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Update On My Experiences with Radio Userland
Update July 26, 2002:
My email letter to Customer Service at Userland Software, subject "Suggestions - Radio Userland":
The included documentation for Radio Userland is dismal. I know that's because it's a continually evolving product, and that much of the strength of RU is in its rabid community of users... but really folks... Userland should be gathering up that information, perhaps paying (gasp!) people who've done a credible job of developing good documentation and borrow it. At least provide a comprehensive set of LINKS to those helpful people in the Radio Userland documentation.
There... that felt better. :-)
That said, nothing works better that I've seen for getting started with a weblog. The gripes start when you want to evolve a bit. Here are several suggestions for making it better:
The Navigator links needs to be a menu item by itself, and it needs to be MUCH more intuitive than hand editing XML/HTML. Yes, it's more powerful when you do it that way, but for mere mortals just trying to publish a weblog it's daunting.
Embedding photos should be one HECK of a lot more intuitive than it is. I know how to do it now, but it was a struggle to find an explanation that explained it to me so that I understood it.
Along that same line, I finally understand categories. Very cool concept, highly useful, and I'm about to start making use of them. The only gotcha is that the same Navigator Links apparently show up in all categories. It should be intuitive to have a different Navigator Links for each category... or the option to keep them all common. It's just that the Navigator Links that I so lovingly crafted for my main weblog (Broadband Wireless Internet Access) aren't going to be that useful to readers of my other category pages - like Amateur Radio, personal commentary, etc.
All in all, it's a good product now, steadily getting better. If Userland could:
* Improve the included documentation
* Improve the intuitiveness of the Navigator Links
* Improve the intuitiveness of including graphics files
* Make it possible to have separate Navigator Links for each category
Then it would be well on its way to being a GREAT product!
Thanks,
Steve
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Steve Stroh steve@strohpub.com 425-481-0600
Editor - Focus on Broadband Wireless Internet Access newsletter http://www.strohpub.com/focus
Broadband Wireless Internet Access Weblog http://www.strohpub.com/weblog
Well, it's been about a week since I've been "blogging" as the "biterati" call it, and it's been interesting. Overall, it's been very liberating to be able to see a news story of relevance and create a mention of it quickly and generally not have to hassle with formatting and how it will look.
I'm still discovering features of Radio Userland. While Radio Userland's integral hosting, software, and updates package (notice no support - that's pretty much do-it-yourself) makes it easy to get started, that's not to say that it's "easy". Some points...
- There doesn't appear to be any documentation resembling "Radio Userland For Dummies" - a basic introduction to its capabilities written for someone with little previous experience.
- You're at a disadvantage with RU if you don't understand at least minimal HTML commands to put emphasis like italics and bold where you want them.
- Some of the most powerful features are wrapped up in knowing XML... which I'll admit is a total mystery to me other than to know that in the right hands, it's a wonderous thing. You can source related stories, etc. from other sources if you know XML.
- There was a very subtle "gotcha" in my initial use of RU because my primary web browser is Opera. On the composition page, in Opera, no What You See Is What You Get controls - just a text box. Using Internet Explorer, the WYSIWYG controls are there. On non-IE browsers, I gather that there's supposed to be a Java applet with the WYSIWYG controls, but that didn't happen in my case.
- Being able to put links down the left side of your RU page was just a complete mystery. I finally found where you do that, and istead of it being relatively intuitive (text boxes for "name of the link?" and "link address?"), you end up having to manually edit some HTML code. Being able to put in links was a big breakthrough.
- This feature, "Stories" was a completely surprise on discovering it (it cerainly didn't leap out at me in my first week of use), and one I may use of on some of the longer blog pieces that I've posted to date.
- How to post graphics and photos remain a complete mystery. There was a utility that purported to make it very easy, but I couldn't seem to get it to work
Overall, I'm much better off having Radio Userland; and once the tricks are learned it's a pretty easy process to post entries. But it could use a lot more polish.
-sks-
© Copyright 2002 Steve Stroh.
Last update: 7/26/2002; 10:09:46 AM.
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