I'm currently looking into converting this blog from Blogger into Wordpress. When I originally started the blog, I wasn't really that serious about it and didn't go out of my way to research different blogging software. Now that the blog's really grown a lot (and I have a lot of plans to grow it more in the future), I really regret starting it out on blogger.
In case you don't know, Blogger and Wordpress are just two different blog hosts/blogging software packages. Their webpages are blogger.com and wordpress.com, respectively. At the time I'm writing this, Glowing Face Man is hosted and run through Blogger.
One of the main reasons I chose Blogger is that it's owned by Google and I respect that company a lot and they generally seem to put a lot of quality into whatever they do. However, I've come to see that Blogger is the exception: I'm not happy with the job Google's done. Blogger is tough to customize to any significant degree-- you have to do a tricky hack just to give separate articles their own keyword and description metadata for the search engines. And as far as I can tell, there's no way to control the URL of the articles I post here. Blogger automatically generates my article URLs, stuffing them with useless date info (I generally strive to write timeless articles which will remain just as relevant regardless of how many years later you read them). When I write an article like "Deep Desires and Surface Desires", the URL should be something like "http://www.glowingfaceman.com/desires.html", but instead it is "http://www.glowingfaceman.com/2009/01/deep-desires-and-surface-desires.html". And I'm given no choice to change that. Some articles, I've changed the names, and with Blogger I'm screwed, like "How To Be A Better Teacher", which Blogger still keeps under the URL "how-to-be-better-ta" from when the original title was "How To Be A Better TA".
Wordpress also has plugins, so I don't have to be constantly reinventing the wheel. And lots of other cool features. It seems like Blogger is just way, way behind. Blogger is basically suited for personal blogs you'd share with Mom and Dad. It's not suited for a professional blog stuffed with high-valuable articles you want to share far and wide, like Glowing Face Man.
If the blog goes down for awhile, you might try going to http://www.glowingfaceman.wordpress.com for awhile, until I finish the conversion and update the domain registration stuff for www.glowingfaceman.com. Similar remarks go for RSS feeds.
Using a different blogging software package should also give me some new perspectives into blogging and make me a more intelligent blogger in general. This is similar to how I used a different spaced repetition system (Anki instead of Mnemosyne) to do my French in 30 days challenge: varying my tools, I become a more authoritative craftsman. Experimenting with different mediums, I become more skilled in every medium.
I'm not sure how easy or difficult this transition will be. In the end, though, look forward to an improved Glowing Face Man :)
FURTHER READING
Skills And Metaskills
Autodidact: Be A Self-Teacher
Returning From Florida
Fighting Perfectionism: Shorter Articles
30 Day Article-A-Day Challenge Completed!
In case you don't know, Blogger and Wordpress are just two different blog hosts/blogging software packages. Their webpages are blogger.com and wordpress.com, respectively. At the time I'm writing this, Glowing Face Man is hosted and run through Blogger.
One of the main reasons I chose Blogger is that it's owned by Google and I respect that company a lot and they generally seem to put a lot of quality into whatever they do. However, I've come to see that Blogger is the exception: I'm not happy with the job Google's done. Blogger is tough to customize to any significant degree-- you have to do a tricky hack just to give separate articles their own keyword and description metadata for the search engines. And as far as I can tell, there's no way to control the URL of the articles I post here. Blogger automatically generates my article URLs, stuffing them with useless date info (I generally strive to write timeless articles which will remain just as relevant regardless of how many years later you read them). When I write an article like "Deep Desires and Surface Desires", the URL should be something like "http://www.glowingfaceman.com/desires.html", but instead it is "http://www.glowingfaceman.com/2009/01/deep-desires-and-surface-desires.html". And I'm given no choice to change that. Some articles, I've changed the names, and with Blogger I'm screwed, like "How To Be A Better Teacher", which Blogger still keeps under the URL "how-to-be-better-ta" from when the original title was "How To Be A Better TA".
Wordpress also has plugins, so I don't have to be constantly reinventing the wheel. And lots of other cool features. It seems like Blogger is just way, way behind. Blogger is basically suited for personal blogs you'd share with Mom and Dad. It's not suited for a professional blog stuffed with high-valuable articles you want to share far and wide, like Glowing Face Man.
If the blog goes down for awhile, you might try going to http://www.glowingfaceman.wordpress.com for awhile, until I finish the conversion and update the domain registration stuff for www.glowingfaceman.com. Similar remarks go for RSS feeds.
Using a different blogging software package should also give me some new perspectives into blogging and make me a more intelligent blogger in general. This is similar to how I used a different spaced repetition system (Anki instead of Mnemosyne) to do my French in 30 days challenge: varying my tools, I become a more authoritative craftsman. Experimenting with different mediums, I become more skilled in every medium.
I'm not sure how easy or difficult this transition will be. In the end, though, look forward to an improved Glowing Face Man :)
FURTHER READING
Skills And Metaskills
Autodidact: Be A Self-Teacher
Returning From Florida
Fighting Perfectionism: Shorter Articles
30 Day Article-A-Day Challenge Completed!
Posts
1 comments:
Funny, I was JUST about to transfer my Blogger 日本語 blog over to Wordpress as well.
I had originally been using Wordpress for my other, beefier blogs over the past two years and have been (for the most part) pleased with the platform - software updates get irritating sometimes, as does the (seemingly) constantly changing user interface and occasional gaping security hole, but the tradeoff is a far, FAR more customizable, flexible and powerful blogging platform. (/PR buzzwords)
At any rate - I'm looking forward to the new and improved Glowing Face Man and I hope the conversion goes well!
Post a Comment