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Roderick

Blog advice

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Say that, in some hypothetical alternate timeline, I had been writing short reviews of movies (old and new), and I wanted to put those online in a comprehensible "web log" format.

Let's say that. Now say that I am not particularly adept at making websites (some here will attest to that), but I'd want something really simple & clean & easy to manage & as free as possible. Would any of you have some advice to help me along? What is good, free blogging software? (If it helps, I already have server space.) What I ideally want is the ability to post my short reviews, with a small picture on top, have it not take up too much room, and be easily searchable. Roger Ebert's site is a good example of a clean structure I admire (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com).

A lot of blogs feel unwieldy. The server space I mentioned above proffers the use of WordPress, which seems a good starting point. Is it the best option out there? Thanks in advance, any help appreciated.

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All right, WordPress seems the way to go! Thanks.

Not so fast! As someone who has used both extensively, I would say that WordPress is nice, but it has problems: If you want your own domain, you've got to install it and maintain it on your own webserver (unless you want to pay stupid money to WordPress). Also WP blogs have REAL issues with spam. You can pay extra to buy a license for anti-spam software, but Blogger.com has all of the above built in, for FREE. (You can easily host a blog at your own domain using Blogger, and not have to worry about installing and maintaining anything. Plus, as it's Google, the anti-spam stuff is built right in.)

The downsite is that Blogger is a little uglier to use, but they're both about equally customizable, if you know what you're doing.

Bottom line: I wouldn't turn my nose up at Blogger.com, especially if you're doing something simple.

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WordPress is terrible. Blogger has weird-ass pagination/"previously" links. Tumblr has a lot of users but unless you're posting Dr Who gifs or Avengers slash you probably won't get much attention from many of them.

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BUT, JUST THEN! A real turnabout here. I will check out Blogger as well. Tumblr I didn't consider, because I thought it was mostly about pictures [of Avengers]. Now I don't mind pictures [of Avengers], in fact I love them, but I'm aiming more for reviews [of Avengers].

I'm excited about this. I've been writing small, succinct film reviews for months to see how it would fit me. Finally getting to post them seems swell. The best thing is that it's my own goddamn publication, so I can choose not to use grades. OHHHH that's gonna feel so good!!

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I have a review blog and I use WordP for it, but I'm not the one doing the administration because I'm piggy-backing on a chum's server and he has to do all that work for his own WordP install.

I've never used Blogger, and I apparently have a Tumblr but I can't remember the password for it. tumblr confuses me because the main method of interaction seems to be through resharing content with additional commentary, which means comments get disconnected from their original inspiration and I'm getting too old for that.

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WordPress is terrible. Blogger has weird-ass pagination/"previously" links. Tumblr has a lot of users but unless you're posting Dr Who gifs or Avengers slash you probably won't get much attention from many of them.

What's your recommended alternative?

I personally rate the fuck out of WordPress, having used it for everything from personal blogs to complicated e-zines to my Brutal Legend fan site — and it's performed great while providing a lovely user experience each and every time.

This only applies to the self-hosted version, though. The one on WordPress.com is a stripped-down version that just isn't worth bothering with if you have the means to host it yourself. If you're going with not hosting it yourself, Tumblr is a good platform and I'd say preferable to Blogger in just about every way.

Really though, you could use Bob's News Shit and it wouldn't make too much difference. What'll really make or break your blog is having the patience and dedication to endure the soul-crushing months on end of few visitors and even less comments. I've seen so many skilled writers (including Thumbders) enthusiastically set up blogs only to be owned by a lack of audience because they vastly underestimate how much time it takes to build one up.

If this possibility worries you, consider finding somewhere else to guest post and maybe ultimately become a permanent writer for instead. In fact, even if you write your own blog this is still a good idea to build up your recognition and drive people towards it.

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I say Tumblr. WordPress is nice but really a little too complex for my tastes. Not complex in the "oh I can't figure anything out way", but rather the "i don't like sifting through all this shit" way.

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Interesting points. But Thrik, I doubt any movie site is waiting for reviews of Uncle Buck and Quiz Show, even if they don't have them yet.

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Tumblr has a lot of users but unless you're posting Dr Who gifs or Avengers slash you probably won't get much attention from many of them.

While that is true, it's also pretty easy to ignore all that and use Tumblr as a regular blog where you just publish stuff and don't worry about what other Tumblr users are doing. You still get a nice, customizable front end with an RSS feed and a pretty good interface for posting stuff, and you can use your own domain with it.

The downsides are that if you have a problem with other Tumblr users "liking" and "reblogging" your posts, I don't know if there's a way to disable that. And there's no real comment system unless you use Disqus, so people just tend to reblog things and then tack on their own comments at the end and it becomes a big mess that's somehow even worse than Twitter replies.

BUT, if all you want to do is post things so that people can read them, I'd say Tumblr is pretty good.

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I'm no expert on this stuff, but I have used Wordpress both self-hosting and through wordpress.com, and they're both quite serviceable in my experience. If you're hosting it on your own domain, there's practically nothing easier than Wordpress, but if you don't want to hassle with a domain and hosting, Tumblr or wordpress.com are both viable options.

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Rodi, unless you feel like buying some webspace, downloading the installer from Wordpress.org, and then configuring it and installing it yourself. (Not to mention customizing it.) I'd suggest Blogger. It's easy to use, it requires no setup (other than creating a Google account), you won't have to deal with spam, and it's all completely free.

I've had 500,000 hits on my Blogger blog, and it does the job just fine. I've been tempted to switch to WordPress, but that's mainly because it's trendy, and I'm not afraid of installing and customizing it. But I've never got around to it because Blogger does the job just fine. My clients always have to deal with lots of spam on their WordPress sites, even the tiny sites. On the other hand, I've had about two spam comments out of the 800 I've received since I started my blog.

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Rodi mentioned in the OP he already has web hosting, and 99% of them have one-click installers for WordPress. Plus, even without that it's literally the easiest thing ever to set up — lots of WordPress' success stems from it consistently being a cinch to install and use.

But like I say, it depends what you want to do. If you want the control of it being on your server, go with WordPress. If you're happy with it being hosted elsewhere, I'd lean towards Tumblr as tapping into its community can be useful if you're smart about it and it is in all honesty a lovely application to use when simple blogging is your goal.

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But you know what? These things all take minutes to try. You might as well give all our recommendations a go and roll with the one you like the feel of most, like with any software. :)

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I've been planning to do this exact thing for ages, if only to remind myself what my opinion is of films I've seen because these days I tend to forget after about a week, but I never got round to it. Good luck, Rodi, maybe you'll spur me on to do my own after all...

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And there's no real comment system unless you use Disqus, so people just tend to reblog things and then tack on their own comments at the end and it becomes a big mess that's somehow even worse than Twitter replies.

I've always wondered if the Tumblr developers are ever going to consider adding a comments field. Is it just part of the culture of Tumblrs to just not have one? I often want to post comments on a few artists putting their work up on Tumblr, but it's like the only way to show your appreciation is to repost.

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I guess there's nothing to do but test them all. There goes my excellent plan of letting you do the thinking for me! Gosh darn it, I have actual work to do now.

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