Yet another frigging "which blog" question

August 25, 2005 2:59 PM

I want to start blogging, but I'm not sure if any blogware / hosting site does what I want.

I want to start blogging about my many projects (old cars, guns, amature science, electronics, tools, collections...), partly to encourage me to get stuff done (and therefore have stuff to blog about). I envision it to be kind of like Mr. Jalopy's Hooptyrides, but with more pics and more detail. I'd like comments, but I don't want spam and I don't want the comments inline (so either a popup, like haloscan, or a pop down ). I want to save comments. I want to eventually have a lot of pics up. I want new posts to go to the main page, but I'd like to be able to assign them to catagories, where they would be in reverse chronalogical order (so if you click on "Harley trike" you first see the bare frame, not the finished bike). And I'd like cross catagorization, for instance, a welding catagory that would span all projects. I don't have any server space and I don't have much money, but if there was software that would effortlessly do what I want, I would pay for hosting.
Blogspot would be easiest, but I hear catagories are tough, so cross-referenced is probably impossible. Because I have so many pics, it may be nice to have thumbnails and "click on for larger". I'd also like to be able to display collapsed entries (click for more), so that pic intense entries don't bog down the loading for someone not interested in that particular subject. Also, I haven't programmed html since 1996...

posted by 445supermag to computers & internet (14 answers total)

The more modern CMSes (by which I mean MT, WordPress, Drupal, etc.) can do most of those things either natively or in conjunction with plug-ins. I can't guarantee it'd all be effortless, but it should be fairly easy.

I suggest finding a designer to help you with this. Some of what you're talking about would be some heavy-duty coding.
posted by me3dia at 3:18 PM on August 25, 2005

I'd say you want WordPress. We picked it at my giant media company because:

1. there's an active developer community building plugins
2. it's easy to develop in it if you understand programming but aren't a programmer
3. it's free!

You can host it for pretty cheap, like $6/m at A Small Orange, my favoritest host.
posted by paul_smatatoes at 3:20 PM on August 25, 2005

I recommend:

• Dreamhost's generous Crazy Domain Insane plan(full disclosure: if you sign up I totally get a bonus). It's $7.95 per month for 2.4 gigs of storage and 120 GB of transfer, along with more scripting goodness than you'll ever use (or who knows, maybe Ruby On Rails will totally rock your world). Wordpress is a 1-click install.
• Wordpress: a simple, powerful content management system. It has an abundance of plugins. I recommend, first and foremost, getting Spam Karma for the best comment spam killing in town. The reason I recommend this over the free options is the fact that you can rearrange the classification scheme to your heart's content. I actually threw out the category system completely and went with tags on my site. You can do whatever your heart desires and your coding skills allow. I'm not a genius coder myself, but the database system is fairly simple and, combined with the plugins, you can go pretty far.

With these two items, you can do everything in your wish list and more for a fairly low price, and you get your own domain name to boot.
posted by mullingitover at 3:29 PM on August 25, 2005

Wordpress can do all of that. Movable Type can do all of that except for hierarchical categories (there's a hack for it, but I hear it is ugly). Either one will require a fair amount of template tweaking; I happen to find Movable Type's template language easier to grasp, but maybe that's just me.

Comment spam is a problem. Spam Karma for Wordpress really is good and there's nothing quite like it on MT. That said, there are anti-spam measures you can take on MT, and my comment-spam problem is down to about 1/week (and it all gets routed to the penalty-box anyhow).

I'm guessing you can also do all this stuff with Textpattern, which I'm less familiar with, but the coder seems like a neat guy.
posted by adamrice at 3:55 PM on August 25, 2005

445, I also recommend Dreamhost. I've never used Wordpress though. I recommend Expression Engine which can do everything on your list as far as I can tell. EE also has a bunch of built in anti-comment-spam goodies. Read about the product here (but it's $150).

mulling, for future reference you're not allowed to put referal links in links off mefi.
posted by dobbs at 3:58 PM on August 25, 2005

Typepad is fairly cheap, and offers everything you want. It is hosted, has categories, lets you post photos. Seems like a perfect fit.
posted by chunking express at 4:06 PM on August 25, 2005

Version 3.1+ of Movable Type supports subcategories.

There are several anti-spam plugins for Movable Type, SpamLookup is built in to the soon-to-be-released version 3.2, and Six Apart has a Guide to Combatting Comment Spam.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:06 PM on August 25, 2005

mulling, for future reference you're not allowed to put referal links in links off mefi.
posted by dobbs at 3:58 PM PST on August 25 [!]


Sorry...my bad.

*hangs head in shame*
posted by mullingitover at 4:31 PM on August 25, 2005

If you'd like to see WordPress in action before committing to hosting, have a look at Blogsome's free hosted WordPress accounts. It can be a little bit slow and I'd recommend hosting your own (whatever software you choose) but it's a great way to see WordPress in action within minutes.
posted by ceri richard at 4:36 PM on August 25, 2005

WordPress is great, but if you're an absolute beginner with little experience at all, TypePad might be the way to go, honestly.

I agree wholeheartedly that WordPress is better, in the long term, but for a person's first weblog, TypePad is too easy to ignore.

Funny how this discussion mirrors the conversations about Word vs. LaTeX.
posted by NYCnosh at 5:49 PM on August 25, 2005

I recommend Typepad. It's a monthy cost, but the features are rich and well supported.

Their picture upload and thumbnail system is simple and works well.
posted by Argyle at 5:58 PM on August 25, 2005

Dreamhost plus wordpress. No brainer imho, and a much better value than typepad (just take a little while to play around with it and the advantage of typepad being 'easier' goes out the window).
posted by justgary at 10:43 PM on August 25, 2005

fwiw, I second the Dreamhost+Wordpress combo. I use it for both my blogs. Pop-up comments is not the default setting in WordPress, but I'm pretty sure you can change that...
posted by Robot Johnny at 10:10 AM on August 26, 2005

Well, I just tried Ceri Richards suggestion of Blogsomes free wordpress hosting. I put a post up about cutting my futon in half and welding it back together, I have a lot to learn.... If I can get the hang of wordpress I probably will go to a host like dreamhost or laughing squid.
posted by 445supermag at 12:19 PM on August 26, 2005