Saturday, June 21, 2008

The great Wordpress debate

This is a comment on Shan's post about moving to Wordpress below, I've reposted it here simply to get LBPs ideas and opinions on the plan proposed within.

Let me know.

As uber-overlord here's what we're going to do :)

First my thoughts on Shan's post:

1. If any of you want access to stats I have a Sitemeter already running which is more comprehensive than the Wordpress version. I've said more than once before that all you have to do is ask for the username and password.

2. Not an issue here.

3. I agree with this. I'm all about the visuals and on my own, Wordpress, blog there are many beautiful varieties of template. I'm tired of this one. However any time I suggeste change many LBPs wanted to stay as we were.

4. I'm not that bothered about how many people are reading us that was and I don't think a lot of us are.

5. This is very true.

6. I'll take your word for this, again Daz, nice one on the domain!

It has been suggested that we set up a "mess" Wordpress blog only accessible by us that we could feck around with for a few weeks just to see how we liked it. Maybe this is the way to go?

I am, however, very much with the EU on this. At the end of the process we take a vote and if there's even one dissenter then we stay as we are.

One for all and all for one.

19 comments:

  1. SL - you never linked Shan's post so I had to keep scrolling up and down to see what the numbers referred to.

    I accept the challenge given there's a veto at the end.

    Just to add more furore, I would recommend please God not another dark blog. Light writing on dark background is too hard to read. dark on light is the only way forward.

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  2. I have to say for once I totally agree with milan here, Dark backgrounds should only ever be used on photoblogs dark backgrounds bring out more contrast in general.

    White background with black text always works for text blogs, simple minimal and effective.

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  3. SL the reason why No2 is not an issue here is because of the word verification, which has pissed some folk of here. At least with wordpress we can lose the verification and have a filter do the work in the background instead.

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  4. your comment about number 3 and suggesting change was to make it a pink blog which tbh was revolting, I have seen the blogger template and have to say they all look pretty cheap and nasty, so you were in a no win situation for me.

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  5. Agree - keep it light with a sans seriff font and I'll be happy reading.

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  6. Everyone knows how I feel about this, my computer is so crap, it seems to hate blogger and so wordpress is the best option for me, even commenting on blogger is too time consuming, I love the ease of wordpress.
    This afternoon I am in my boyfriends house so I can use his computer and comment away!

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  7. I think it would be a good move to switch to Wordpress, and apparently, according to those who have used it, it performs much better than Blogger!!

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  8. I don't know what you are all talking about.

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  9. It's a different blog host, ails, a little more grown up and fancy. Perhaps less user friendly, perhaps more, depending who you talk to!

    The idea seems to be that blogger, that we're using now, is like a starter blog, and most people make the move to wordpress, like Midge did, after a while.

    No doubt Shan will tell you all about it if you wish to ask!

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  10. I know I'm a newb and haven't yet earned the right to offer opinions on direction, but I love Wordpress - I love the flexibility of it and the overall design. WP gets my vote, for definite.

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  11. Shan - I never suggested pink! Are you mad? get out of the middle of the road. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

    Still don't see a moment of word verification as being a huge problem. Unarocks uses it on hers and it doesn't seem to have done her much harm.

    Milan - No dark, agreed.

    Darren - One vote for all, that's the way we've always worked.

    Let's see what everyone else thinks.

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  12. SL you did too... way back in our infancy you turned the blog pink for about 2 hours until we all told you cop on, I still get nightmares about that.

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  13. See SL I was right other old members remember it too.

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  14. @SL Word verification is a killer. I hate having to type captcha text.

    I barely comment on blogs that have this is it's annoying. I'm not alone, either. A lot of my blog friends feel the same about it. So, Shan has a point.

    Overall, WP has more options for control and customisation, but if you go the self-hosted route, make sure you have someone techy and handy on staff that easily manage upgrades and maintenance for you.

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  15. Hey ppl, got here from Raptureponies.

    I use blogspot because it's so damn simple. It suits me. I turned off the comment verification and escaped the dark backgrounds, I don't have the comment pop-up (eek), I use Picasa for my images and basically it's simple. Whereas I see a number of blogs being down because of server problems, I've never had that problem. Yes it does turn people off commenting but I also feel that if someone is moved enough to comment they will (and possibly should). But that's just me personally in a time when attention is at a premium.

    I like this blog - I don't comment enough, but I really admire what you guys are doing and I think it deserves to be a bit better known.

    Wordpress seems to be the way to go with this, if you can set it up so you're all comfortable with it. You deserve it, your readers deserve it and it could add a lot to the blog. You have great content that may look better on an easier to read blog.

    Ultimately the question you need to ask is WHY you'd move. Personally I think blogspot is grand if you're happy with it, have built up your traffic and commenters and if you can display your content in the right way. Unarocks has this because she's cool, Postsecret because it's a phenomenon etc. However if you think for a chance you could (a) entertain more people (b) get better known for your content and (c) present the things you do better then I'd suggest the move.

    As Alexia said Wordpress does have some upgrade and maintenance involved so maybe something like Movable Type might be an option.

    Whatever you do, ask your readers for their thoughts as well. :)

    Best of luck!

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  16. Gah!!!!!!

    Darragh you dont want to go near movabletype, no friggin way, as one of the first and very few bloggers in ireland to have used it when it began, trust me the move to wordpress personally has been the best thing ever. Movabletype is a headfuck now and also the community aspect and support of movabletype sucks, big time trust me after 3 years of using it I had to work shit out myself since no info was available on the web.

    Also maintanence is required on MT in the same way as WP, possibly not as much though.

    Also I know for az fact that a good few people here have tried WP before but not given it much of a chance, whereas MT would scare the hell out of them.

    Also since you are Mr comment it is suprising you dont comment here as often.

    BTW I hear rumours you may well be thinking of the leap to wordpress yourself or am I just making this up.

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  17. @shanachie - Gahhhh LOL!

    Okay, no to Movable Type. Had been advised about it, was just sharing the advice re not so many updates, but take the comment on it.

    Re being Mr Comment - I know, I'm sorry. I have enough trouble responding to all the amazing, wonderful comments I get on my own blog. I read a lot - I mean a LOT - of blogs every week and with a full time job and a life to lead I find it difficult all the time. *Must try harder*.

    Re my leap to wordpress - well, I'm thinking of moving a more professional blog to wordpress and kepping the blogspot one as personal or things that I find. It's something I need to put some research into. I don't know if my blog would benefit too much from the move as the content I write is grand for blogspot, whereas this blog has so much traction and interaction the move may make more sense.

    Thanks for getting back to me :)

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