

posted by rhapsodie 03 January | 21:17

I'm a WordPresser myself, and there's a WordPress.com free hosted service that's superior to TypePad and BlogSpot, IMO, lots easier than setting up WordPress in your own space and, at very small additional cost, customizable so you can use your own domain, etc.

Meanwhile, I have played around with the idea of setting up the WordPress MultiUser platform in some of my own (extremely underused) webspace and offering it free-o-charge to other MeFites, MoFites and Mechazens... If I did, you'd have a subdomain of BLOGHEADS.COM. Mail me at wendell (at) wendellwit dot com if you LOVE that domain name as much as I do.

posted by wendell 04 January | 00:40

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