Comments on: Blogspot Does Not Scale With My Life http://foolswisdom.com/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/ A fool and his blog are soon parted. Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:05:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Alexandre http://foolswisdom.com/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/comment-page-1/#comment-4818 Alexandre Tue, 05 Sep 2006 01:06:02 +0000 http://www.foolswisdom.com/~lloyd/wordpress/index.php/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/#comment-4818 Thanks for the prompt and thoughtful reply. The comma-separated list of labels in Blogger beta works better than the box for comma-separated categories in WP. Probably because WP is looking for similar categories to anything you add. The difference seems minimal but it's been an issue for me since the beginning. My favourite tagging method is probably the one used by del.icio.us... WP.com as service or simplified version. To be more precise, WP MU is the simplified version and WP.com is the hosting service for that version. (Parallel to Blogspot as host and Blogger as blogging system.) The real power comes with installing WP 2.0 on your own server. Even if WP MU is more powerful than Blogger beta, Blogger users don't feel shortchanged for being hosted by Blogspot. Again, WordPress has been quite good about making WP.com a complete solution. But those who know WordPress itself, it feels a bit like an afterthought at this point. About community and comments, I still haven't found the best way. Comments I get are from random people and/or bloggers on whose blog I commented at some point. My non-blogging friends do read my blogs but don't seem to reply on anything. And, contrary to mailing-lists, I can't seem to get good conversations going. It might be my writing but it could also be the community. Anything I post on LiveJournal gets a reply from LJ members. So, in this case, I'm trying to figure out if Blogger does the same thing. Blogger blogs hosted on other sites don't feel so weird and the accounts are maintained outside of Blogspot. As silly as it seems, it's quite useful to have your account automatically recognized when you go on somebody else's blog. About commercial and ad-supported blogs, it's not my thing. I don't even care about traffic. But it seems important enough to some communities. Thanks for the prompt and thoughtful reply.
The comma-separated list of labels in Blogger beta works better than the box for comma-separated categories in WP. Probably because WP is looking for similar categories to anything you add. The difference seems minimal but it’s been an issue for me since the beginning.
My favourite tagging method is probably the one used by del.icio.us…
WP.com as service or simplified version. To be more precise, WP MU is the simplified version and WP.com is the hosting service for that version. (Parallel to Blogspot as host and Blogger as blogging system.) The real power comes with installing WP 2.0 on your own server. Even if WP MU is more powerful than Blogger beta, Blogger users don’t feel shortchanged for being hosted by Blogspot. Again, WordPress has been quite good about making WP.com a complete solution. But those who know WordPress itself, it feels a bit like an afterthought at this point.
About community and comments, I still haven’t found the best way. Comments I get are from random people and/or bloggers on whose blog I commented at some point. My non-blogging friends do read my blogs but don’t seem to reply on anything. And, contrary to mailing-lists, I can’t seem to get good conversations going. It might be my writing but it could also be the community. Anything I post on LiveJournal gets a reply from LJ members. So, in this case, I’m trying to figure out if Blogger does the same thing.
Blogger blogs hosted on other sites don’t feel so weird and the accounts are maintained outside of Blogspot. As silly as it seems, it’s quite useful to have your account automatically recognized when you go on somebody else’s blog.
About commercial and ad-supported blogs, it’s not my thing. I don’t even care about traffic. But it seems important enough to some communities.

]]> By: foolswisdom http://foolswisdom.com/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/comment-page-1/#comment-4816 foolswisdom Tue, 05 Sep 2006 00:22:17 +0000 http://www.foolswisdom.com/~lloyd/wordpress/index.php/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/#comment-4816 Thank you Alexandre, for the detailed and thoughtful response. Sorted by frequency is an interesting idea. "You can simply type a comma-separated list of keywords", the same is true at Wordpress.com . Export: I think you are right, but Blogspot has never made the commitment be making exporting part of their own functionality. I have heard of many problems migrating away from BlogSpot. Comment traffic: interesting points. Both are communities likely with slightly different characteristics in membership. The obvious differential is the current size of the communities with Blogspot being much larger. Are most of your comments from repeat commenters or random people? Do most of your Blogspot friends not stray from BlogSpot blogs? If so, why is that? "Simplified version of a full package": I understand this perspective, but not the language. I would not call WordPress.com a simplified version. It is a service. WordPress.com is a full service that has made some choices to improve security, supportability, and of course to help fund the service. BlogSpot allows additional customization and is advert friendly. That customization has its limits and you can't take it further. WordPress.com to your own WordPress is guaranteed by the developers commitment to free culture to be easy. I prefer WordPress.com without its adverts because people sell out so cheap and compromise the content and the experience so fully. Most importantly it deters the splogs, the people that are only looking to make a fast buck. If you are looking to make money, it makes sense to pay for hosting. I don't understand what you mean by "but it’s still meant as a way to push people into WP"? I think you have identified an opportunity for "documentation, forums, community" to develop that meets the needs of the people that use WP.com . Compelling features/Google integration: I look forward to you sharing the details if you ever feel that there is a disruptive reason to switch away from WordPress! Thank you again for your comment! Thank you Alexandre, for the detailed and thoughtful response.

Sorted by frequency is an interesting idea.

“You can simply type a comma-separated list of keywords”, the same is true at WordPress.com .

Export: I think you are right, but Blogspot has never made the commitment be making exporting part of their own functionality. I have heard of many problems migrating away from BlogSpot.

Comment traffic: interesting points.

Both are communities likely with slightly different characteristics in membership. The obvious differential is the current size of the communities with Blogspot being much larger.

Are most of your comments from repeat commenters or random people? Do most of your Blogspot friends not stray from BlogSpot blogs? If so, why is that?

“Simplified version of a full package”: I understand this perspective, but not the language.

I would not call WordPress.com a simplified version. It is a service. WordPress.com is a full service that has made some choices to improve security, supportability, and of course to help fund the service.

BlogSpot allows additional customization and is advert friendly. That customization has its limits and you can’t take it further. WordPress.com to your own WordPress is guaranteed by the developers commitment to free culture to be easy.

I prefer WordPress.com without its adverts because people sell out so cheap and compromise the content and the experience so fully. Most importantly it deters the splogs, the people that are only looking to make a fast buck. If you are looking to make money, it makes sense to pay for hosting.

I don’t understand what you mean by “but it’s still meant as a way to push people into WP”?

I think you have identified an opportunity for “documentation, forums, community” to develop that meets the needs of the people that use WP.com .

Compelling features/Google integration: I look forward to you sharing the details if you ever feel that there is a disruptive reason to switch away from WordPress!

Thank you again for your comment!

]]> By: Blogspot Does Not Scale With My Life at A Fool’s Wisdom « Disparate http://foolswisdom.com/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/comment-page-1/#comment-4814 Blogspot Does Not Scale With My Life at A Fool’s Wisdom « Disparate Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:02:21 +0000 http://www.foolswisdom.com/~lloyd/wordpress/index.php/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/#comment-4814 [...] Blogspot Does Not Scale With My Life at A Fool’s Wisdom [...] [...] Blogspot Does Not Scale With My Life at A Fool’s Wisdom [...]

]]> By: Alexandre http://foolswisdom.com/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/comment-page-1/#comment-4813 Alexandre Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:59:33 +0000 http://www.foolswisdom.com/~lloyd/wordpress/index.php/blogspot-does-not-scale-with-my-life/#comment-4813 Blogspot isn't perfect and WordPress is quite good. But Blogger beta does have some redeeming qualities, including category-like labels. The advantage these labels have over WP categories is that labels can be sorted by frequency instead of being listed alphabetically. Also, you can simply type a comma-separated list of keywords and these will be added as labels. The full list of labels is available but it's hidden by default. With WordPress.com, adding categories can be an issue. It actually takes time to do on my decent DSL connection. In terms of basic reasoning, WP categories are really categories (you classify posts). Blogger's labels are more like labels, tags, or keywords: you specify what your post connects with. While it's true that Blogger beta doesn't have an export feature yet, other blogging systems should be able to import Blogger entries, once the new APIs are released. In fact, the cool way to do it, IMHO, is to use a standalone editor like ecto to repurpose your posts. Since the new APIs for Blogger haven't been released, ecto can't download Blogspot entries, but it's certainly going to be a possibility quite soon. Since Blogger accounts are quite common, commenting on somebody else's blog can bring more comments to your own blog. WP.com tries to do the same thing and the tag surfer is quite cool, but so far comment traffic on my blog has been very low. The other thing that is nice about Blogger is that, contrary to WordPress.com, it's not a simplified version of a full package. WordPress makes a visible effort to add functionalities to WP.com (WP MU) but it's still meant as a way to push people into WP. Installing WordPress is very easy and anyone with server space should use it on their own server. (That's what we do for our <a href="http://blog.criticalworld.net/" rel="nofollow">academic blog</a>.) But for those who don't have server space, WP.com can be slightly frustrating as the documentation, forums, community, plugins, and neater features are really meant for your own WP installation. Now, don't get me wrong. WP.com has been quite nice to me in the past few months. In fact, my main reason to move from WP.com to Blogger would be if my Blogger/Blogspot blog got more comments than my WP.com one. Otherwise, unless Blogger comes with very compelling features (like integration with Google Measure Map, Calendar, Spreadsheet, Writely, Gmail, etc.), my WP.com blog will remain my active blog. Thanks for your comment on my blog!! Blogspot isn’t perfect and WordPress is quite good. But Blogger beta does have some redeeming qualities, including category-like labels. The advantage these labels have over WP categories is that labels can be sorted by frequency instead of being listed alphabetically. Also, you can simply type a comma-separated list of keywords and these will be added as labels. The full list of labels is available but it’s hidden by default. With WordPress.com, adding categories can be an issue. It actually takes time to do on my decent DSL connection. In terms of basic reasoning, WP categories are really categories (you classify posts). Blogger’s labels are more like labels, tags, or keywords: you specify what your post connects with.
While it’s true that Blogger beta doesn’t have an export feature yet, other blogging systems should be able to import Blogger entries, once the new APIs are released. In fact, the cool way to do it, IMHO, is to use a standalone editor like ecto to repurpose your posts. Since the new APIs for Blogger haven’t been released, ecto can’t download Blogspot entries, but it’s certainly going to be a possibility quite soon.
Since Blogger accounts are quite common, commenting on somebody else’s blog can bring more comments to your own blog. WP.com tries to do the same thing and the tag surfer is quite cool, but so far comment traffic on my blog has been very low.
The other thing that is nice about Blogger is that, contrary to WordPress.com, it’s not a simplified version of a full package. WordPress makes a visible effort to add functionalities to WP.com (WP MU) but it’s still meant as a way to push people into WP. Installing WordPress is very easy and anyone with server space should use it on their own server. (That’s what we do for our academic blog.) But for those who don’t have server space, WP.com can be slightly frustrating as the documentation, forums, community, plugins, and neater features are really meant for your own WP installation.
Now, don’t get me wrong. WP.com has been quite nice to me in the past few months. In fact, my main reason to move from WP.com to Blogger would be if my Blogger/Blogspot blog got more comments than my WP.com one. Otherwise, unless Blogger comes with very compelling features (like integration with Google Measure Map, Calendar, Spreadsheet, Writely, Gmail, etc.), my WP.com blog will remain my active blog.

Thanks for your comment on my blog!!

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