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hermes

Blog-engines?

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You mean online, or that you can install on your own server?

For ones on your own server, I second Marek's recommendation of Wordpress. It's quite customisable even if you're non-technical, as there are loads of plugins and themes out there.

If you know XHTML and CSS you can make your own theme quite easily, but you do need to get your head around the bits of PHP a page is generated from and find the right way to split your start and end tags across them.

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If you mean to use an outside service, I'd personally recommend LiveJournal, because updating it is faster than updating Blogspot.:oldman:

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wordpress.com run a service based on the software.

Beyond that, some of my favorite blogs run on typepad, though I've not used it myself.

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Spip with the Blog n Spot skeleton is incredibly easy to install and use.

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For just external stuff, I went with Lj back in the day. That was mostly because that was the one that my friends used though, so I could post on theirs. I find it to be pretty user-friendly, although honestly I have nothing to compare it to.

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Having used both Blogger and LiveJournal for a few years now (on and off) I prefer LiveJournal; there's a better sense of community and it feels more focussed and purposeful somehow. However, the LJ templating engine is quite a black art, so you may have more luck with Blogger - assuming you wanted to monkey with that sort of thing.

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Wordpress is way superior to Blogger and very easy to use, so be sure to consider that as well.

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If you have any kind of server hosting capability, I'd go with downloadable WordPress where you've got a choice from a tonne of plug-ins and a ridiculous amount of themes, with creating new ones easy as pie if you know HTML.

If you don't have server hosting capability, I'd go with hosted WordPress because WordPress has a superb administration system that is nice to use. The visual rich editor is now great and it's just a superb system.

If you really value the community aspect of LiveJournal and stuff (ie: your real life friends probably have one) then I suppose you'd be better off with them, but I'd personally rather craft a new audience than just have people who know me posting bollocks on the blog. WordPress is a bit more of a separate thing, comparable to a CMS (and in fact has the capability to easily become one), while LJ seems more focused on the friends thing. Kind of like MySpace.

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WordPress is great. However, if you like customizing your output at all, it is a pain in the ass. It has a totally shit "template system" -- and by "template system" I mean a whole bunch of PHP pages with HTML strewn across it. (Hello, separation of content and markup anyone?)

I migrated a site from Movable Type to WordPress and it was such a chore (since I wanted to keep my exact layout/design -- basically, an invisible transition). AND I KNOW PHP. I can't imagine what it's like to those that do not.

But if that's not a big deal, then yes. WordPress is great.

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I wouldn't say making new themes is a doddle, as I remarked earlier the way pages/tags split over multiple PHP files is a bit of a difference to bog standard XHTML and CSS files.

(Or is the method more like blogger for wordpress.com?)

Also, much as I love it Wordpress is a little cruddy if you want to use it to manage images. Even with a plugin like photopress, the choose/upload/categorise/insert process is lengthier than it should be and making thumbnail galleries is a ball ache.

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Uhhh HTML with PHP in it? Aren't there actual HTML/CSS template files with custom tags in it for inserting the contents? No PHP that I know of.

But yes the image uploader is a bit shit.

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I'm surprised you feel that way, n0wak. I really like the control WordPress's template system gives me, and I've never had any problems navigating it at all. Perhaps you're making it a bit too hard for yourself by trying to edit the rather complex default theme? It's far, far easier if you grab the blank WordPress theme which just contains some empty divs and the bare bone PHP, or perhaps just get the PHP includes from from the online pot o' tags and put them into 100% custom built HTML yourself.

If you really do know HTML and PHP then I seriously can't see how you'd find it difficult to use. What's the better alternative to having HTML and CSS exactly how you want it with PHP tags (though it's not exactly PHP in the sense most would assume; they're just pre-set tags) used to put content in the appropriate places? I've used no end of theme systems in different scripts over the years and none are better than the 100% control WordPress offers. Anything else would surely be restrictive, which is exactly why WordPress hasn't gone down that route.

I arse with HTML and CSS (often not written by myself) all day for a living though so maybe I'm just used to looking at hieroglyphic code and working out what is where.

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Perhaps you're making it a bit too hard for yourself by trying to edit the rather complex default theme? It's far, far easier if you grab the blank WordPress theme which just contains some empty divs and the bare bone PHP.

Ah... that'd be where I went wrong when I tried it early last year then; I found the default theme a real quagmire to work with when trying to create my own template(s).

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I'm surprised you feel that way, n0wak. I really like the control WordPress's template system gives me, and I've never had any problems navigating it at all. Perhaps you're making it a bit too hard for yourself by trying to edit the rather complex default theme? It's far, far easier if you grab the blank WordPress theme which just contains some empty divs and the bare bone PHP, or perhaps just get the PHP includes from from the online pot o' tags and put them into 100% custom built HTML yourself.

Aha, that'll be where I went wrong too. Blank theme? ;) I stripped out the first one I laid my hands on and reformed it.

As for complexity, I wouldn't say it was difficult, but editing those PHP files was a bit more complex than normal XHTML and CSS.

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