Blogging help

[conny]

Do any of you blog? What platform do you use?
It's something I've been thinking about for a while but have never got round to, I've recently been following a few blogs though that i really enjoy so I'm feeling inspired.
It looks like the main ones out there are tumblr, wordpress, blogger and this kind of thing http://www.1and1.com/ so if anyone can explain the differences and point me in the right direction, that would be great.

[Alte]

Wikipedia have an article about Comparison of free blog hosting services. (including: Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress.com)

As for hosting services, there's a minor discussion at websites.

Comparison of free web hosting services

If you're game developer that needs a website, there's instructions at.
Domain name, hosting and website - How to

[conny]

Great, thanks a lot for that, I'll have a look

[SundownKid]

Generally Wordpress is more highly customizable and you can make it more professional-looking. Its good for making professional websites and blogs. Each post can have a comment secton and it supports pages, menus and the like similar to your typical webpage. Tumblr is a little more like a social media website, it doesn't look as professional and it's mainly used for more personal blogs or interacting with fans.

[Caveat Lector]

I have a few questions about Word Press: Is the e-mail address you sign up with also the same one that will show up on your blog? Or does it only show up if you choose for it to show up? What if you don't want to show an e-mail address at all? Is it also okay if you choose to keep comments closed and instead just have the blog be there for exposure?

[SundownKid]

I have a few questions about Word Press: Is the e-mail address you sign up with also the same one that will show up on your blog? Or does it only show up if you choose for it to show up? What if you don't want to show an e-mail address at all? Is it also okay if you choose to keep comments closed and instead just have the blog be there for exposure?

The address is private - you can create a pseudonym and it won't show up.

Yes I believe you can close comments on posts.

Another flexibility of Wordpress that Tumblr et al doesn't have is the ability to use Softaculous to install it on your web hosting instead of merely using their servers and having a custom domain.

[Caveat Lector]

How reliable is Word Press? Does it go on indefinitely? Or would I need to pay for it to keep hosting for more than a month?

[Reikun]

It's important to recognize the distinction between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.

- Wordpress.com lets you have a blog hosted on their server and gets you a subdomain (name.wordpress.com) unless you pay them monthly to use your own domain/other extra features, etc.
- Wordpress.org is a FREE and open source blogging system which is also often used as a complete content management system. You need to install this on your own server/web host though.
- The functionality of both as far as the back end/customization options is similar or the same as far as I know.

My 2 cents on choosing a blogging platform: try them out and see which one is easiest for your to handle. No point in working with a back end you find difficult to use just because it's the most popular/famous option. Decide what you're going for (professional look, customization, comment system, will your posts be picture heavy, text heavy, etc, who is your audience and do they like X platform).

I have tried blogger, fc2, tumblr, and wordpress.com. Now I pretty much only use tumblr because A)can use custom domain for free, B)lots of free themes, C)I'm familiar with the interface/making all kinds of posts, D)easy to share posts.

Of course the biggest MINUS for using tumblr is all your stuff is on their servers so if they have downtime or some kind of data loss event you will be royally screwed. I think this is less of a concern with blogger/wordpress.com because they might have options to backup your data. I haven't used either for a long time though, so don't quote me on that!

[Caveat Lector]

I'm looking at other blogging sites as well, to keep in mind as options. What are some other blogging sites you recommend? What's Blog.com like?

[Reikun]

Never heard of/tried blog.com. I just looked at it though, and I personally wouldn't use it because of the bar at the top with the "random blog" option (having a highly visible link that leads readers away from your content is just... no). I'm sure you can get rid of it if you pay for premium, but at that point you might as well use wordpress.com for free and probably get the exact same functionality or more.

I don't generally recommend anything other than wordpress.com, blogger, or tumblr for a free blog... In my experience these are the easiest to handle and since they are well known services no one will be afraid to visit your site. If you want a website that also has a blog function, weebly is pretty handy. Other blogging platforms I've used (livejournal/dreamwidth, fc2) have clunkier interfaces than the others.

If you're willing/able to host your own site however, you have a lot more options...

[ArachneJericho]

One thing about hosting your own Wordpress site---unless you keep up to date on Wordpress, it's easy for you to become a hacking target. The hack that drove me off a self-hosting site dropped in backdoors so that even when I upgraded Wordpress they were still able to get back in and hose the site.

It's why I switched over to Wordpress.com with domain mapping. Three years with various blogs and no hacks whatsoever.

[SundownKid]

One thing about hosting your own Wordpress site---unless you keep up to date on Wordpress, it's easy for you to become a hacking target. The hack that drove me off a self-hosting site dropped in backdoors so that even when I upgraded Wordpress they were still able to get back in and hose the site.

It's why I switched over to Wordpress.com with domain mapping. Three years with various blogs and no hacks whatsoever.

Wordpress has an auto update function that will automatically keep your version up to date.

[Caveat Lector]

So hackings generally don't happen with Wordpress.com? Or viruses? Is it a generally safe site? Sorry if it seems like I'm being paranoid, I just want to double check before I click that "create blog" button.

[thebackup]

So hackings generally don't happen with Wordpress.com? Or viruses? Is it a generally safe site? Sorry if it seems like I'm being paranoid, I just want to double check before I click that "create blog" button.

I've used wordpress.com for at least five years already and nothing bad has ever happened, at least from my experience. Heck I've even purchased some upgrades and nothing bad ever happened. It's safe to say it's a pretty secure site.

[Caveat Lector]

So I've started to get a blog set up, but I'm still kind of stumbling through the whole customization deal. Any advice?