OSX Blogging software?

[Caustic Saint]

Anybody here actively blogging on a Mac? Last time I was in Korea everybody kept bugging me to set up a page to share news and pics and I never got around to it. I don't want to make the same mistake this time and am looking for tips, so here are a few questions for those who blog (or used to):

1. Where is your blog hosted, and do you pay for it?
2. Do you use any extra software (if so, what) or do you do it all on your own?
3. How does web-based blogging compare to doing it on your own machine and uploading it?
4. How much of a pain is it to update, aside from the time it takes?

I saw two software packages on apple.com - iBlog (shareware) and EspressoBlog (freeware) - but they both require OSX 10.2, and I'm at 10.1.5 until this fall when 10.3 comes out.

I'm sure I'll think of more questions/issues later, but that's a start.

[gomichild]

I use Movable Type http://www.movabletype.org to blog.

[Taro Toporific]

Re: OSX Blogging software?

Anybody here actively blogging on a Mac?...
I'm sure I'll think of more questions/issues later, but that's a start.

Two years ago I started blogging my e-commerce classes at JETRO* in Radio UserLand
http://www.userland.com/

It's an online solution that's cross-platform....not a bad way to start when you are like me and using a variety of retro-Mac OS versions and BSD Unix.


Another less Mac-centric solution that's multi-platform is Blogger (now bought my Google). It's a total no-brainer.
http://www.blogger.com/

If your needs are simple and you want a JUST-DO-IT solution either Radio UserLand or Blogger is *"good enough for government work".

[Taro Toporific]

Re: OSX Blogging software?
The bigger question here is :
HEY ALL YOU FG! WHY AREN'T TRYING TO HELP OUT THE CAUSTIC KID?
There's gotta a lot simpler. open source, blog solution for somebody who just wants to add feedback/trackback to a daily diary without getting a PHP butt reaming, isn't there?

[American Oyaji]

I've kinda missed the boat.

What exactly is a blog? I know it is short for weblog, but most of my webtime goes toward games.


Any examples and info on how to distinguish a blog from a personal webpage?

[GargoyleTS]

It'll usually have dated entries like a diary or journal if its a blog.

I'd offer advise, but I don't really care for blogs and thus haven't looked into any software.

[Caustic Saint]

Thanks for the tips and whatnot. I've been playing with Blogger for an hour or so, and it seems to work fine. I can edit the template to tweak font sizes and colors, which makes it usable enough for now.

I just want a place to post "life updates" and pics to share with people instead of trying to keep track of who I've sent what to. I've got enough friends in different places/countries/time zones now that having one page to send them all to will make things much, much easier.

[yellowlightman]

I use Blogger for the most part, and it's a good setup. Pretty customizable, but can be really simpel if you want it to be.

Movable Type as one poster suggested before is another option, but requires a lot more work to get it set up (have to install lots of files) and requires a bit of code editing. But it's nothing unreasonable, and worth it because it's very customizable.

My advice is that unless you're really anal, blogger is the way to go.

[Caustic Saint]

Blogger seems to do the trick for now. I'll see how working with it goes, and if I decide I want more functionality, I'll start digging around again.

[katakori]

[url]blogger[/url] is the easiest and simplest and cheapest solution.
they also provide hosting, which is really convenient if you don't want to worry at all.

moveable type seems to be the favorite of most "hard core" devoted bloggers, worldwide. it has more features, and is more customizable, but then requires more work of course.

i heard some nice comments on we::blog, and also on grey matter, but i never used them.

i personally use pivot. (which is supposed to release their v.1 very soon, and it looks extremely promising!)

check : http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Tools/Publishers/?il=1 and http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Tools/Clients/?il=1

3. How does web-based blogging compare to doing it on your own machine and uploading it?
it's a pain to upload, and keep links and all, when all you want is to write postcard stuff about your trips, or your child or whatever you want to communicate on. the point of a blogging soft/script is that it does it all for you. generates the pages, the archives etc. plus you can do it from anywhere because it's online. plus people can post comments. etc. etc.
the boom of "blogs" and what made the term fashionable is precisely online tools like bloggers. because they allow non-html people (not to mention non-php people) to just publish. view it as a "home page" trend, v.2...

4. How much of a pain is it to update, aside from the time it takes?
updating is easy, but it requires you to use your own computer, to edit, save, and upload. plus archives makes you update the site, not just the homepage. online solutions work for you, so you just have to add a post, and everything is updated when you post and publish it.

one advice though : make a copy of your posts and of your template. bloggers has destroyed my template once, and the template AND posts of a friend once, for no visible reason... so backup what is on someone else's server...

[Caustic Saint]

Katakori, thanks for the tips. I'll be sure to copy my template (and posts when they're more than just tests). I use a lycos.co.uk webspace for storing pics to share online, so I don't need to worry too much about Blogger's hosting spaces just yet. I upload the pics to Lycos and link them from the blogpage. Seems to work okay for now. If I get into anything more technically challenging than that, I'll look into other solutions.