By Michael J. Smith on Friday April 10, 2009 03:06 AM
On a less contentious note... I hope...
Blogging is going to be the death of me. It's probably ungrateful to be annoyed at Movable Type, which has sustained this 'umble blog all these years, but I'm getting tired of it. And I don't think it scales very well.
Anybody have other suggestions?
Comments (11)
I'm not really convinced that self-hosting a blog is a good idea. However, I've been doing it for some years now with WordPress, and it's been getting steadily better and easier to administer.
Posted by Jonathan Lundell | April 10, 2009 10:50 AM
Posted on April 10, 2009 10:50
I use WordPress, and think it's still pretty loopy and fragile. My own general belief is that, given the multiplicity of tasks that must be accomplished without major error on any neat-o blog page, the only truly powerful approach is to be a master of the html/css coding galaxy.
That sounds like a full-time job to me, so I bumble on with WP, which does get better over time, albeit not always with every new step.
Posted by Michael Dawson | April 10, 2009 7:44 PM
Posted on April 10, 2009 19:44
Another vote here for WordPress. I moved over from Movable Type a couple of years ago, and it just keeps getting better. However, I made no attempt to bring my old blog posts along with me, which can be fairly complicated.
Posted by Dave Trowbridge | April 10, 2009 8:36 PM
Posted on April 10, 2009 20:36
A follow-up thought: What's displeasing about SMBIVA on your end, MJS? It's quite pleasant to visit from out here.
Posted by Michael Dawson | April 10, 2009 11:04 PM
Posted on April 10, 2009 23:04
The nicest thing that's happened to WP in the recent past is mostly-automatic updating of the core engine and of plugins. And comment spam is a non-issue (so far, anyway). Plugins are a plus; there's a variety of good ones, though discovering which ones are good isn't always easy. The latest theme support is powerful, but making anything more than trivial changes is more work than I care to take on.
I'd look at wordpress.org or Blogger.
On the CMS front, I can give a lukewarm endorsement to Expression Engine, but only because it sucks a little less than the alternatives.
I do like this design. Simple and quiet.
Posted by Jonathan Lundell | April 10, 2009 11:49 PM
Posted on April 10, 2009 23:49
Wow. You all have had quite the party (lower-case) in my absence. Anyway, MJS, if you want to know how Wordpress works in the practical, day to day blogging sense, talk to Marisacat.
I'm still rolling along merrily with LJ, of course, but then again, I don't have the attention span to post ever day...
Posted by ms_xeno | April 11, 2009 12:44 PM
Posted on April 11, 2009 12:44
I'm getting the impression that MT doesn't serialize things very well. When comment volume gets heavy I find I get error screens a lot, and comments fail to post. Haven't actually diagnosed the problem -- this is just surmise on my part.
I tried to set up a copy of the blog on Wordpress (hosted by them) last year, just as an experiment, and as I recall got a lot of duplicate posts when I tried to import. Maybe I should try again.
I'm kinda tired of the design, too. Simple I like, but this is starting to look a little blah. I just took an off-the-shelf skin from MT when I set it up.
Posted by MJS | April 11, 2009 1:59 PM
Posted on April 11, 2009 13:59
I was going to say, I like the current design--clean, tasteful.
Posted by Mark | April 11, 2009 2:09 PM
Posted on April 11, 2009 14:09
Ms. X, how come I can't open your site from the link that pops up from your name here? In both Firefox and IE, I find no point of entry...
IQ test, or bug?
Posted by Michael Dawson | April 11, 2009 2:21 PM
Posted on April 11, 2009 14:21
Mike, that "coming attractions" page has been there for about 95,000 years now. Because I can't pay my long-suffering web designer even the pittance that I owe her.
Sorry. If you'd like to see some older work from my marginally more solvent days, just click here.
Posted by ms_xeno | April 11, 2009 5:20 PM
Posted on April 11, 2009 17:20
Mike
You are running quiet and old version at the moment (current version is 4.25), have you looked at the new version as well as looking at the other software out there?
Posted by Rob Kenny | April 12, 2009 5:42 PM
Posted on April 12, 2009 17:42