aesthetic vexation
I'm a bit fed up with Blogger, and itching for a redesign in general: this blog has looked more-or-less the same since its birth. I've occasionally been tempted to just abandon it and start a different blog entire, but something always holds me back, so verbal privilege will remain. I'd just like to give it a makeover, and possibly some new digs.
I spent several months this summer running a Wordpress blog for other purposes, and liked that a lot. But I'm interested in hearing other suggestions, including ones for simply picking/creating a more comfortable Blogger template (I know I can add many of the features I want, but haven't liked the solutions I've tried so far).
Things I would like: wider columns, an elegant expandable post option (that I can be used only for expansive posts, rather than for all of them), better formatting tools (I have a terrible time getting poetry to format properly in Blogger, even when I am working directly in html & using 'preformat' tags--especially vexing with Hikmet and others for whom the indentation/spacing matter), more felicitous image/video hosting, better comment spam prevention, a non-intrusive tagging/categories system, and static pages (this is one of the things that tempts me towards wordpress). Suggestions? Howls of dismay? Offers of assistance? I can't pay you, but I can totally barter editing/writing services, home-cooked meals, mix CDs, and/or transient fame.
I spent several months this summer running a Wordpress blog for other purposes, and liked that a lot. But I'm interested in hearing other suggestions, including ones for simply picking/creating a more comfortable Blogger template (I know I can add many of the features I want, but haven't liked the solutions I've tried so far).
Things I would like: wider columns, an elegant expandable post option (that I can be used only for expansive posts, rather than for all of them), better formatting tools (I have a terrible time getting poetry to format properly in Blogger, even when I am working directly in html & using 'preformat' tags--especially vexing with Hikmet and others for whom the indentation/spacing matter), more felicitous image/video hosting, better comment spam prevention, a non-intrusive tagging/categories system, and static pages (this is one of the things that tempts me towards wordpress). Suggestions? Howls of dismay? Offers of assistance? I can't pay you, but I can totally barter editing/writing services, home-cooked meals, mix CDs, and/or transient fame.
posted by kitabet at 7:59 PM
4 Comments:
Howls of dismay at the idea of the abandonment of this blog! I like it as is, honestly...though I do know what you mean about reformatting (and esp. re the formatting of Hikmet. I'm lazy that way so haven't bothered with the indentations when I posted his poems - and I always feel very treacherous afterwards).
I don't think the wider margins should be a problem - you would just need to tweak the template html. And blogger does allow tagging doesn't it?
Wish I could offer more help if only for the temptation of home-cooked meals and mixed CDs :D
The formatting of poetry isn't Blogger's fault, but the way HTML works. Until that changes, we'll be forced to rely on clumsy solutions such as the insertion invisible text.
Most of the other things you mention can be done by hosted versions of WordPress at WordPress.com, Blogsome, or Blog-City. A self-hosted setup of course gives you the most freedom, but that's another whole level of hassle, too. Typepad also has static pages now, and is a pretty cheap hosted solution with far better aesthetics in general than in off-the-shelf Blogger themes. But capchas are annoying and discriminate against the visually impaired. WordPress.com uses Akismet, which lets very few spam comments through. On the other hand, the lack of freedom to use non-approved HTML and Javascript; the charging of money to modify CSS; and the way that tags and categories in the postmetadata take vistors off-site to global tag pages all make WP.com a less-than-perfect solution.
Thanks Sz, and thanks very much indeed, Dave--just after I posted I saw Beth complaining about the same issue, and wondered if that might be the case. Anyway, the advice is much appreciated, and am considered the wordpress option quite seriously.
I went through this a little while ago, and I settled with Wordpress. I think Wordpress has a cleaner outlook, and all of the things you mentioned are better in Wordpress. And the best thing is that Wordpress has an import function, so you can download all of your blogs here onto your new Wordpress blog!
If you know HTML, though, Blogger is the way to go. If you are like me-- ie can't be bothered to sit there tweaking it-- then Wordpress is the better option.
One Wordpress complaint: some of the offered themes truly suck. There is a theme with a huge banana on the side, and another one is hot pink-- I kid you not. I feel bad even complaining, because the templates are for free, but still. Basically, you will have to accept a thing or two that you don't like (for example, you might not like how the quotations come out italicized, or you dislike the font, and you can't do anything about that unless you buy CSS editing privileges).
All in all, I'd say Wordpress.
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