32. The WordPress/BlogSpot Debate, continued

Long time no post.   I’m again weighing the options between WordPress (either WP.com or WP.org) and Blogspot.  In short, WP offers superior blogging capabilities. Its editor is fast and reliable.  Whereas Blogspot‘s editor simply can’t be trusted with its markup, any issues WP once had on its WYSIWYG side were resolved long ago,   WordPress offers more space for image-uploads, and handles them better than Blogspot can, as well.  WordPress has excellent spam protection; Blogspot has none.  In short, I feel like WP is a “professional” blogging service, whereas Blogspot can best be described as the AOL of blogging services.  Blogger may be everywhere, but it is known more for its warts than for its beauty marks.

The one thing BlogSpot does offer, though, is integrated Javascript in its badges.  For a number of valid reasons, all related to security and privacy, WP.com does not allow its users to add JS to their posts, pages, or widgets.  On the one hand, one can make due with this limitation: the ability to write eloquently does not require JS patches to other Websites.  However, most of the interactive, colourful fun that has popularized blogs – all those widgets that display the writer’s recent photos or songs listened to or places visited – all require JS to operate.  This means no Twitter on WordPress.com blogs.  No Last.fm.  No Librarything.  No Nike+ badges, etc.

For anyone keeping up with me and my thoughts through a feedreader, this is a dilemma of little consequence.  For anyone coming across the site content through a google search, however, things a little different. Those colorful and regularly updated widgets make a world of difference not only in content and design, but in reader retention.

Thinking about this subject is in many ways an exercise in self-indulgence, but it remains an important and interesting subject to me.  I’ve been, and remain interested in the manner in which we relate to others and ourselves on the internet, so blogging tech and blogging advances is important to me.  For this reason, I’m going to start copying some of my content into a blogspot account (Don’t worry RSS types: you won’t be doubled up on mitch-content) and track its progress.  I’d hate to give up on WP’s blog editor, especially for Blogger’s archaic system, but until WP.com begins to develop more in-house work-arounds to the JS issue, I think I’ll have to go back to Blogger.

Meta Meta Meta.

29. WordPress.com and Web 2.0

This one is for the internet at large.

I finally picked up a twitter account.  It’s only as good as it is popular with my friends, and by all accounts, it is unpopular with my friends and therefore no good to me.  I’ll play with it a bit and see what happens, though.  Apparently, Twitter is the way to go when it comes to Web 2.0.  It almost makes me want to use my cell phone. almost.

Picking up twitter has caused some blogging issues to surface, though.  I’m a big fan of WordPress and WordPress.com, and generally keep my thoughts on WP.com’s servers, because they’re reliable, quick, and hooked right into Googlebot‘s veins like some sort of IV drip – What one writes on WP.com, others can easily and quickly find on google.  yay.  Its WYSIWYG interface is the darling of blogging and CMS platforms, and its ability to integrate store and integrate images in posts puts the Blogger/Picasa to shame.

The problem lies in WordPress.com’s strict No-Java policy for its widgets.  Java can do nasty things and can create massive security leaks, so in many way’s WP.com/Automattic‘s policy is wise.  It keeps their blogging platform safe and secure.  But it prevents it from being robust, which is awful, considering the standalone WP.org manifestation is prasied time and again for its versatility.  Without Java, one can’t properly integrate all those “Web 2.0” widgets we’ve all fallen in love with.  There is no way to properly integrate, for instance, Twitter updates, Last.fm charts, LibraryThing notes, or even proper webstats on the backend.  Yes, one could object and say I could certainly integrate a simple RSS feed of my Twitter status, but really now, I’ve done a lot of with text on the internet, and I don’t want to go back to 1996.  My days of dial-up freenet access through Gophers and FTPs are well in the past, and I have no desire to return to them.  WinSock was cute, but not cute enough.

This is an issue where WordPress.com has fallen flat on its feet.  I would love to see the Automattic people offer more hardcoded widgets for various Web 2.0 projects, but after surfing its WP.com site for over two years now, I’m willing to say they’re well behind the curve on this.  It makes me want to drop WP.com altogether and go back to blogspot.  And since the majority of my faithful readers actually read this through my portable Feedburner feed, it is damn easy to make the switch with little hardship to be faced by either the writer or the audience.

Items for Hemingway Blogspot Install

Items.

1. Hemingway for Blogspot 2.0, by Warpsire.
http://wowbloggertemplates.blogspot.com/2008/03/hemingway-wordpress-to-blogger-template.html

1a. modified for 1.column.

1b. modified for tag clouds, following instructions at:
http://phy3blog.googlepages.com/Beta-Blogger-Label-Cloud.html