Blog

[yktan]

Has anyone installed a PHP blog software on their website? Can you give some suggestions/reviews on the available PHP blog software that you've tried.

[Ap0s7le]

The only one I've really played with is WordPress, it has some nice features.

Install it, play around and see what you think.

Talk with ya later, going to get ready for bed.

-Casey

[vkaryl]

[Well, not sure you want to hear this from me.... but anyway, you asked and I have some info to impart....]

WordPress is super easy to install, super easy to use. It has already over 300 themes to choose from; it has developers who keep on top of security situations and provide fixes as soon as humanly possible; it's practically infinitely customizable.... with plugins available almost as soon as someone expresses a wish for something not currently extant.

And it's Open Source, and free. It's in current development, it's not going to fade away into the distance. Most themes are XHTML Transitional at least, and view "same" in nearly every browser out there.

I've got a dozen WP blogs installed. I've had about as little trouble with WP as I've had with phpLD. It's a great program and I highly recommend it. I installed my first WP blog in February of this year.

I tried textpattern and the blog modules in innumerable cms programs from Drupal to joomla and back. WordPress is far and away the best for simply blogging. If you need a cms, that's another whole can of worms....

[And yes, I AM a moderator on the WP support forum, but I have NO monetary or developer interest in the program itself. I moderate because I use the program, I'm quite familiar with it, and I love it.]

[yktan]

Thanks Casey and vkaryl for giving such a good review on WordPress. Sounds like a winner, I'll go have a look.

Best regards,
York Kie

[vkaryl]

If you want to play with it first, without investing any time, go to wordpress.com, download Flock (www.flock.com), then go here: http://flock.com/fiveways/togetstarted/with/blogging/, click on WordPress, and follow instructions - gets you a free blog on wordpress.com, limited themes, no plugins, and some downtime, but for just seeing if you want it, it's great.

(Um. Flock's a crap browser. Don't use it after getting the invite addy - you have been warned.)

[springdot]

I quite like NucleusCMS (http://www.nucleuscms.org) as well... maybe not quite the same as WordPress, but if you feel like using something different because every other blog out there seems to use WordPress, it might be worth a look...

You can set up a free blog at selectaBlog (http://www.selectablog.com) if you want a play around with it. You won't get access to everything you normally would, but you should be able to evaluate it fairly enough... (selectaBlog is one of my sites btw)


Cheers
James

[vkaryl]

Well, the backend doesn't make any difference really - it's what you choose to do with it. The point to blogging is the content.

WordPress is good because it's got millions of users, which equals millions of testers - and a great support forum. And yeah, I'm one of the mods there - but I wouldn't be if I didn't believe it was great stuff.

I tried Nucleus - it's almost as big a PITA as Drupal. Actually, just about the only CMS platforms I HAVEN'T tried are a couple that are still in development.... every one out there throws tables through core code.... *sighs and rolls eyes*....

[Bill]

I just downloaded Flock to get the free wordpress invite. I like wordpress a lot better than blogger. Flock is a crappy imitation of Firefox, IMO.

[Nobody]

Seems like you guys have a good knowledge according to blogs. Wich blog hosting system do you think is the best up to date?

[vkaryl]

Heh, yup that's about it microdude.... and the deal is that unless you go through flock for an invite now, you'll never get one (I don't KNOW this for a fact, but I've HEARD it a LOT lately....) Cheap.... and tacky.... because now it looks like flock is going great guns when all its getting is people downloading it so they get a .com invitation....

Been hearing some stuff that indicates that flock is as big a security black hole as IE - scary.

[Bill]

Yea, its pretty much impossible to get a word press invite at this time. I think you can get them off ebay, but i dont see any for sale right now on ebay. To get one, you must know someone who has an invite. Then people saw flock, and thats how the majority of people are getting them. You can get more than 1 too. ;)

[kickass]

Go with wordpress for sure. It's rock solid, support is offered quickly, generously and freely without any bull or begging, and it's infinitely customizable. The community is fabulous, the wiki documentation is fairly thorough and will get you through most customizations, and it's really easy to use. I've even set it up as a small business CMS, which is pretty easy to do. Best of all, it's xhtml/css all the way, baby, no bloated table code (unless you insist, though why you'd wanna go back to the 90's I dunno.)

[vkaryl]

One more thing: to try before you set up a self-hosted blog with WP - wordpress.com is now open to all. What .com is running is the "next incarnation" of WP - and we're beta'ing 2.0 right now. It's looking good....

[kickass]

vkaryl, you know most times I agree with you, and for good reason. But this is one of those places where I don't and for equally good reason. Why waste valuable blogposts on wordpress.com when you don't have the ability to transfer them over to a real install? You can't back up a dbase there. And if you do move to a homehosted blog you can't redirect from wordpress.com back to your own domain. So if you're starting a blog, better to just do it on your domain and upgrade when the time comes (and Vicki, you KNOW how much I HATE doing upgrades . . . )

Now, if you want a blog on wordpress.com for a different reason . . . :)