What are the benefits and drawbacks of hosting blogging software on a domain separate from a blog's domain?
September 15, 2004 7:30 PM

What are the benefits and drawbacks of hosting blogging software on a domain separate from a blog's domain? The only advantage I see is that it keeps my blog's log files clear of my MovableType 3.11 installation, resulting in cleaner traffic reports. I see no disadvantages. Is it better to just make subdomain for the software installation?
posted by bitpart to Computers & Internet (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
You might not want to create an entire subdomain, but a separate hostname might be enough to do the job, properly configured. It's fairly trivial to do.
posted by majick at 7:52 PM on September 15, 2004


The disadvantage would be maintaining two servers and dealing with keeping the two communicating. It's kind of a lot of work just to clean up your traffic reports; why not just add a filter to the report so it leaves out the logins to MT, etc?

I'm not sure how making a subdomain on the same server would be an advantage or disadvantage; the bits and bobs of MT 3.11 already go in their own folder, and from the back-of-house a folder looks the same as a subdomain.

Unless I'm misreading the question completely. Which is totally possible.
posted by bcwinters at 7:53 PM on September 15, 2004


The disadvantage would be maintaining two servers

The two domains would be on the same server. I already know how to go about doing it, I just want to know what's other people's experiences are in doing this. My host limits what I can configure with analog. I'll send him an email to see if that can be changed. In the mean time, I'd still like the hear why people do this. I know Jason Kottke does it using the yoink.org domain, and Merlin Mann does it with his 5ives site using hotdogladies.com. In both those instances, The mt-comments.cgi and mt-trackback.cgi files for the respective blogs are hosted on those sites.
posted by bitpart at 8:04 PM on September 15, 2004


I have my MovableType installation on a separate subdomain (movabletype.linnwood.org) and blogs on different domains.

It works just fine. The one thing I would tell you about is that when some one previews a comment they are adding to your blog, the web browsers address bar will show the MovableType install location. For example, if you click to see add a comment to FreeQunosar.com, you will be taken to "http://www.freequonsar.com/older/2004/09/some_title.html#comments" but if you click to preview your comment the address bar will show "http://movabletype.linnwood.org/mt-comments.cgi"


I don't think it is a real big deal, but if you want to keep the location of the install a secret or something you might care.

Why do it? I have multiple domains running off of one MT install, and I just thought it looked cleaner. Also, I plan on holding on to Linnwood.org for awhile, other domains may come and go... I didn't want to have to mess with MT install every time I added or dropped a domain.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 9:33 PM on September 15, 2004


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