Friday, June 11, 2010

Does anyone know a good replacement for "Blogger"?

"Blogger" has been doing weird things with comments for a couple of months. I will receive e-mail notification that a comment has been posted, but the comment does not appear.

Sometimes the comments will appear in the "Post a comment" box but not in the main window. Sometimes the comments take minutes, even hours to appear. All bloggers hope to get tons of comments, but if your blog stops displaying them after they hit a certain number, what's the use of hoping?

Blogger has ignored repeated complaints, so I'm going to look for a new host. For any of you who have blogs on WordPress or any other host, are you satisfied with the product?

Thanks

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

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53 Comments:

Blogger pattinase (abbott) said...

everyone tells me it is better but I am loathe to change because of my incompetence in this. Word Press for Dummies seemed helpful. And I am told you can import everything.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I saw Word Press for Dummies in a bookstore the other day and was flabbergasted that such a volume should exist. I'm wary but curious about why Word Press should be so complicated that someone felt the need to publish a "For Dummies" book about it.

I may not be incompetent, but I juat want to be able to get my stuff out there without having to worry sbout fancy presentation. Blogger is simple to use and has been satisfactory until these recent problems with comments.

It's good to know that one can import everything to Word Press. I'd want to preserve all my old posts and comments.

Thanks.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Graham Powell said...

The other main hosted options (i.e. it runs on their web site, not yours) are TypePad and SquareSpace, but I'm pretty sure that both of those cost, whereas I don't think WordPress.com does.

WordPress will either let you host your blog at WordPress.com, or download the software and install it to your own website.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Thanks. I had not heard of SquareSpace. Nor had I considered the possibility of setting up the blog at my own website. Of course, I don't have a website apart from this blog, which could be why.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Karen Russell said...

Blogger's nice when it works, but... it is free. I have a professional blog on Typepad and love the support you can get (you can e-mail and an actual person replies!). My book blog is on Wordpress.org, which is free EXCEPT you have to pay someone (like Bluehost) to host it. This actually costs more than Typepad, but it allows many more options as far as plugins and other modifications you can use to build a blog exactly as you want it. Wordpress.com is free like Blogger but has the same drawbacks in terms of support and service. Feel free to e-mail if you want to ask many any questions -- I've had to use all of them in working with my students.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Simona Carini said...

Hi Peter. I have been using TypePad since day 1 and I am happy with it. I pay a yearly fee (the lowest rate) and what I get satisfies my needs. The support staff is very responsive. I suggest you contact them with your question about copying over your content, so you can make an informed decision. You can also try it for free for 2 weeks. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Bernadette said...

wordpress.com is free (it's what I use for my book blog), wordpress.org requires payment (low fee) but does offer self-hosting. I've used both for different purposes and both are terrific. I adore my free wordpress book blog and I groan when I have to contribute to the two blogger ones that I occasionally submit items for - they are painful in comparison. Comments on wordpress rarely have to be moderated as the spam filter works brilliantly (and frankly I can't see why blogger can't make use of google's brilliant spam filter they use for gmail).

I have never read wordpress for dummies and have managed to produce 6 blogs using it (4 using the free version and 2 using the self-hosted, paid version where you have to have your own server and download software to use - I really wouldn't recommend that unless you are very confident technically as you have to keep up to date with their upgrade schedule - we have tech support at work to help with that)

Importing to wordpress.com (the free one) from blogger was easy and there is plenty of help along the way

Squarespace is also brilliant but the cheapest option is around $10 a month US and you might not find that enough (I use it at work and can't remember what all the offerings are for their different levels but the basic level does have a fair few restrictions).

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Thanks, Karen. I may take you up on that offer to take questions.

I'll have a difficult task in shopping for a new blog host, since my main requirement will be good service rather than elaborate features. (I'm an old-fashioned type. Good writing is what matters.) I do find the prospect of good suport such as that you get from Typepad attractive.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Thanks, Simona. I've started browsing various hosts' Web sites to see if they offer a chance to ask questions before I move my blog over. I haven't found any way to do so.

A couple of places offer free trials, but I'd rather not move my blog over to a new host unless I'm going to keep it there.

Interesting that you're the second person to comment favorably on Typepad's user support.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Bernadette, I would likely use the simplest option. I've never needed to do anything more elaborate than embed a video clip. I suppose the only restriction I might worry about with a free or cheap blog host is limits on storage space (though I've had no problems in that area with Blogger.)

What makes you groan about submitting to Blogger blogs?

(I had to enable comment moderation because Blogger was letting through so much spam. The moderation feature is easy to use, but it's a shame that good comments have to wait, possibly for hours, for my approval.)

June 11, 2010  
Anonymous Elisabeth said...

As a non-blogger I'm a bit timid about entering this discussion but as a librarian I wonder... does ease of access/retrieval by viewers/readers need to be considered when choosing a host?

Is there another host (free or reasonably priced) that would permit better access to blogs' content, such as searching for words within posts/comments?

I know that these tools are available from hosts of blogs written by researchers/scholars in the sciences/humanities but that might not be feasible or desirable for Peter's blog.

I keep meaning to take an online course from my alma mater on how to search blogs and other online "grey literature" more effectively but have not yet done so.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Blogger offers no way to search comments, which is a shame, if one takes the idea of blogs seriously as a kind of open repository of knowledge.

I'll try to remember to ask about searching comments as I shop for a new host.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger MysterLynch said...

I have started to do some basic fact-finding on WP as Crimespree Cinema, Central Crime, Central Comic and Crimespree the blog will all likely merge early next year.

There are some features that we have to have so I am comparing Blogger and WP.

Should you switch, I would be very interested in hearing about your experiences with it.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Elisabeth has ...

... but that might not be feasible or desirable for Peter's blog.


It could be useful, though. A reader, or even me, might remember an interesting comment about Raymond Chandler from some months before and want to find it again. But if the comment was made in response to a post about Dashiell Hammett, it won't show up in searches for "Chandler."

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

MysterLynch has .left a new comment ...

I have started to do some basic fact-finding on WP as Crimespree Cinema, Central Crime, Central Comic and Crimespree the blog will all likely merge early next year.

There are some features that we have to have so I am comparing Blogger and WP.

Should you switch, I would be very interested in hearing about your experiences with it.


They're all on Blogger now, aren't they? What features will be essential to the new, combined blog? What has your fact-finding turned up? And yes, I'll keep you posted if I switch.

June 11, 2010  
Anonymous Elisabeth said...

"...might remember an interesting comment . . . from some months before and want to find it again."

Or try to find a discussion thread about an author or topic, before making myself look like an idiot (or eejit) by bringing it up again when it might have been thrashed around at an earlier date.

The issue of tagging is also relevant to retrieval. No blogger (or database indexer...) is perfectly consistent in tagging related posts. It would be helpful if Blogger and like hosts could have, amongst their tools, a way of assisting bloggers to standardize their tags in a controlled vocabulary.

I imagine searching within blog posts/comments will at some point be made easier, more effective for the user. The sooner, the better as blogging, and other online social media, expand.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Peter

Why not get, say, the Philadelphia Inquirer to host the blog? They could run ads, you could still post what you like, you'd get increased traffic, more links, it would cost them nothing, everybody wins.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Elisabeth has left a new comment ..

..Or try to find a discussion thread about an author or topic, before making myself look like an idiot (or eejit) by bringing it up again when it might have been thrashed around at an earlier date.


That's less of a problem in the blogging world, which is more like discussion board when if comes to repeating topics.

The issue of tagging is also relevant to retrieval. No blogger (or database indexer...) is perfectly consistent in tagging related posts. It would be helpful if Blogger and like hosts could have, amongst their tools, a way of assisting bloggers to standardize their tags in a controlled vocabulary.

As an informal step in that direction, I might add tags to a given post depending on the comments. I could add "Raymond Chandler" to my tags in the hypothetical Dashiell Hammett post I mentioned a few comments higher.

An informal blog such as mine probably has no need for standardized tagging protocols. Academic blogs might, however. A few commenters have mentioned here (and I have found in some recent searches) that some blog hosts offer different levels of service. I probably will not need a higher-level, more expensive service plan, but perhaps some of those plans do offer ways of helping bloggers standardize their tags.

June 11, 2010  
Anonymous Elisabeth said...

"An informal blog such as mine probably has no need for standardized tagging protocols."

And I wasn't suggesting that personal informal blogs need them. But it might be helpful to you if, for example, a blog tool offered you suggestions for tags for, let's say, subject or author keywords you've used in the past and/or the capability to cross reference related blog posts. Along the lines of what some websites offer: "if you like that you might like this". Would you want to use the descriptor "noir" every time you also used the name "Ken Bruen"? Of course not. But being offered a sampling of what you have used in the past might be useful. I agree, sometimes this would be overkill, but sometimes you might want to take advantage of it.

The issue of being unable to search within comments can be frustrating, esp. as a blog's discussion threads sometimes spin off into territory completely unrelated to--but just as interesting as--the original topic. Remember Pete Panovsky...?

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

adrian mckinty has ...

Why not get, say, the Philadelphia Inquirer to host the blog? They could run ads, you could still post what you like, you'd get increased traffic, more links, it would cost them nothing, everybody wins.


The paper posts a link to my blog on its Web site, but editors have not been receptive to my overtures about greater print-blog cooperation. On the other hand, my proposals have been highly unspecific. If I said, "Host the blog," at least they'd know what they were getting.

On the other hand, I'd be leery of ceding any editorial control.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Elisabeth has left ..:

But it might be helpful to you if, for example, a blog tool offered you suggestions for tags for, let's say, subject or author keywords you've used in the past and/or the capability to cross reference related blog posts. Along the lines of what some websites offer: "if you like that you might like this". Would you want to use the descriptor "noir" every time you also used the name "Ken Bruen"? Of course not. But being offered a sampling of what you have used in the past might be useful. I agree, sometimes this would be overkill, but sometimes you might want to take advantage of it.


I've had to figure out some of this myself. When searching by topic, I may find that I've tagged some posts "comic" and others "comedy," or that I wasn't always consistent in tagging posts by continent as well as country when writing about African or Asian crime fiction.

The issue of being unable to search within comments can be frustrating, esp. as a blog's discussion threads sometimes spin off into territory completely unrelated to--but just as interesting as--the original topic. Remember Pete Panovsky...?

Yes, that is a tool I wish I had for precisely the reasons you suggest and that might be useful to others as well. I have just posted a question to Blogger about this. I will let you know when I receive a reply.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Bernadette said...

What makes me groan about blogger?

the templates are all pretty dull, less editing options for posts, can't really have proper pages (everything in blogger is displayed in date order regardless of what you try to do), tags are clumsy in comparison to WP's combination of tags and categories and the blogger dashboard is useless in comparison to WP's dashboard which offers quite a lot of extra features plus you have access to their support space (online only but I have always found the answers I want quickly). And then there's the comment thing - it seems no one can operate a blogger blog without comment moderation in place whereas I don't use comment moderation on any of my wordpress ones and I've had about 2 spam comments get through akismet (the spam filter you get for free with a WP blog) in more than 3 years of use. Oh and administrators can search through comments on a WP blog but users cannot

June 11, 2010  
Anonymous Adrian said...

Peter

I cant speak for them obviously, but I cant imagine you'd want to do anything that would embarrass the newspaper or promote sedition or something, so they wouldnt have any editorial issues.

It wouldn't hurt to ask. You might want to talk to the IT guys first so that you'd have the technical stats at your fingertips.

A good model for you might be the Lohud Yankees Blog which is hosted by the Lower Hudson News or the various political blogs hosted by the Atlantic.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Adrian has ...

It wouldn't hurt to ask. You might want to talk to the IT guys first so that you'd have the technical stats at your fingertips.

A good model for you might be the Lohud Yankees Blog which is hosted by the Lower Hudson News or the various political blogs hosted by the Atlantic.


Thanks for those suggestions. Thing is, I'd have to come up with a model for doing something new. Some my paper's staff writers have blogs that are promoted in the tag lines to their stories, but the blogs concern topics that that they write about in the paper -- that the paper covers already, in other words.

The paper has no regular coverage of international crime fiction or any crime fiction at all, on the other hand, so I'd have to sell the editors on the blog's content. The paper's reporter/blogger have to sell just the form.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Bernadette in Australia has left a new comment ...

Many thanks. That's a lot to digest, and I may answer over time

Blogger's templates have not been an issue for me, at least not the one I use. I haven't found it especially unattractive, not have I felt a great urge to chance its appearance.

Blogger displays its "Recent comments" archive by date of the original post rather than by the date of the comment. It also displays nothing but the commenter's name and the date. Some hosts will display something like June 10; 2010. Peter commented on `Bill James is great'." Blogger shows only June 10; 2010. Peter -- obviously much less informative.

The display by date of the original post rather than by the date of the comment means that if I get a rush of comments on June 15 for a post I made back on June 1, those posts will show way down the archive list. And that means there's much less chance readers will see the archive and say, "Hmm, I wonder what this rush of comments is about. I'd better take a look."

Elisabeth ought to be interested in your comments about Word Press's tags and categories. I've only recently started to think about such things.

Oh and administrators can search through comments on a WP blog but users cannot

I wonder what the technological roadblocks are, if any, to allowing users such capability.

June 11, 2010  
Blogger Linkmeister said...

Most WP bloggers seem to like what they use and most Typepad bloggers seem to like what they use. I rarely see anyone griping about their software or suffering with it anymore. Back in the early days of blogging someone was always having trouble.

I use Movable Type, but it's a 6-year-old version. I haven't bothered to upgrade because it seems like more trouble than it's worth. I think it's got better spam filters, but I rarely get swamped with spam anymore.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I get the impression that you're a pretty tech-savvy guy, so I attach some weight to your opinion; thanks.

Blogger seems to have fallen prey to spam more and more, to the point where I finally gave up and enabled moderation for all comments. But the spam keeps pouring in to other Blogger blogs.

I had generally been satisfied with Blogger until these recent problems with comments.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Linkmeister said...

If I were you and just wanted to keep doing what you've been doing, posting commentary and the occasional image or video, I think I'd go with the free WordPress option, the one the company hosts. Here's what it offers for free. Typepad offers similar features but costs money, as I recall.

Otherwise you've got to set up an account with a webhost, set up a payment option, get a domain name, and dig deeper into the tech and admin aspects of the whole affair. If you're semi-nerdy like me (I did manage computer systems for companies in my former life) that can be fulfilling, but if all you want to do is write, I'd go with the simplest option available.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Linkmeister said...

Oh, the freebie WordPress offers 3GB of space; that's a ton.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Dave Riley said...

I am a Blogger loyalist as I think Wordpress has cost restriction issues. However, if you want to run comments better -- use Intense Debate on either Wordpress or Blogger. I've blogged for 67 years and management is much easier and seamless with Intense Debate.
http://www.intensedebate.com/
It protects you, is easily customisable, gives you absolute control and the option of interfaces with user input flexibility (eg:"YouTube vids).

If you stay with Blogger I'd get a better free template -- there are thousands of those...SEARCH: "Blogger templates"

However, Wordpress is as easy to run/use as Blogger ( I do use WP as well for some of my blogging) but it tends to require you to set up your own domain presence unless you do it at wordpress.com. (Free)WP also requires separate image upload which I think is a hassle as i much prefer Picasa package in sync with Blogger.

So either go with WP or Blogger and decide whether you want to pay or not....

June 12, 2010  
Anonymous Adrian McKinty said...

Peter

I read somewhere that 50 percent of all fiction books sold are crime and mystery novels. It would seem an obvious link from the book section of the paper and a big untapped market. Really it costs them nothing, you do all work and everyone shares in the ad revenue.

Also wouldnt they want the PI to become a world brand rather than a Pennsylvania brand? I can think of many reasons why this would be in everyone's interest. Blogger and wordpress etc. are nice, but you have an opportunity here to move into Andrew Sullivan or Sarah Weinmann or Bookslut territory.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Tales from the Birch Wood. said...

There is nothing to stop you having both a Blogger and a Wordpress blog (both free). I imported quite a few posts into Wordpress, just to get used to a new system and play with templates.

However, writing blogs do not tend to need all the bells and whistles that grapic based ones do and you might be just as well to stick with Blogger and try to resolve the comment issues:

"http://www.bloggingtips.com/2009/07/08/should-you-moderate-your-comments/"

Wordpress is time-consuming, I found, but that is probably because I'm not up to speed on HTML.

"http://dublinoise.wordpress.com/"

You could join the Irish Webmaster Forum and ask for help, perhaps.

Also, making another Blogger blog, designed purely for discussion, might solve some of the comment issues. Your comment box is very popular and the pages read more like a chat room. Asking posters to discuss topical posts in a separate blog might help rationalise all the material?

Although I started out with just a photography blog,
I ended up making several blogs, as you might see here:

"http://www.blogger.com/profile/15427603252937311851"



It encourages clarity of thought and each blog is like a chapter of a never ending book.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Maxine Clarke said...

Typepad and Wordpress are both fine. As someone said, you have to pay for Typepad but it is a tiny amount. You get very good customer service. They have recently done lots of upgrades to their platform.

It is pretty easy to export your blog into Wordpress or Typepad but of course you will have to change the URL (to Wordpress.com or Typepad.com) which is one reason why many people who start out at Blogger to try out blogging, end up staying there.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Linkmeister has ...

...If I were you and just wanted to keep doing what you've been doing, posting commentary and the occasional image or video, I think I'd go with the free WordPress option, the one the company hosts. ....

Otherwise you've got to ... dig deeper into the tech and admin aspects of the whole affair. If you're semi-nerdy like me (I did manage computer systems for companies in my former life) that can be fulfilling, but if all you want to do is write, I'd go with the simplest option available.


Thanks. Yes, I think all I'll want to do is write, as quaint as that may sound. Thanks for the suggestions.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Tales from the Birch Wood. has left ...

There is nothing to stop you having both a Blogger and a Wordpress blog (both free). I imported quite a few posts into Wordpress, just to get used to a new system and play with templates.


Your comment has been posted now. The delay was not Blogger's fault or, if it was, just indirectly.

Because of frequent spam (which a better spam filter might have caught), I enabled comment moderation, and I have just now uploaded the comments that arrived overnight.

Thanks for the suggestions. You're right that I don't need a graphically sophisticated blog. By the same token, though, I want to keep things simple for everyone. I like having on- and off-topic posts and discussion all in one place. This fosters the sort of spontaneity that I like, and I would be wary of trying to direct any part of the conversation to a separate blog.

What I may do is stay at Blogger for now and set up blogs at other hosts just to get used to them. Then, if Blogger does not get its act together, I'll be ready to switch over right away.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Linkmeister has ...

Oh, the freebie WordPress offers 3GB of space; that's a ton.


Thanks. I'm like the jaguar from Aardman Animations' Creature Comforts. I need space!

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Dave Riley has ...

I am a Blogger loyalist as I think Wordpress has cost restriction issues. However, if you want to run comments better -- use Intense Debate on either Wordpress or Blogger. I've blogged for 67 years and management is much easier and seamless with Intense Debate.


Thanks. I was pleased with Blogger until these recent comment problems, or rather until I learned that other Blogger bloggers were having the same problems. And thanks for the heads-up on Intense Debate.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Adrian McKinty has ...

I read somewhere that 50 percent of all fiction books sold are crime and mystery novels. It would seem an obvious link ...


Thanks. One of our on-line-news people did nudge me in the direction of one of the IT folks. I shall follow up.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Maxine has ...

Typepad and Wordpress are both fine. As someone said, you have to pay for Typepad but it is a tiny amount. You get very good customer service. They have recently done lots of upgrades to their platform.

It is pretty easy to export your blog into Wordpress or Typepad but of course you will have to change the URL (to Wordpress.com or Typepad.com) which is one reason why many people who start out at Blogger to try out blogging, end up staying there.


Thanks. My recent complaints about Blogger had bumped customer service higher on my priority list. I don't know that Blogger is any worse than anyone else, but I am not happy with its near-non-existent support.

Changing to a new host and a new URL would make my blog's business cards obsolete. But then maybe they would become collectors' items.

June 12, 2010  
Anonymous solo said...

Peter, I'm not a blogger so my knowledge here (as usual) is pretty limited.

I do sometimes pay attention to the climate wars and I know that your fellow Canadian, Steve McIntyre, transferred his blog to WordPress, although in his case it was to cope with a sudden upsurge in traffic after that event known as Climategate.

Smart as he is, he seemed to require some tech help from friends to do so, and several months later there are still obvious text presentation problems as can be seen by looking at his current post.

Blogger offers no way to search comments, which is a shame, if one takes the idea of blogs seriously as a kind of open repository of knowledge

Given the dubious quality of my own comments, I hesitate to mention this, but while Blogger doesn't search comments, Google does, via its site operator. For instance, if you typed Blogger site:http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/ into Google you should get hits on the subject of Blogger from both posts and comments.

That's my two cents.

BTW, if the bould McKinty is anywhere about the place, I hope he realizes, that while I generally try to be amusing, sometimes I can be a plain, old-fashioned jackass.

And, furthermore, on the subect of hats, which has been aired here lately, as a gradually balding man fast approaching fifty, who happens to look damn good in a fedora, I say a daily prayer for their return to popular fashion. They say Jack Kennedy was responsible for the demise of the hat. I say Damn that hairy-headed son of Wexford to hell!

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

solo has left a new comment ...

Peter, I'm not a blogger so my knowledge here (as usual) is pretty limited.

But greatly helpful, as you shall soon see.

while Blogger doesn't search comments, Google does, via its site operator. For instance, if you typed Blogger site:http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/ into Google you should get hits on the subject of Blogger from both posts and comments.

... I say a daily prayer for their return to popular fashion. They say Jack Kennedy was responsible for the demise of the hat. I say Damn that hairy-headed son of Wexford to hell!


Thanks. I have just tested this, and it apears to work. Thanks.

One does not lightly damn Jack Kennedy in my part of Philadelphia any more than one would the pope or, even higher in the trinity, Frank Sinatra.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Dave Riley said...

Blogger versus WP is a perennial debate and the adherents one side or the other are probably all correct from their POV and preferences.

While I am a Blogger blogger the key factor for Detectives Beyond Borders, has to be your comment feature -- and in that regard there is no question: go with WP.

You can make up for the comparable shortfall with Intense Debate (and I suggest you install Intense Debate to see how it functions -- maybe if necessary by creating a new blog simply for the purpose of exploring it) but you are adjusting a platform that doesn't deliver as well as WP in regard to comments. I think comments are Blogger's weakest aspect.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Linkmeister said...

Can I just say how amused I was by this comment from Dave Riley?

"I've blogged for 67 years. . ."

Er, with mimeograph machines?

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Dave Riley has ...:

Blogger versus WP is a perennial debate ... the key factor for Detectives Beyond Borders, has to be your comment feature -- and in that regard there is no question: go with WP.

You can make up for the comparable shortfall with Intense Debate (and I suggest you install Intense Debate to see how it functions ...


Those nested comments could lend order to comment strings of extreme length. Thanks.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Linkmeister has left a new comment ..":

Can I just say how amused I was by this comment from Dave Riley?

"I've blogged for 67 years. . ."

Er, with mimeograph machines?


They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round.

Dave was ahead of his time.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Dave, one thing I'll want to find out is how easy it is to unsubscribe from Intense Debate and go back to my current comment layout, should I choose to do so.

June 12, 2010  
Blogger Dave Riley said...

Intense Debate uninstall? Well you use their uninstall function -- but I think that means you'll lose those Intense Debate comments from your site.(You may want to check that.)

As I say, Peter: explore the platform first before committing to it.

Installing and uninstalling takes maybe 10 minutes: download/upload; download/upload.

Prior to Intense Debate there was Haloscan as the preferred Blogger supplement-- but Haloscan wound up for lack of profitability and was never as powerful as Intense Debate.

So take that on board before you commit to IntenseDebate.

However, Intense Debate is the very best comment system I've used and I suspect commentators appreciate it too as it is a much easier posting process with good follow up options.

People in fact install it on their wordpress blogs --so its' not just a Blogger option.

Mike Kroenig (the InitenseDebate "comment Ninja" ) has a discussion about these issues here:How to Evaluate Your Comment System Needs .

-------------
PS: If you stay with Blogger please get a new template ! There are thousands of freebies to try but I'm much taken with the QuiteRandom stable. but that's my preferences ruling. Since I've set up many Blogger blogs for people I value a good utilitarian template but also know that people have customized needs and skill thresholds .Unless you have your own site to host WP (or a WP paid for site) -- you don't get those choices.

June 13, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I've put Intense Debate on a backup blog that I have, and I've been posting test comments and replies just to try to get an idea of how threads might look and how easy or difficult it would be to follow them. So I've started the exploration already. And thanks for the Mark Kroenig link. That should help.

At the risk of bruising my own pride, what's the problem with my current template? Is it just boring, or do you find it hard to follow and use? I always liked this template better than the others that Blogger offered.

June 13, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Hmm, I've been playing with Intense Debate on my backup blog and was delighted to find that comment notifications I received via e-mail invited me to "Reply to this email to post a response to this comment."

I was less delighted that the reply-by-e-mail does not work. So ends my experiment with Intense Debate.

June 13, 2010  
Blogger Dave Riley said...

There are very few templates on offer from Blogger directly. The Blogger 'community' on the other hand is huge and people hack and do lots of creative stuff to templates.

"Boredom" however isn't the issue as I think there is too much dress up on blogs. But since layout is in fact an issue even in hard copy crime fiction I reckon there are better ways to layout a web/blog page so that the segments are better placed, the page loads faster,that the columns are wider or narrower, that the top page content is or is not replicated for each post,etc. How you address any of those issues -- at least with Blogger -- is a fun creative journey of experimentation and perusing the web galleries. It's like an on hand renewal and renovation button with a generous community to facilitate & help you.

Now if we talk white --and I love whiteness -- and all my own blogs are dedicated white here's a sample:

A good example of white is Journalist (adapted by QuiteRandom from a WP template) is a pristine beauty. The original design is by Lucian Marin and it's even used by MMatt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress). Another option(among thousands) is white with contrast such as with 2Plus by Dante Artearaujo.

The world's your oyster....

June 13, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

"Journalist" looks too much to me like a layout for recipes, but I understand much of this is subjective. I'm a fan of white space, too, and my cirrent template has lots of it.

I did change to one of Blogger's advanced templates some time ago, but I found it too busy and changed back.

June 13, 2010  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

Not being an expert in setting up blogs, just want to weigh in as a commenter.

This is a very easy blog to follow and on which to read comments, reply and follow a thread. Then one can scroll down to find a previous post and add a comment to or see if anyone has added anything since one last looked at it--if it's something that catches one's interest.

The way it's set up is easy to deal with. And not only the comments but the listings on the right-hand side of authors, websites, and other links are set up very well. Then previous posts, and then the archives listed by month. Not confusing, but easy to deal with.

I often click onto links after I've read the posted messages.

And the white space is good; it's not busy-looking.

July 06, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Thanks. I like options Blogger offers and the way it functions, st least until the recent technical problems with the display and tallying of comments.

July 06, 2010  

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