The day after I recommended TypePad as an easy start to blogging to someone, the service completely crashes. Happily, I chose to use Blogger for this blog so I’m not completely incommunicado. I am very disappointed that the long post I wrote about my kindergartner’s reading progress may have gotten eaten up though. One reason I use web-based services instead of doing stuff on my own machine is that I don’t back stuff up. I know I should, but I don’t. I expect my web service providers to do so, especially those whom I’ve been paying!
Before starting my Anne 2.0 kick, I had never heard of WordPress but it seems many tech-savvy bloggers, like Robert Scoble, use it and like it. It’s based on PHP and MySQL, favorite technologies of the standards-based crew. It appears that WordPress can be used either like Blogger or TypePad, as a hosted web app, or you can download the software and publish to your own host.
I can’t think of a single WordPress mom blog that I’ve ever come across. I’m sure they exist, but I’ve largely connected with moms blogging on TypePad and Blogger. I wonder why that is. I’d love to see some sort of graphical representation of the various clouds of blogging users, how they link, and what dimensions they match on. I bet information visualization great Edward Tufte could come up with a fascinating display.
2 Comments
I do Wordpress, hosted on my own space, on a server adminned by a relative of mine. He leaves all the details of what I do with Wordpress (and Coppermine, for my photos) to me, and I’ve managed on my own to upgrade it once, install a few plug-ins, and mess with templates (although right now I’ve reverted to the plain-and-simple template it originally came with, while I learn a bit more about CSS and php, the better to build my own skin for my site).
And I’m *so* not a computer person.
Wordpress.org looks like a very interesting option, though you can’t do your own templates at this point — it’s relatively new and may still be running on a “you need an invite from a user to get in” system?
See, I knew there were moms blogging with WordPress. I’m kind of annoyed with myself that I never knew about it until now. I feel like I’m not making my blogging decisions with enough research!
When I went to the wordpress hosted blog site, it looked to me like anyone could sign up. If they did a “invite-only” start, that might explain why some tech gurus used it… it creates an aura of exclusivity that people like.
If you are thinking about learning css and php to build your own skin, I think you qualify as something of a computer person!