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Moveable Type, WordPress, TypePad?

18:36 / 18.03.06

Blogger has been down for some folk for over a week. I think I could cope with this... if they kept us informed as to what is happening... and if they hadn't seemed to have signed off the problem as 'Resolved', when it still isn't functional.

Like most people who've had a weblog for any length of time there is an emotional investment. I have a microscopic community of readers yet I feel almost desperate at not being able to publish, and be read by these er... half a dozen people.

I am hence going to move to a paid-for service in the perhaps niave belief that if the service goes down it'll be all hands on deck to resolve the problem. However I am not sure which service to choose, and how they differ from each other. Might anyone here know? Which do folk here use, and how did you make your selection?

Having read a little I am thinking of TypePad and Moveable Type... and perhaps WordPress. Anyone here have any experience with these, which might help me decide which to sign up with?

20:08 / 18.03.06

The three you've narrowed your selection down to are pretty popular ones and each have their own nuances/features that people prefer depending on the style of blog they want and perhaps other features they're looking for. So I'm going to throw out a few questions first (none are intended to be patronising, I just want a bit of a picture):
- Do you want to have your own domain name? I have http://igallagher.com and have a Wordpress blog (hardly ever updated) on http://igallagher.com/blog
- Do you want a blogging service or do you want to host a blog, perhaps along with some other stuff? In my case I host all my own stuff, some friends bits & pieces and things like email - very DIY

Taking Wordpress as an example (I haven't used the others for a long time) you can sign up for a blog on wordpress.com which is hosted for you or you can go to wordpress.org and download the software to install yourself. Both options are quite customisable. Many web hosts offer hosting deals with easy installation of many of the popular blogging tools - not sure about MovableType as the licensing there has changed since I used it last.

Let me know what you have in mind or would like to have, I'll see what other options there are.

20:37 / 18.03.06

Thanks for your questions. I thought it would be a simple matter of just choosing a service and signing up. You've given me a few things to think about.

Do you want to have your own domain name?

No, I don't. But it'd take minutes to get one, if doing that would mean I have access to better resources? Is that something you'd suggest then?

I have http://igallagher.com and have a Wordpress blog

I like the format of your weblog. It looks pretty generic, in that it seems to have the same look as the TypePad ones I've seen. Is there a suite of templates to choose from (for each of these services), or do you have to provide your own style sheet? I know you don't know the fine details of all of them, so I guess I am asking that question to your general knowledge of this type of service.

Do you want a blogging service or do you want to host a blog, perhaps along with some other stuff?

I'd have thought that I'd want a blogging service. But arggg... I can see I've not thought this out. I can see the value in hosting my own stuff. However I have two weblogs - my personal one and my work/study one. I want to keep them separate, so I'd have two run two domain names. Which'd not be an issue - but I am thinking about how transferable they might be should I want to change who hosts my domain.

download the software to install yourself.

Which just means ftping to your webspace and running the executable of the blogging software? Is that right?

21:13 / 18.03.06

I've used TypePad in the past. Currently I use WordPress.

TypePad and Movable Type are two names for essentially the same beast. The difference is, with TypePad you pay a small monthly fee and the hosting is taken care of. For Movable Type, it has to be hosted on a server (and you set up your own domain name, etc.) I'm pretty sure you can't get Movable Type on a commercial hosting service; you'd have to have your own server or know somebody who has one.

WordPress has two options: you can have it hosted on a server (which gives you more options and flexibility) or you can use the free service at wordpress.com.

For ease of use, flexibility, and customization I would recommend TypePad. If you'd like me to elaborate let me know.

I'm currently using WordPress and getting my hosting from VizaWeb. Their plans are pretty reasonable, and they have WordPress installed on their servers; you just have to do this one-click installation thingy to get it going. They can also take care of the domain name registration for you.

Please note I am not connected with any of the above services. I would recommend any of the ones you mentioned, but TypePad would get my highest recommendation. The only problem is the monthly fee.

If you'd like to see my current blog - which is on WordPress - it's at http://paulinekilar.com/weblog

05:27 / 19.03.06

Good advice from Kylark, Typepad has a pretty good following and I get the impression that the service is generally reliable - some outages here and there but not as bad as blogger. It also looks like you could have more than one domain associated with your Plus account which might work for your personal and work blogs. Wordpress is quite portable and Typepad offers an on-demand export of your content. So you could move around easily - many of the blogging systems allow you to import from other system easily so you can change your mind down the line. As Kylark said, she uses a host with one-click installation for Wordpress and I'm sure there are many hosts out there who will do it for you also. As a personal preference I like to keep my domains and hosting separate so I usually buy my domain from GoDaddy and get the details from the host. Gets around a feeling of being locked in to one company, if you're uncomfortable with having one company doing everything.

Creating the look and feel is pretty easy - all the different systems have loads of templates available. I just took one of the generic ones and adjusted it to my needs - as you spotted. Took a little bit of CSS modification (fonts, colours and some layout) but nothing that difficult, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Onto the biased bit

I'm a big fan of Wordpress - I love the range of plugins you can get. I use language selector plugins and anti-spam plugins that make the whole setup feel just the way I want.

For the time being, I would suggest getting a free blog from Wordpress.com and having a play to see if you like it, then you can make decisions a bit later without losing anything. I think Typepad offers a free trial so that might be worth a look. Alternatively there is a free MovableType download (As Kylark pointed out Typepad and MovableType are more or less the same thing - I didn't realise that until I went for a look at Typepad) that you could try. I can setup Wordpress and that MovableType install in a temporary area on my site so you could have a look and a mess around before deciding on how you would want to host things or subscribe to a service.

Disco is My Class War

09:20 / 19.03.06

Another vote for WordPress.

Word Press is way more user-friendly than Blogger. I used to host my blog on blogspot. When I got sick of the constant outages, I moved to Blogsome, which provides free Word Press hosting. I just installed Word Press on my own domain for a community politics site: Word Press on a hosted server is slightly different, but just as flexible.

The advantages of Word Press and Blogsome:

* Much better file management, with separate CSS and HTML files, meaning you can mess with the stylesheets without being afraid you'll fuck up the main layout. (Theoretically.) There are Blogsome adaptations of almost all the popular Word Press templates, and it's easy to adapt them to an individual design.
* You can build a whole site on Blogsome, using your basic blog template, making as many pages with different content as you want.
* Better archive management than Blogger.
* A vastly improved commenting system.
* You can upload images to the blog itself and store them, meaning no more mesing about with separate free image hosting sites.
* The ability to 'cut' a post, like a livejournal cut, meaning you don't have to post all the content on the one page.
* The ability to password protect individual posts.
* Excellent support, faqs and forums.
* Anti-spam plug-ins.
* Blogsome is free. And reliable. They have few outages, and when they do have an outage, you can generaly find out what is going on.

Check out my personal blog if you want.

10:00 / 19.03.06

kilark:

For ease of use, flexibility, and customization I would recommend TypePad. If you'd like me to elaborate let me know.

Yes, please do. Does TypePad offer the facility to import my current Blogger entries into the new weblog?

ciotog:

Typepad... It also looks like you could have more than one domain associated with your Plus account which might work for your personal and work blogs.

Yeah, I noticed that when I was looking at the spec of TypePad. Just to be really super clear, it seems that I can have one blog at www.personal.com and another blog at www.myworkstudy.com? That's what I'm reading when I see their spec - is that a correct interpretation?

Wordpress is quite portable and Typepad offers an on-demand export of your content....many of the blogging systems allow you to import from other system easily so you can change your mind down the line.

Can you import from Blogger though? I remember having a conversation a couple of years ago (so things may have changed) that content in Blogger is not exportable. is this still the case?

As a personal preference I like to keep my domains and hosting separate

I'm feeling this way too.

I can setup Wordpress and that MovableType install in a temporary area on my site so you could have a look and a mess around before deciding on how you would want to host things or subscribe to a service.

Ooh, you are too kind. Thank you. I'll PM you about this.

10:13 / 19.03.06

Mister Disco:

I just installed Word Press on my own domain for a community politics site: Word Press on a hosted server is slightly different, but just as flexible.

Hit pause button a mo please. When you say 'your own domain on the CP site' you mean what? How does this differ from a hosted server? I know that paid-for hosted servers have squillions of websites on the one server. Is that the only difference? That the CP site was at your Uni/whatever and that was all that was on the server?

The reason I am hovering over this point, is because it seems now not really such a big difference whether I go with TypePad or WordPress because the three of you are saying they are good. I threw the question to the board in case one of them was an utter dog. The question now seems to have morphed into:

where will I put my TypePad/WordPress blog? Will I let them host it, or will I let someone else host it - given that I'm wanting my own domain name... so don't want www.myname.hostingcompany.com?

You can upload images to the blog itself and store them, meaning no more mesing about with separate free image hosting sites.

Ooh, I'm quite attached to my Flickr account. I refer to it independently, so will probably continue to upload to it, and link to those images.

The ability to 'cut' a post, like a livejournal cut, meaning you don't have to post all the content on the one page.

Sounds useful.

The ability to password protect individual posts.

Oh there is a god. Brilliant.

11:25 / 19.03.06

OK, the thing with hosted services:

so, Blogger is a hosted service, and all your data resides on the Blogger server, and publishes either to Blogspot or to your own web server. Similarly, Typepad exists and publishes on the Typepad server, and you can, if you wish, use your own domain name.

By contrast, Wordpress and MT (and most other blogging/cms-lites) all need to be run off your own webserver/shared account. They don't have to be very expensive - I ran MT on an account that cost £15 a year - but you do have to install them yourself, configure them yourself, and maintain them yourself.

It's not really as simple as "dragging over an executable". There are files, and directories, and permissions that can go wrong.

I use Wordpress and it's not bad. I mean, it has several major problems (which are slowly being rectified) but it's not the one true faith. It is, however, probably a bit easier than MovableType to set up. MovableType is very impressive, but a bit heavy as a result.

That said: MT is a lot easier to template and mess with. Wordpress doesn't have a templating language, it just uses PHP functions and it's quite hard to get your head around if you don't code (and it's especially hard if you want to do more than just alter the most basic things). So if you're interested in easy customisation, you might find MT or Typepad a better bet.

MT, Typepad, and Wordpress can all import from Blogger - you just have to follow some instructions, that's all.

Other than that: gut feeling, from everything you've said, would be go with Typepad.

Disco is My Class War

11:50 / 19.03.06

When you say 'your own domain on the CP site' you mean what? How does this differ from a hosted server? I know that paid-for hosted servers have squillions of websites on the one server. Is that the only difference? That the CP site was at your Uni/whatever and that was all that was on the server?

Sorry, that was unclear. I'm part of a small community org that has its own domain, hosted by a small, open-source oriented hosting service. Which is great, because we can ask the guy who runs it to install stuff like Word Press, set up permissions for us, etc. It's not like a hosted server.

I actually had no idea Word Press was so difficult to adapt; Blogsome (one of the free hosted WP services) is much easier to adapt to your own liking. I've gotta go off and learn how to navigate all this PHP now. If Movable Type is easier to adapt and change, use it.

With the image hosting thing, don't you ever use images for blog templates? This is why it's great. You might just want to chuck up links to flickr photos for individual blogposts. But the bandwidth I used to waste having my blog header image hosted on a different service was... Well, it probably cost Blogger a lot

01:37 / 20.03.06

For ease of use, flexibility, and customization I would recommend TypePad. If you'd like me to elaborate let me know.

Yes, please do. Does TypePad offer the facility to import my current Blogger entries into the new weblog?

I'll echo what other people said about the CSS stylesheets being very easy to modify in TypePad. I also prefer the archiving system of TypePad to that of WordPress. I also think it's easier to customize your sidebars in TypePad.

I moved to Wordpress because I wanted to try something new and because I was sick of the monthly fee (even though it was pretty reasonable).

Don't let other people scare you by saying WordPress is hard to install. You should be able to find a hosting company that can take care of the install for you.

To move your content from Blogger to your new blog, find the instructions on Blogger for "export." It'll export everything to one big file that you'll save on your hard drive. Then once you've decided on a platform, find the instructions to import. Voila!

Really, TypePad or WordPress, you can't go wrong either way.

09:28 / 20.03.06

Right. Thanks to all of you for your advice. I've bought a domain name and some server space. I'm playing around with the 30-day demo of TypePad, which seems pretty straight-forward so far. I think, with what I've tried, that the TypePad plus hosting it elsewhere combo will be right for me. Thanks for helping... it's appreciated.