So after much discussion, we’re considering switching from WordPress over to Blogger or Blogspot or whatever it’s called. The Google one. layteknight is a designer/coder type person, and the fact that she can’t mod certain pieces of the WordPress themes is driving her insane – plus, she has informed me that my “10,000 word posts” require a wider layout than WordPress can offer without making her whine and writhe and point at things on the screen she hates, but WordPress won’t let her touch.
I remain hesitatant because I have no idea what shifting addresses does to a blog. Has anyone out there ever done this before? Any advice? Any thoughts? Any way to either minimize layteknight’s pain here, or my pain if we move?
I suppose I should probably talk to savethefails too. I guess he kind of has a stake in this, eh?
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December 5, 2010 at 1:11 pm
theanorak
Nooo!
Heh. Actually, as with most blogging, it’s all about the content. I *personally* don’t like blogger/blogspot/whatever as much as I find their comment system a bit irritating, but I’m sure there are plenty of people with the opposite opinion.
You *could* consider moving to self-hosted WordPress I suppose — that would give layteknight freedom to do as much or as little tweaking as she felt the need for, and the initial install is fairly painless. It does, of course, cost money unless you already have some hosted space you can use, but you can get WordPress-capable shared hostinig relatively cheaply. It depends on how much slack there is in your collective budgets, and how much appetite you have for that sort of thing.
December 5, 2010 at 3:49 pm
protflashes
Thanks for the response!
I haven’t actually got a lot of experience with Blogspot – what, in particular, makes their comment system irritating?
December 5, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Issy
All I would say is that changing your address will probably make very little difference – especially if you put a post up here saying where you’re moving to.
People will just change their bookmarks/blog rolls/feedreaders to reflect the change.
As for WordPress v Blogspot..
hmm well the thing I like best about blogspot is that it organises my blog roll by latest post which is great for me as I don’t like using a feed reader – feels so impersonal (but that’s just me).
I’ve found both layouts easy to work with.
Tam always tells me off for not using WordPress, and as he’s usually right when it comes to what I like better (Vuhdo, DXE) I’m a bit sheepish that I haven’t switched yet :P The blogspot comment system is a bit naff admittedly.
I’d say have a play with a blogspot layout, and see if you can get what you want.
December 5, 2010 at 3:51 pm
protflashes
I’ve actually been jealous of the way Blogspot does blogrolls for a while, LoL. That feature is attractive to me.
What about the comment system is off? What’s irritating about it?
layteknights’ already got a fake aggromanagement blog up on blogger and she seems happy with the customization options, so I think that’s one point for BLogger, at least!
December 6, 2010 at 4:26 am
Jen
I haven’t actually blogged on Blogspot, but I’ve troubleshooted for a friend, and I was under the impression that it offered *less* customization than WP. I’d suggest making a Blogspot blog, trying out the changes you’d like, see if they work, THEN changing over.
Either way, I’d go with option #3: self-hosted WP. Complete freedom, and it’s not terribly expensive either.
December 6, 2010 at 6:30 am
layteknight
OK, OK — you’ve got me convinced to look into the self-hosted WP option. I’ll take a peek at it from work today and see what it entails.
I did make a fake AM blog on Blogspot and it was alright, but there’s no way it’ll compare to the freedom of a self-hosted site. If WP’s offer is a good one, I can definitely see us moving in that direction over the holidays!
Thanks for the feedback, guys — I appreciate hearing about your thoughts/experiences. :)
December 6, 2010 at 11:37 am
Zelmaru
I have done both the switch to blogspot and the switch to self-hosted.
Blogspot has a lot of features FOR FREE – you can customize, use javascript (wowhead tooltips), etc. However, the back end is a hassle, and I spent a lot of time swearing and doing WAY more HTML formatting than I’d like. MOving your posts is also a hassle. There is a tool to move posts http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/ but it’s only for smaller databases.
The native commenting system is the suck (yes, that’s true) but Disqus can be integrated in and it works fine. No comment luv. Intensedebate doesn’t integrate into blogger and therefore is not an option (it doesn’t sync your comments back to your database, so once you install intensedebate, it is the only place your comments are stored and you can NEVER get rid of it.)
If you can swing self-hosting, that would be the best option, and ultimately the most satisfying in the long run. You would have total control over your customization options and the same back-end polish of your current wordpress blog. However, it costs money. For the love of Pete, don’t use Justhost. They are epic fail, and cut us off for “excessive bandwidth” after promising an “unlimited” package. The excessive bandwidth was due to a spammer attack that we had no control over, and they just shut off the blog. 1&1 hosting has been solid.
Have you looked into a paid upgrade to your current wordpress package? You might be able to get just a few customization features that would be a good compromise.
December 6, 2010 at 8:29 pm
protflashes
ZEL!
Thanks for the detailed response! That’s terribly helpful!
I actually bought the CSS customization upgrade briefly, but because you can’t get at the HTML, the customization it offered was actually really limited. I think layte’s going to take a look at the WordPress software to see what it can do, and I’m totally willing to pay for a host of some kind (re: Justhost, noted – thanks!). We’re actually starting to lean that way right now, but it’ll depend on whether layte likes the software. I’ll look into 1&1 Hosting, and I think WordPress has a page with a few recommendations as well.