Blog Software Start

Al Macintyre's Blog Software directory attempts to provide an impartial directory of different vendors that provide software for Weblogging, while this story is intended as an introduction to that directory, with the text moved to this separate page so as not to clog up the bandwidth of the main directory for regular visitors.  In future re-writes I also intend to include links to other folks doing a similar effort, such as introducing people to "What is Weblogging?", but for starters, check out Blog Software Perspectives where I have a bunch of links to stuff by many people on how you can compare what the different Blog Software vendors have to offer, in terms of different features, and ease of use, kind of a do-it-yourself Consumer Reports on Weblogging.

Comparing pros and cons of the competing offerings belongs in separate stories from my general directory efforts, so as not to be confusing between statements of fact and statements of opinion.  For example, my Blog Software MT and RU started out as a collection of opinions by different people regarding Moveable Type and Radio Userland - which they think is better for specific purposes, but then that story became the logical place for me to add links to other comparisons people making between two or more different Weblog vendors.  Another good source for general comparisons of what is available is to get one or more of the Blog Books.

There are features and capabilities that some software vendors are first to market, but sooner or later, the other vendors will probably expand their offerings to include that which becomes popular.  More importantly is to identify the Blog Software Types that makes for something different that will stay different, and to understand those differences sufficiently to help a person who is selecting software with respect to which combination is best for you.  Thanks to Lila Efimova on Choices in Weblog Software, I added "Blog Moving" explaining implications of changing your urls after many people have linked to you, and you have your own links intertwined on your Blog.  As I figure this out myself, I will update this story directory.

Notice some stuff is Free.  You need to consider the software to run the product on your PC, and the web hosting ISP fees.  Are there any constraints such as total volume hard disk consumed, bandwidth for volume of customers, nature of constraints on what you are allowed to publish, how the data is structured that might be an impediment to your access (see my Radio Wishes for improvements desired in what I got), who has the copyright on your work, ease of upgrading when you need more resources, and recovery from PC mishaps, or ease of moving it all to your next computer.  How much geeky stuff must you know to get everything working satisfactorily? What is the quality of the documentation and tech support, and how easy is it to recover the stuff after a PC problem?  If you using free stuff for a while and really value it, you might consider some kind of contribution to thank the supplier of it.

My name is Al Macintyre. I was first introduced to Manila in March of 2002, then in May I started exploring Radio Userland.  I have no personal experience in any of the others, but I believe I have succeeded in a career of being impartial with respect to computer professionalism, clearly stating when I have biases or preferences that might influence me.  Most of my career has been that of a computer technician (programming analysis and design, security, trouble shooting), so my skills at communicating documentation, suitable for all user audiences, may not be as good as I would like them to be.

Individuals, who are new to the concept of Weblogging, can pretty rapidly get overwhelmed with all the new terminology. What is the significance and importance of this or that? Many individuals, including myself, have been adding to the user-driven documentation, and I shall be updating the links on this, and my other stories, as some of the elements here either get better documented, or I locate more documentation.   Also be aware of the risk that various features explained by someone in the context of a particular Blog Software, accessed through a particular version of one browser, from an operating system on a particular kind of computer, may not be a fair picture for a potential user of that feature from different Blog vendor, using a different browser on a different OS on a different kind of computer.

Check out Understanding Weblogs article by Wei-Meng Lee that shows you how to build a simple weblog using Radio UserLand, then she explains some fundamentals behind weblogging.

Blog Software Vendors (Al's list will never be complete but you can click on the little envelope at bottom of icons on the left to send Al e-mail with suggested additions) and some of the options they allegedly offer, are listed on Al's Blog Software directory.  I say allegedly because in most cases I am getting information from reviews and web site promotion, in which I know perfectly well that over time things change and occasionally there will be some misinformation, and I may not be able to keep my article updated and timely.  My primary intention here is to list places that provide software for you to weblog with.  I do have several links to add-on services, hosting, etc. but eventually hope to have separate essays or directories for each of these specialized interests,  Note that my Enhanced Radio Tools directory does include several tools that cross packages, such as how to get spell checking inside your browser so that you can use that for any weblog or discussion group posting.  Eventually I plan to split that directory into tools that are Radio-only vs. specific-Weblog software-independent.

My priorities for future re-writes of the Blog Software family of my stories, since I know I will not be able to get and keep the list complete and up-to-date are:

• List actual names of the software outfits, so that people can use search engines to locate them.
• Give links for ease of checking out their latest offerings.
• Give some info about what this outfit has to offer.
• Add any links to relevant documentation I may have seen any place else.
• Split off the introductory material to a separate story like I did with Radio Doc Sources (sources of documentation for Radio Userland software users) - I ended up splitting it into two chunks - this one and Blog Software Perspectives.
• Split off separate directories by types of services that are add ons to the core weblogging experiences provided by the same people who are the sources of each kind of weblogging software, such as hosting for the kinds of weblog software where hosting your weblog and managing your content can be two different places.  Hosting is important to those of us on Radio who see the 40 Meg ceiling looming, but not able to spend $900.00 to be our own ISP.

I advise you to visit vendor sites to see the latest stuff that they currently are offering, and also to review the tech support forums to see proportions of problems the various software users are experiencing and how well their questions are being answered.  In other words, is this a reality that you will be comfortable with?

Last update: 01/05/2003; 1:10:42 PM.