macolyte.net

This is my 4th or 5th [depending on how you count] blogging software experiment.

1. LiveJournal
2. Using iBlog to host on my .Mac account
3. Pybloxsom [which I never really got to work]
4. Blogger

LiveJournal was ok, but it’s really quite limited. Customisation is basic and there’s little you can do in the way of organisation. Plus the blogging community would hardly take me seriously if I used an LJ account.

iBlog worked well for quite a while. I was becoming adept at customising the templates despite my limited HTML skills and total lack of CSS knowledge. Then I upgraded to Tiger and it just didn’t work right anymore.

I really like the idea of hosting my blog myself and I know a fair bit about Python, hence the go with Pybloxsom. Unfortunately, running it on OS X is a bit of a pain due to the way Apple organises things in the filesystem. On top of that, the developer has recently ceased working on it.

The most recent attempt was Blogger. It has a usable web interface and is customisable, but I when I tried changing some things around, I found it difficult to navigate. Blogger also doesn’t allow you to set up categories for your posts, which I feel is an unacceptable limitation.

So now we’re on to WordPress. It allows me to host the blog myself; in fact, it installed flawlessly on my Mac Mini. The interface is intuitive and full featured. I haven’t tried much customisation yet because I’m really quite happy with the default theme.  The only real issue I’m currently having is the persistant flakiness of my internet connection at home. I have an idea or two I’m going to try before giving in and calling Comcast yet again, so hopefully I’ll be able to have this up and running within a week.