Blogs

[mpbrockman]

Michael, I tried WordPress for a while and finally threw in the towel. I like to customize my layout a lot, but if you're okay with just a simple clean look...

Yes I am. In fact I prefer it.

(I use Squarespace now, FWIW, but that's a paid service and you probably don't need the options I do.)

I do remember looking at Squarespace once in the past and being rather enamored of it. I would like to be able to upload audio from my computer and the other sites appear to want to make me pay to do that. Apparently pics and video are OK, but .mp3s cost money. How stupid is that? Doesn't video eat up a crapload more bandwidth and storage space than audio (esp. in .mp3 format)?

Perhaps I shall decide on a blog space and then link it to CDbaby, MySpace or some other site more audio friendly. Oddly, it seems as if you put a link (from, say, Wordpress) to audio somewhere else on the web it will play the audio from within Wordpress.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I am beginning to get the bad feeling, though, that I'm going to get to the overload point just as I did when I thought about doing this a few years ago and just end up saying, "F*ck it - too much effort".

[bradisntclever]

If you're looking for as easy as it gets, I'd suggest investigating tumblr or posterous. Both of those are pretty much set to where you can use their websites or even e-mail anything you want and it posts directly to the site. You can definitely upload audio files using tumblr (I believe it's 1 file per day, must be .mp3 and < 10 MB).

[Roy Janik]

Yeah, Tumblr is super easy. The only reason I didn't recommend it initially is that people seem to not use it as much for lengthy text posts. But you definitely can, and if you're looking for minimal effort, it's the way to go.

Check out the OOB Live Blog for an example of a Tumblr Blog in full swing:

http://oob.tumblr.com

[mpbrockman]

I think its really down to Blogger and Wordpress for me at this point.

Tumblr and posterous looks to me like "micro-blogging" things to me. Sort of a fancier Twitter. Something kids would use. Easy, to be sure but...

I want simple and clean, but not juvenile. I would hope whatever traffic I have will not be in the 12-18 set. I plan on writing for adults.

I'm leaning towards Blogger right now. I've figured out that I can either posts links to audio hosted elsewhere or, if I want to be sneaky, have Lisa make me a nice graphic and use it as a static background, add the audio and upload it as a movie. Also, Blogger seems to have the best help, explanatory vids and pages and is adding more and more widgets and geegaws all the time. You can link it to bloody anything - but then I'm probably looking too far ahead.

I guess the Google beast is going to eat me whole. However, apparently - should I decide to switch to Wordpress at some point - WP will import the Blogger blog with little difficulty (gawd, the word "blog" looks silly when you type it a few times in succession).

I'll probably give it a shot once the OOB chaos has dissipated. Maybe just try porting all my Edinburgh posts over and see if I like what it looks like.

Do I have any of this wrong?

[Spots]

Blog blog blog.

[bradisntclever]

Tumblr and posterous looks to me like "micro-blogging" things to me. Sort of a fancier Twitter. Something kids would use. Easy, to be sure but...

I mean, you can do whatever you like with those two platforms. If you love posting long non-sensible rants, go right ahead. People underestimate how powerful it is to have access to something that can host multiple forms of media with such ease.

Based on your needs, Blogger sounds like a good first home. If you tire and crap out like 99.9% of those who blog, you don't lose a dime.

[mpbrockman]

If you tire and crap out like 99.9% of those who blog, you don't lose a dime.

Bullseye.

[mpbrockman]

Well, at this point (with Neal T.'s invaluable help and hosting) I've set up a WP blog. You can find it at www.perfectlyreasonabledreams.com

We've also got the rights to www.mpbrockman.com but right now it points to a rough google pages thing I was experimenting with. I'm hoping we'll make it point to the PRD site shortly.

I've doing a lot of experimenting with posts, pages and interlinking the two, especially where the music part of it is concerned. I'd appreciate anyone who wanted to look at the layout to give me feedback if I'm making any obvious errors. I'm currently unable to upload media (pix, music etc.). I have an idea of what's wrong (I think the problem lies in the chmod settings - but I don't know how to get into that code and besides, I could be wrong) - if any of you have run into this issue and can suggest fixes I'm listening.

Again, this is rough and I am on a learning curve that borders on vertical - but I'm fairly happy with what's happening so far.

But, good christ - I'm spending whole nights messing with this right now. Once I can get media in it will get even more time-consuming, but I can see a time - once I'm satisfied with the organizational structure - that it will get much easier.

[mpbrockman]

P.S. All the Edinburgh posts (with minor editing) are there now.

[mpbrockman]

If you tire and crap out like 99.9% of those who blog, you don't lose a dime.

Bullseye.

You know what though, I take that back. I'm not going to blog a lot about my day etc., but I generate enough content on a regular basis that it's going to find a home on PRD. I write stuff not only here (the AIC forum), but on a few other forums and for my own enjoyment. Plus there's the whole music aspect. I agree the effort is immense, especially now, but I put out too much, well, "stuff", for me to be sitting here thinking "What should I write today?"