Anyone Know Of A Good Blog Software That

**musicfrisk** · April 10, 2004

can be input into a existing webpage easily?

**LisaJill** · April 10, 2004

That really depends on your knowledge of html and css. Both WordPress and MovableType, as well as some others, can be modified so that you could either build your page around them, or pull them in via iframe or, preferably, php includes.

Does that help at all?

**musicfrisk** · April 10, 2004

That really depends on your knowledge of html and css. Both WordPress and MovableType, as well as some others, can be modified so that you could either build your page around them, or pull them in via iframe or, preferably, php includes.

Does that help at all?

Hi, Lisa!

Which of those two would you think would be easier?

**TheManKnownAsX** · April 10, 2004

Blog management softwares aren't easy by nature.. but I had very little trouble in my experimentation with Moveable Type. You're best off to just install that to your CGi-BiN folder, imho... just make a directory in it called MT. Otherwise, you'll have a hell of a time getting it to do it's CGi processes correctly.

**LisaJill** · April 10, 2004

I am biased, I use movabletype and I am fairly good with it.

I have wordpress installed on a test site, but have *not* had a chance to really play with it. Wordpress installs much more easily, but MT is more powerful, especially with version 3 coming out. However, the install is not necessarily for the faint of heart.

Either would require customization to attain the result that you want.

I know that wasn't the answer that you want. It's a hard one to answer because I don't know what goals YOU have for your site. I'd read through both sites and see which one strikes your fancy. =)

Let me know if you have more questions!

If you decide to go with movabletype, don't forget to read the TCH Guide to installing MT. as well as MT's own instructions.

Edited April 10, 2004 by TCH-Lisa

**TCH-Bruce** · April 10, 2004

And if you don't want to install blogging software you can use something like www.blogger.com.

**musicfrisk** · April 17, 2004

anything easier?

**TCH-Bruce** · April 17, 2004

anything easier?

Easier than what? Several choices were given.

**LisaJill** · April 17, 2004

There are several, here's a short list of ones that I know about.

Installed locally...

Remotely hosted...

Livejournal - embeddable into site if paying

Blogger

There are also an absolute ton of scripts at Hotscripts.

If you host it locally, there is always going to be some requirement of installing the scripts and customizing it; even remotely there is going to be customizaton you want to do.

Of these I have used wordpress, mT and livejournal. Livejournal was the easiest but it is very lacking in control since it's remotely hosted; even with the locally embedded option. Wordpress was the easiest to install; but textpattern is supposedly fairly easy as well. I've also used Radio Userland but switched away quickly as it has a host of problems and pretty shoddy support. However it's very, very easy for basic weblogging.

I hope that helps to get you started.

Edited April 17, 2004 by TCH-Lisa

**TCH-Bruce** · April 17, 2004

Blogger will publish to folders with in your TCH web space.

**Bunni** · April 17, 2004

I am currently familiarizing myself with MT but am using Blogger. Believe me, it doesn't come any easier than that, for configuring, modifying, using! :dance:

**bellringr** · April 18, 2004

Blogger is extremely easy. I'm a novice, and I had it up and running in less than 10 minutes. Another 10-15 minutes to add comments from haloscan, and I was set.

**musicfrisk** · April 18, 2004

sounds like the group likes blogger, how reliable is it? (like is it hosted by TCH?)

**LisaJill** · April 18, 2004

I can't speak on reliability, I've never used it, but here are instructions for getting it to publish to your TCH hosted account. =)

Just to clarify, the publishing system will be hosted at their servers, but it will publish your updates to your own server if you tell it to.

Hope that helps!

Edited April 18, 2004 by TCH-Lisa

**DarqFlare** · April 18, 2004

I'm an advocate of MovableType, so...

**Bunni** · April 18, 2004

MovableType is great, but not easy. I'm having a heck of a time configuring it to suit my needs and my website. I know, I know, I'm just old and dumb but I'll get it sorted out sooner or later.

**musicfrisk** · April 28, 2004

bumping to preserve as I've had not time to implement! argh, busy, grrrr....

**LisaJill** · April 28, 2004

*rubs eyes* this may seem like a strange change of pace for me; but after 2 days of killing myself working on my site (rather than final essays and term papers!) I switched from MT to textpattern. (http://www.textpattern.com)

I've got to say, it runs a heck of a lot faster, is a lot easier to maintain and is just.. nicer. Much better hierarchies, much easier maintenance. The whole thing makes me happy.

Site is so simplified now... =) You may want to look into that. It's not as easy as something like blogger but it's very nice.

Edited April 28, 2004 by TCH-Lisa

**schussat** · April 28, 2004

I switched from MT to textpattern. (http://www.textpattern.com)

I've got to say, it runs a heck of a lot faster, is a lot easier to maintain and is just.. nicer. Much better hierarchies, much easier maintenance. The whole thing makes me happy.

Textpattern dominates. All will be assimilated.

Signed, a proud member of the Dean Allen Army.

**LisaJill** · April 28, 2004

*grins* and to think, you never told me....

**arvind** · April 28, 2004

*rubs eyes* this may seem like a strange change of pace for me; but after 2 days of killing myself working on my site (rather than final essays and term papers!) I switched from MT to textpattern. (http://www.textpattern.com)

I've got to say, it runs a heck of a lot faster, is a lot easier to maintain and is just.. nicer. Much better hierarchies, much easier maintenance. The whole thing makes me happy.

Site is so simplified now... =) You may want to look into that. It's not as easy as something like blogger but it's very nice.

*sighs* Its such a shame Lisa that you've switched. Although MT3 isn't as feature packed as some hoped it is a huge improvement over what it is (yes I know I've changed my mind) The GUI is cleaner, rebuilds are lightning fast and there are a whole set of new experimental features like BackgroundTasks and Typekey. Its a shame you changed.

**LisaJill** · April 28, 2004

I don't want to derail this thread too much.... but there are several issues that have made me change. Amongst them is the licensing; the fact that it's cgi (php is just so much nicer), and to be honest, the complete lack of communication (it was vaporware for months); I also think that the support community went drastically downhill), and typekey.

So far you are really the only person that has said rebuilds were improved, out of several that said otherwise.

Anyway, off my soapbox. Each person has a different reason for what software they use; it was high time I moved on, so I have. I'm happy you enjoy MT. =)

**kaseytraeger** · April 29, 2004

I've never used it, but I've heard of a blogging program called Grey Matter. Anyone out there ever used it?

**LisaJill** · April 29, 2004

Greymatter is a banned script here at TCH. It's very old, no longer developed and a huge, huge, huge resouce. hog.

**kaseytraeger** · April 30, 2004

Greymatter is a banned script here at TCH. It's very old, no longer developed and a huge, huge, huge resouce. hog.

Is it banned because it's such a resource hog or for some other reason (e.g., a security problem)? Not that I'm thinking of using it ... just curious.

**LisaJill** · April 30, 2004

It's banned because it uses too many cpu resources. The explanation for the banned scripts is here. =)

**kaseytraeger** · April 30, 2004

Thanks, Lisa!

**davejenbarnes** · May 2, 2004

sounds like the group likes blogger, how reliable is it? (like is it hosted by TCH?)

I've been using Blogger since the beginning of July last year. On December 28th I moved my blog from the blogger address (davejenbarnes.blogspot.com) to my website through the "Settings" then "Publilshing" menus offered on Blogger. In the eleven months I've been using Blogger, I have only recently run into problems which are creating a little frustration on my part. I have been unable to publish my posts since Wednesday... I have contacted them through their "help" form and am awaiting a response but in the meantime, I am looking at the alternatives such as Moveable Type.

Blogger is owned by Google and I am assuming that it is not hosted by TCH since Google probably has their own servers. Blogger is also not installed on my website at TCH. The files are on my TCH account, but not the ability to blog. For that, I go to Blogger.com to type my post and they ftp the information to the files on my site when I click the "publish" button. I think my current problem is in the ftp'ing of information or something to do with the javascript to get the comments from haloscan. It is all a mess, but so far, I think it's just my site that is a mess as opposed to all of Blogger.com.

I originally chose Blogger because I do no know a lot about CGI, PHP, MySQL, etc. etc. but I am learning quite a bit and I'm almost willing to use something that I have to maintain so if a problem occurs, it's MY fault and I'm not depending on the help forms of some company somewhere to get to my plea for help and contact me to fix things. I would recommend Blogger to anyone who wants to keep their hands clean, so to speak. It's very simple to use and even somewhat simple to customize with the template menu, but I would not say that it is the end-all and be-all of blogging!!!

Feel free to check out my site although I must warn you that I do not know what it will look like with the mess that I have recently had with blogger and haloscan. Part of what I would like to have is something which allows me to journal and have comments from the same place instead of using so many different services from so many different websites all trying to pull it together for my measly little personal journal.

Just my two cents...

Jennifer

**bellringr** · May 2, 2004

Jennifer - Brich and I have both been having problems with Blogger/Haloscan the past week or so. It took me a while last night to publish, but I think it's mostly Haloscan to blame since the comments don't even come up half the time.

But as you said, this is the first time I've had any issues at all. I can still publish though - you might want to keep trying to send it through. And I totally agree with your assessment of the software. However I am NOT willing to mess around with (mess up?!) my own program. hehe I guess I'm somewhat lazy - if it suits my purposes, I don't try to make it something bigger and better.

**davejenbarnes** · May 2, 2004

Whew... I read on the haloscan forums that they were moving servers or something like that, so I figured the source of my problems had to go back to them sooner or later. I removed all references to haloscan on my blogger template, though, and I am s-t-i-l-l unable to publish. I try about every 10-30 minutes that I'm on the computer and it is very frustrating.... sorry that you experienced this as well, but at least I'm not alone.

I have been checking out (and even downloaded) WordPress but :dance: I am very confused on where to begin with it, so I'm probably going to play the waiting game with blogger/haloscan while I figure out what I'm doing and how to install WordPress to experiment with it over the next few days.

I'm most frustrated by not being able to vent my frustrations on my blog!

-Jennifer

**Bunni** · May 2, 2004

Yes, I too have been experiencing problems with both Blogger and Haloscan. Troubles started last Saturday, the 24th, but I had hoped it would be cleared up by the first of the week. Unfortunately I was wrong in being too hopeful. The problems persisted all week. I find that third time's the charm with publishing. Commenting comes and goes.

On Monday afternoon I wrote to Blogger Support and explained in detail the problems I was having with publishing and noted that the difficulties had begun a couple days before. This is the reply I got:

You may want to check with your site host to see if they have been having any problems with the server today. You may also want to check to be sure that they are using passive ftp and that they are not blocking Blogger from connecting to the server.

Obviously they didn't even read my message.

I am working on figuring out MT but modifying it to match the rest of my website has turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I gave up (temporarily) in despair a few days ago. I'll try again after the 12th when I'm back from vacation all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

In all fairness, I will say that I have enjoyed my Blogger experience up until now. I've been using it for 4 months on a daily basis and I've had few problems. It's easy to use, and combined with Haloscan commenting, it's easy for my visitors to use. It was incredibly easy to modify the template as well so my blog page could use my style sheet and it's components and thus match the rest of my website. This was important to me 'cause I was eager to get up and running with my blog. Now that I've blogged daily for so long, I would miss it terribly!

**davejenbarnes** · May 2, 2004

I find that third time's the charm with publishing.

I find that I have had no charms with publishing since April 28th and have not heard back from Blogger concerning my contacting them as well. I have been surfing and surfing to compare Textpattern with WordPress and cannot come to a quick decision about which will be better for me in the long run. I think I'm leaning toward wordpress simply because they seem to have more information readily available to a newbie like me and because I have read that it will import all of my Blogger archives and current posts (although I don't know how quite yet).

It was incredibly easy to modify the template as well so my blog page could use my style sheet and it's components and thus match the rest of my website.

I agree 100% about Blogger's easiness to modify and I'm aiming to make the transition to another publishing system without having to re-design my site in the least (although I am itching for a new look and will probably fiddle around with one over the summer, but not quite yet!) if at all possible.

Now that I've blogged daily for so long, I would miss it terribly!

AMEN! I DO miss it terribly!

**Bunni** · May 3, 2004

No charm tonight. I have attempted to publish 14 times to no avail. I continue to try though.

I notice that my problems started after the April 24th kernel update on the servers. Hm..... Nah, couldn't be that..... could it?

**davejenbarnes** · May 3, 2004

Is that when your problems started? Mad!!! Mine started on the 28th. I got one short post in on that day then... nothing ...so I now have WordPress installed on my site, but I have a major learning curve to overcome. It has a template that I can mess around with to merge it into the rest of the site design, but it is much more complicated than the blogger template. ahh... if only blogger... I am impressed that I (without a lick of help from anyone) could install it and not mess it up. I learned a lot tonight about setting up a mySQL database and user! :lol:

Anyhow, my "new" blog (yet very ugly at the time being) can be viewed here whilst BLOGGER misbehaves. Best of luck to you with the unpublishing Blogger.

:dance: Jennifer

**bellringr** · May 3, 2004

I must be on a different Blogger server or something (unless it is something to do with the TCH changes) because except for that one night, I've had no more issues publishing. Went through first try just now.

Brich - looks like you got it through. I'm glad - I don't want to have to go through Everyday Housewife blog withdrawals!! :lol:

:dance:

**Bunni** · May 3, 2004

Brich - looks like you got it through. I'm glad - I don't want to have to go through Everyday Housewife blog withdrawals!!

Oh no, not blog withdrawals!

Actually, I was unable to get my blog to fully upload last night. When I saw that last night's blog was displaying, I quit trying and Sign'ed out pronto! :dance:

Funny how we come to depend on certain things and when they disappear or don't work right, we are dumbfounded and lost!

I have another website courtesy of our ISP so I'm going to change my Blogger settings today and try to upload there. I don't expect to be successful though. I want to be able to continue to blog while I'm in Iowa over the next week. If I can't, it will be blog withdrawals all over the place!

I will be reading and commenting on yours though, Kristi. It will keep me connected with home and TCH and web stuff in general. So keep your fingers crossed that you continue to be able to publish!

**whoahorse** · May 29, 2004

Hey Lisa!

Between you and that totally kewl Dog blog site that was posted a few days ago, you have both inspired me to BLOG! LOL!

I just bought horseblog.com

What do I do next?

I see lots of kewl links in this thread, I will investigate!

Weezy

**LisaJill** · May 29, 2004

Well, what you need to decide is what you want from a blog. Do you want it to act as a CMS and control all/most of your site, or doyou simply want something that you can post some news to and have comments? no comments? how about trackbacks? sending/receiving?

My personal favorite now is expressionengine. I moved off MT about a month ago to textpattern, then ee gave away some (1250) free licenses. Its $150 but it's worth every penny and then some, the power behind the software is absolutely immense...

Textpattern is also fantastic but a lot simpler (although some have trouble getting their heads around it). If you JUST want blogging, I'd suggest going with wordpress - it's gpl'd so open source, uncer heavy developement and has a nice community. It'll give you everything that you could want in a blog system. =)

**whoahorse** · May 29, 2004

Thanks Lisa!

Lots of great info there!

I don't have any time to work with my blog right now, but I am excited to try it!

Thanks - I will bookmark this thread for sure!

Weezy

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