Slumberland

Though iBlog is a nifty little program, some of its limitations have been driving me nuts. The inflexibility, invalid XHTML, not-quite-valid RSS, large size of the blog (since all pages are static) and the basic fact that it’s a client-side app and hence not able to do some of the things server-side apps can do. I’ve been able to add comments via Haloscan, and sometimes I manually Trackback my posts, but it’s frustrating. Apparently I might be more of a power user than iBlog’s intended userbase. 🙂 We have our own web server, so the only reason not to use a server-side blog program is that Jason hasn’t been enthusiastic about installing one. But that doesn’t mean I can’t…

So I’ve been looking around for possible alternatives, and found WordPress. It is standards-compliant, and has some truly neat features. It uses PhP and MySQL, and if you have those installed you can have it set up in 5 minutes, just as they claim. (I tried it. It is a really easy and neat set-up. In contrast, earlier in the evening I tried to install Movable Type, and it was frustrating and annoying.)

So… Pros and Cons of switching to WordPress:

Pros: Server-side with a database, so it will be less bulky and support more features like messages, search, trackback, etc. Standards-compliant. Can post from any browser or from cell phones, etc. Has Blogger import so I might be able to import the posts from the old old blog. GPL-licensed. Emphasis on web standards and user experience. Admin interface very good. Would have control over code that iBlog won’t let me control easily now. Can hack WordPress with interesting customizations. WP seems to be fast.

Cons: No iBlog import; would have to manually copy it all over (and I’ve been blogging like a madwoman lately, which makes it harder). iBlog is an OS X program, which is nice to support. iBlog user community pretty good and I would miss it.

Am I forgetting anything? Comments welcome. For a while I will test WP and copy iBlog posts over while I decide what I want to do.