Best Blogging Software

[ghcowan]

My friend is using Movable Type 2.63 on his website but I've seen other people using Wordpress.

What are the blogging software packages out there and how easy are they to install and use?

I'm fairly inexperiended with blogging but would love to use the tools from blogs to easily update my website.

Any advice is appreciated!

[winbyte]

Try looking over at OPENSOURCECMS (http://www.opensourcecms.com). Scroll down and look on the left hand side for the Blogs section. You can find quite a few different blog progs there and the best feature is you can actually take them for a test drive by clicking on them.

[Intricate]

I personally use Pivot and I am definately entry level. It is very easy to use. I would reccomend it.

[JerryL]

I am curious why anyone would need to install software to blog. I use Google's Blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com) and I am more than happy with it. I like the "blog this" browser button.

I really would like to know what I may be missing by not using software like Wordpress or Pivot. I know that Movable Type has the Trackback feature which is not available with blogger.com but is that a big deal?

Am I missing something?

-JerryL

[marti35]

I use MT to create blogs. Blogger is great for the novice, but it is VERY limited. In MT I can post to my LiveJournal, have an xml and atom feed, and I can do all this on my own server. There is a reason why the Kerry campaign uses MT! Wordpress has a great interface, but isnt very practical when you have multiple bloggers on multiple blogs.

:)

Marti

[hbarrett@mac.co]

You might look at http://www.elise.com/web/a/an_overview_of_the_weblog_tools_market.php which provides an overview of blog tools. I use Blogger, and post my blog files to my Powweb account, to avoid the ads. However, I am experimenting with WordPress, which I was able to install into my Powweb space (I like it!) and want to install the latest version of Movable Type also. But the installation is very complex. Has anyone installed Movable Type who could give me some advice about how to set it up (where to place it in my directory structure, how to fill out the config file)?

[joshuamc]

I like blogger.com. There are some very nice templates and they fairly easy to customize. Its also Atom enabled which means if you have Atom enabled software or devices like Palms, it comes out all "pretty." Read more about this here:
http://www.atomenabled.org/

[Mighty]

In installed Movable Type v2.661 a few months ago, and it wasn't overly difficult. Just give yourself an evening and follow the installation instructions step-by-step, and it'll become clear pretty quickly. For the vast majority of options you can just leave the defaults.

I vaguely remember there were a coupla spots where I was tempted to skip ahead. But forced myself to stick with their instructions. If I remember rightly it ended up being a good thing that I did.

I don't have any experience with v3.x.

[404studios]

In my experience, wordpress (http://wordpress.org) has been the best blogging sw i've tried. And I've been through quite a few. If you're going to use it though, make sure to install the imagemanager plugin (http://wordpress.org/support/10/9552) at the very least. the wordpress support forum (http://wordpress.org/support/10) is filled with useful tips and helpfull people, and I think version 1.3 is due to be released soon...
Here's mine currently running wordpress 1.2 with the image plugin.
http://404studios.com
keep in mind this is pretty much out of the box, I haven't even had the desire to redesign much, but it's not too hard, this site (http://www.pinksocks.co.uk/) is also based on wordpress and has some great resources and design.
edit: almost forgot to mention the kubrick theme (http://binarybonsai.com/kubrick/) for WP

[lsblogs]

There is a growing list of blog software and online blog hosts at LS Blogs
http://www.lsblogs.com

(feel free to submit any others that you know of that are missing!)

[cafeRg]

Good to see there's some pow-webbies blogging.. i use both Blogger and WordPress, both are free and both can be hosted here at Pow Web...

Some say Blogger has limits, actually the only limits is your ability to write code, WordPress is nice to, and its only limits is your ability to write, it comes with some nice features that you dont have to write. Blogger is done in xhtml/css and you can have unlimited pages (blogs). Blogger doesnt use SQL. WordPress is done in xhtml/css/php and, unless i am wrong, you can only have one per interface and SQL.

You can take WordPress for a test ride at BlogOsphere Zoo, as anyone can login, post or comment.. http://splashhall.org/blog/

You can look and comment Blogger (no login though) at Rollin Thunder.. http://www.splashhall.org/thunder_blog.html

Both have good support forums... in addition to here at PowWeb

The Zoo is focused on just about anything from politics to erotica where Thunder is focused on art and poetry..

of course your blog can focus on anything you want, whichever program you use. Be Aware!! blogging is very addictive !!

if anyone wants to exchange links (blogs) email me at cafeRg@themountainsplash.com

[djeaux]

I have both Moveable Type 2.63 and WordPress installed on my site as demos. I'm not an active blogger -- the installs were basically so I could learn how to set them up for others.

Some differences:


Moveable Type is written in Perl. WordPress is written in PHP.
Moveable Type can be installed without mySQL. WordPress requires mySQL.
Installing the Perl scripts for Moveable Type will support multiple blogs on the site. WordPress has to be installed again for each separate blog. (Or at least this is how it appears to me.)
To go into admin mode in Moveable Type, you have to go to a /cgi-bin/ address. WordPress includes a log in link in the default menu.
Neither are very hard to customize. I made some minor hacks to WordPress within an hour of reading the installation instructions.


Just looking at it, I think I'd prefer WordPress were I an active blogger. Another point is that Moveable Type has moved to a more restrictive license & your use may cost money.

Oh... Here are the demos. There isn't much content there...

Moveable Type Demo (http://www.djeaux.com/blog/)
Another Moveable Type Demo running off same scripts (http://www.djeaux.com/katie/blog/)
WordPress Demo for an AAUP Chapter (http://www.djeaux.com/wordpress/)

[djeaux]

I forgot to add...

6. After adding a new entry in Movable Type, you have to "rebuild" the site. This process runs the scripts that generate static pages. OTOH, WordPress doesn't require rebuilding -- everything is generated from the database. This may be a plus or a minus, depending on how many queries your blog generates vs the number allowed by Powweb. Probably, it's not a limiting factor for most folks.

and oh yeah...

7. WordPress has a nifty bookmarklet tool that you can drag right up into your browser toolbar for creating blog entries as you surf the web.


Joe

[djeaux]

WordPress is done in xhtml/css/php and, unless i am wrong, you can only have one per interface and SQL.

If you specify a different "prefix" during the installation (the default is "wp-") I believe WordPress can have more than one blog running in a single mySQL database. However, a complete set of the PHP templates & include files would have to be installed in another directory in HtDocs. Again, this has to be spec'd during install.

It's been a while since I installed Movable Type, but there is an option to use mySQL or another format (Berkeley DB, maybe?). As my earlier post demonstrates, it's not a big deal to create multiple blogs using the same installation (just separate directories in HtDocs for the templates & static pages), although the "new improved" MT license may restrict your ability to do that legally.

Joe