warning: this could be quite boring unless you are interested in blogging, but if you were my friend you would probably have had to sit and listen to it anyway. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Ok lots has been happening for me in the world of blog. Perhaps this is because I have spent so much time in here, avoiding/being too tired/emotional to deal with my real life? Just as I have been thinking about making changes in my life, so it has been for my blog. Some of these changes have been forced upon me and some have been intentional.
I've had to deal with the loss of my archives; not that bothered, really, as a lot of it is just 'stuff' that comes out, and I still have the pictures. I have comtemplated trying to put it all back together, but haven't got the energy or will at the moment. Plus Blogger, for some reason, is having problems accepting my pictures. I'm not sure whether this is because My original blog is still there, somewhere, and it's getting confused. I have tried to sign up for a Flikr pro account as I have almost run out of space already, but am having problems with them accepting my payment...*sigh*
I have thought this was a good opportunity to start a new blog, somewhere else, but I'm not sure what to use yet. It has been suggested that I get my own server so I can host it myself; this is possible and I do have access to servers but hate the fact they may not be completely reliable (like my mail account). I have been getting a bit sick of using blogger as it quite often doesn't work when I want it to and here are restrictions that I could do without. And I am always trying to reconcile the many different purposes for my blog: a diary, a home education journal, a way of communicating with others creatively and an outlet for my creative energy. Maybe this isn't possible all in one blog, but I have tried having more than one and I can't keep it up and the edges blur. Sometimes I find it difficult to say stuff because of the different people that I know read this (although some have admitted to just looking at the pictures- thats OK). So, maybe a blog with more features (?) could be more suitable for me. Having said that, I enjoy the accessibility of a really easy platform. The restrictions make it more simple. And I like simple. (KISS=keep it simple, stupid).
I found out a lot of stuff, too. When I was trying to find bits of my blog I found that some search engines have caches and some don't. And now I *get* feeds! I had heard of Bloglines but didn't really get what it was for and didn't know how to subscribe to feeds, etc. I suppose I never really bothered with all this stuff and just carried on blithely blogging away without going into it too deeply. Nobody talks about this stuff- is it too boring or what?
Also I have been listening to what Lloyd has to say about blogs and what they should/could be. This is really coming from the other end of the spectrum, as it seems to be all about corporate blogs, and what they can do. Lol! at me talking to a professional, who obviously belongs to the Guild of Very Serious Bloggers, about this. But I find it interesting, as I am coming from the non-techy, just have something to share/record point of view. It is only relatively recently that I have got to grips with computers, have never had a job where I had to use one, and I know plenty of people my age who haven't got the first clue about them. But I find it exciting that the internet is now being used for freely sharing information, and not just for making money. They call it web 2.0, but I can't be bothered to talk about that any more, just look it up.
So, I seem to have been rambling away in circles (why is it I am so much more lucid after I have gone to bed? Maybe I should go to bed early, then sneak downstairs and blog). So I was hoping to formulate this into some direct questions, but don't seem to have succeeded yet. When I go to the homeopath she always asks me what I want a remedy to do, which is always a difficult one, and I recently observed that going to a solicitor is a bit like going to a fortune teller: you need to ask specific questions (!) If you know what questions to ask then you are more than half way towards answering it yourself.
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7 comments:
I know exactly what you mean! It took a big overhaul for me to be happy with mine and now it's quite an effort not to just open my heart to it every day. But I'm glad I made the change. Hope you're decision is as effective and expedient as mine was, whatever you decide on in the end :-)
I wish I had more time to spend on helping you with this right now :-S
I would suggest looking at wordpress.com and vox.com as alternatives to blogger without going all the way to hosting your own, which i don't think would suit you. You should be able to import your archives (if you can find them !) and comments, but photos will probably have to be downloaded and reloaded to flickr - going pro is a good idea, so persevere.
I host my own, but that was mostly for the satisfaction of knowing that I could still cut the technical mustard - my main headache is having to deal with comment spam.
Let me know what you think and I'll try to hold your hand as much as I can :P
wordpress.com doesn't let you have the blogring!
Try blogsome - they are wordpress based. Or how about http://homeschooljournal.net/ ? It's run by Andrea and Ron who comment on my blog from time to time, and they are lovely. There's another blogring member on there already as well.
If you did want to go to hosting your own, feel free to pick my brains on installing software and stuff, it's obviously something I've done once or thrice ;) There are some benefits - like you can have it set up with plugins so that you can have posts that aren't seen by the casual viewer, only by your logged in friends. Keep considering doing that bit myself, but I like to splurge it all out there :)
Gill- still not quite sure what you're up to with your blog, but glad you're happier with it now :)
Lloyd- thankyou so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to think about this. I'll keep you posted and hopefully we can talk when things aren't so hectic ;-)
Jax- Thanks. I don't want to lose the blogring!- so how come you've got it on wordpress then?
I'll look at the others- I tried blogsome ages ago but it wasn't playing. May have to leave the hosting for the moment. I have someone to help me with setting that up but you know how reliable that one is ;-)
Wordpress (the software) can have your blogring code fine. What Jax was referring to was the suggestion to 'wordpress.com' - which is free blog hosting using Wordpress.
I'd second her suggestion for Home School Journal hosting if you don't want to roll your own - this is again free blog hosting run by a couple of Home Educators.
If you want reliability, then from what I read Blogger is the last place you want to be.
Lloyd - Akismet (included WP2.x), though there are one or to issues to pick at it with, or Spam Karma (which didn't work for me when I loaded it, but does for most) deal well with comment spam - we get very little now that makes it even into moderation, let alone onto the blog
I'm not really up to anything exciting with mine, I just needed it to be less of an openly emotional dumping ground and more useful to myself and other people.
I read everything and didn't think 85% of it was worth republishing, so just re-posted the 15% that I thought was.
Now I'm trying to confine myself to writing posts that fit in with those kind of themes and contexts, but it's a struggle!
thanks for pointing that out jax, I hadn't taken the javascript into account in my haste to reply.
@chrisbean, i'm on movabletype still and the latest upgrade has helped with the spam, but thank you.
@rosie, i'd try out a few if i were you, just to see what they feel like [it's not like you're busy or anything - heh :P ]
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