Calling all bloggers —*favourite software?

[eclipse]

OK, blogger, Wordpress, or typepad? Or iWeb or something else? What's your favourite blogging software, and why? Do you like to use free blogger or Wordpress.com (now with 3 gig's storage!) or do you pay to host your own blog?

Tell us all.

 

[Djmckee]

Personally I use self hosted Wordpress for my blog at djmckee.co.uk, I have heard some good things about wordpress.com however I needed more flexibility and customisation.

 

[eclipse]

I can't stand the wordpress help pages. Everything links to about 20 other pages as you try to learn the basic functions. So for instance, "Why won't my 'pages' show up in the side bar?" So I look at the pages bar, then I'm reading about widgets and templates and themes and code etc all on different help pages to try and understand what extra icky bit of plugin I need to add.

I'm used to just "using" software, not building it from the ground up. I'm sure Wordpress would make an excellent blog, if one day a user eventually got all the bits installed in the right spots. I'm finding it very frustrating.

 

[TheKnifeFight]

i use wordpress on my own server. really expandable that way.

 

[eclipse]

I found out my pages don't show up simply because it's the customized Newspress THEME that my friend bought for our group. Oh well.

 

[bluedoggiant]

bump


any more opinions?

 

[memco]

I've worked with WP and blogger, and I'm looking at a new system called Chyrp (don't have any opinions on it yet though). What I can say is that whatever you do, use something that let's you download your entries in an editable format (xml-rpc capable). I use MacJournal for this, but there are probably other pieces of software (check for blogging/journaling apps on versiontracker, macupdate, or iusethis) that do the same thing. The reason: backing up your data can be a pain so find something that can automatically pull that data into a format you can handle on your computer. This way, it doesn't matter what blogging package you use, you'll have all your posts handy for uploading/downloading as you need them.

 

[calebmedia]

bump


any more opinions?

Wordpress = Jackie Chan

VS

iWeb = this kid without a brain (heh)

No seriously, I use wordpress for my site/blog and my mac blog

I love wordpress for its potential. By that I mean you can use it for a crappy little site or a pro SEO'd Weblog.

 

[miles01110]

I can't stand the wordpress help pages. Everything links to about 20 other pages as you try to learn the basic functions. So for instance, "Why won't my 'pages' show up in the side bar?" So I look at the pages bar, then I'm reading about widgets and templates and themes and code etc all on different help pages to try and understand what extra icky bit of plugin I need to add.

I'm used to just "using" software, not building it from the ground up. I'm sure Wordpress would make an excellent blog, if one day a user eventually got all the bits installed in the right spots. I'm finding it very frustrating.

The WordPress help pages, in my opinion, are excellent. Even if you don't like those, there's a website called "Google" that is pretty good at finding the answer to most WP problems. And it all boils down to one little line of php you need to insert in your sidebar.php file anyways.

If you host on WP.com, you don't even have to bother with the installation. If you host your own, a 2-minute SVN install plus editing 4 lines of code in wp-config.php sets it up for you. I really don't understand what the difficulty is- especially since once you get everything working, the majority of the functions can be controlled from the Administration panel.

 

[eclipse]

back when I wrote that I was trying to learn both Wordpress and BBpress all at once.

Now Wordpress ROCKS because it has Wordpress TV!

Think of the commercial possibilities... if I can design a wordpress website, all I have to do is refer my clients to the Wordpress TV site and they are away!

I LOVE learning by Wordpress TV.

2.6's help pages always seemed to be 3 clicks or 4 clicks away before you got to what you wanted, and you had to understand all the definitions before you could implement what they said, and that was about 10 new clicks in itself.

Then 2.7 hit the streets and they announced Wordpress TV.

It is "monkey see, monkey do"... unless you're getting into more complex stuff like site design, it's a breeze!

And I can set up an activist site / volunteer site / commercial site, and just tell my friends "Grab a coffee, go to wordpress TV and watch their writing and publishing pages and you'll know it in no time!"