I’m feeling a lot of blog angst today. First, while I was on vacation they unilaterally cut access to blogs from work. Ugh! No blogs whatsoever! You might remember, I’m starting work on a project to integrate social media more fully into how we communicate as an organization; this isn’t a step in the right direction.
Luckily, because of that at least I have an excuse to wave my fists and wail and demand blog access back, and my uber-cool boss has put my name at the top of the list of people who should have immediate access restored. But this is government and nothing happens quickly.
On a larger scale, though, I think I’m finally ready to make the leap to my own domain. I’m officially done with Blogger. I almost jumped ship a year ago, but when they introduced Blogger Beta, they introduced the one feature I had been most coveting: labels, or categories. But, I recently realized that each category will display a maximum of 20 posts. Everything else is lost to the ether, and some of my categories have more than 60 posts in them (hell, you know as well as anybody that if I’m anything, I’m prolific!)
Apparently, I’m restricted to 20 posts per category because I chose to keep my customizable "classic template", the one I understand and can tinker with. I could move to the newfangled Widget template, but I would lose some flexibility. I’m finally fed up. I’m done with Blogger.
Earlier this year, I registered danigirl.ca, so I already have the domain. I know I ask this question about twice a year, but for those of you who haven’t yet tutored me on this, any tips for inexpensive, reliable hosting in Canada and new blog software? I’m leaning towards WordPress, because I’ve heard MT is more of a pain than it’s worth. I’m worried that WordPress won’t let me tinker, though. Thoughts?
This doesn’t at all answer your question. Just wanted to say that I recently switched from Blogger Templates (old) to Blogger Layout (new) and it’s not too bad. Aside from your “previous posts” hack (which would be replaced by the archive widget), I can’t see anything on your blog that you couldn’t do with the newer layout system. (But then again, I don’t know all the gritty little details about your current template.
Goodl luck with the new blog tool hunt!
Don’t do MT. It’s more advanced than you think.
I’ve had a (different) Blogger-based multi-author blog going for the past few months. I chose Blogger because of ease-of-use (the other authors aren’t savvy to this stuff) but am constantly disappointed by its limitations.
WP is miles easier and you can tinker with the templates all you want, much more than what Blogger allows you to do.
WP has an array of plugins, both official: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ and unofficial: http://wp-plugins.net/
I think everything you can possibly need is covered in one or the other.
Literary Mama is MT but it scares the heck out of me. Canaca offers very reliable and cheap service but if you need tech support you may have to cry (something I’ve done shamelessly when I crashed my site). I use typepad to blog which I guess is MT for dummies.
I second the WP suggestion. I’ve enjoyed my experience with it. It is fast to set up and the many, many designs available are very cool and can be adjusted to your preferences fairly easily.
I also have an ISP suggestion: http://www.liquidesign.ca/ It was created by two women in Hamilton – so you would be able to support a small, woman-run, Canadian business. You can pay through Paypal, even, or send a cheque.
Let them know that Leanne from http://www.hamiltonbirthrevolution recommended them, if you go for it.
Good luck!
I use WP, but its on space that my BIL hosts, so its not on the wordpress.org server.
Which means I can tinker as much as I want, but if I screw things up, there’s no support other than my BIL RTFM along with me.
I like wordpress a lot. Its very flexible, very tinkerable, a ton of plugins, a ton of themes available, lots of good documentation.
No real suggestions to offer… but ack! Blog service cut off? Noooooooooo….
Isn’t this post’s timing funny….just yesterday I asked a neighbour her opinion about WordPress. She too got fed up with Blogger for similar reasons and has not had any issues with WordPress so far (it’s been years). I’m in the process of switching too…it’s the limitations I’m a little frustrated with at Blogger. I did like its ease of use…I’m not an internet expert, but I’m also not an idiot, so learning as I go and then getting frustrated with limitations is not something I enjoy much. AND, now that you mention that the label categories have limits, well….off with its blogger-head!
Hostingplex – My blog is hosted with them. It’s my BFF’s brother’s company based outta Toronto. From the control panel you can use “fantastico” to install wordpress for you – it’s as easy as the click of a button!
I use WordPress and I really like it 🙂
WordPress didn’t work that well for me, I get it through my Netfirms.ca registration for my URL, but I ended up going with TypePad instead after lots of frustration with WP. I find TypePad very easy to set-up and use.
Just my two cents.
Good Luck!
I don’t have a blog yet, although I’ve been toying with the idea for over a year. My ten-year-old son started a blog on WP about a month ago :-O, and he really likes it.
Anyway, we’ll follow you wherever you go, Dani!
WhitePineLane
I tried to respond to this yesterday but your comments weren’t working. This probably won’t be much help for you in a ‘tech’ sense but I switched from Blogger to WP and I love it. I think it’s great.
No advice because I’m a notechmoronic, but you did give me a giggle over the state of affairs at your gov’t office.
I wrote a post a while back about my own switch from Blogger to WordPress. It’s here:
http://toddleddredge.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/blogger-vs-wordpress/
Overall, I’m happy with it, but WordPress doesn’t allow you to advertise, so if you want to make money with your blog at all it’s not a good choice. Also, you have to upgrade to a paid subscription if you want to tinker with code.