I have started building my Sexdotcom.info site, and decided that it might be useful to run the “Latest” section of it as a blog.
Why? Because I have grown very comfortable with the blog approach and the section will most likely be informal daily updates. Most important though, it will let people interact with the site by commenting. And the fact it will come in a blog format is likely to encourage people to look through it.
What I want therefore is very, very simple. I want all the automated stuff that blog software does, in particular the calendar, the comments and the permalinks. And I want it to slot it in with my existing website – the same banner, the same shape and size, the same buttons on the left – I just want the blog in the middle, a calendar on the right and the code running in the background.
You will not believe how difficult that is. And it really shouldn't be. I should be able to grab blog software as a module, stick it up on my site and be off. Why on earth hasn't Macromedia just created a blog module in Dreamweaver? I would upgrade to get it.
[In fact that thought has just send me searching through Macromedia/Dreamweaver and I've found this series of very lengthy articles on how to build your own blog within Dreamweaver. It is hardly drag-and-drop.]
And this ties in with my first issue. For this blog you're reading, I use Blogware. It was devised by registrars Tucows and is sold only through resellers i.e. you buy it with a hosting deal or when you buy a domain name etc etc.
Yesterday and this morning, the site was down AGAIN because of yet another update to Blogware's servers. This is the sixth time this has happened in as many months, and they never so much as send an email to warn you. Last time I considered moving, this time I have started researching it.
When I decided to go with Blogware rather than one of the other blog providers, I knew one of the downsides was that if their server went down, my site would vanish. But I weighed that up against the hassle and cost of getting a hosting deal with the MySQL database used by the majority of blog software, and of installing software on the server. The fact that the site keeps going down is beginning to irritate me. I am supposed to be a professional IT journalist so my site shouldn't be disappearing randomly. It's becoming more worthwhile paying the extra.
Here we go again
So I set off investigating blog software all over again because now I have two blogs to decide for: this one and one for Sexdotcom.info.
And I found a whole series of lengthy articles explaining exactly which blog software you should go with. The following three were particularly explanatory and lengthy: Asymptomatic decides to go into great detail on the most obscure offerings while ignoring the most famous (for reasons he then outlines in depth on a blog post).
Microcontent News then has a crack, complaining, ironically, that there isn't a good explanation of what blog software to go with. It covers a lot of ground and detail.
And then the Online Journalism Review joins the party, promising to offer an end to the “confusing and frustrating” situation at the moment.
And having read all three, I can honestly say I am more undecided and confused than when I started.
Wtf is going on? There seems to be a strange mindset surrounding blogs at the moment that the more information you can pile in there, the better. What we really need is some a short, punchy explanation and fuck the mind-numbing objective accuracy.
There is also a strange sort of revelling in the complexity of all this. Some providers offer an install service, but they do it half-heartedly and they stick all sorts of caveats on it.
I had nearly decided to go with Moveable Type and pay for them to install it. But I couldn't actually find the price anywhere. Plus there is a long list of instructions and this ridiculous note:
There are four required modules we can install, and some (but not all) of the optional modules. Those modules which are included in the distribution package (in the extlib folder) will be installed for you.
We cannot install any of the four database modules for you; one of these must already be present on your server.
We do not install the following optional modules:
HTML::Entities
Image::Magick
Storable
Crypt::DSA
Mime::Base64"
Now tell me: if you are paying for someone to install some software, what's the likelihood that you know what the hell that means? How do you know if you have the modules? Where do you get them from if you don't? Do they offer a separate install service for these ones?
Every company offering to install their own software (and only a minority do this) warns you that the install may not work for a number of reasons – all of which will be your fault. Most likely will be that your hosting deal doesn't have what they need (PHP, CGI, MySQL and a number of other acronyms). They then give you a list of stuff they need and tell you it's up to you to make sure your hoster has them.
So you have to dig out the details of your hosting deal. The rule here is that if it doesn't state it, it doesn't exist. There's no point in hoping that, say, Perl is so basic that it will be included. If it doesn't have it in the long specs list, it's not there.
But the hosting companies are just as bad when it comes to emptying technical information onto the Web with little or no explanation as to what it means or doesn't mean. A hosting deal without MySQL should state: “Warning: You will not be able to run most types of blogging software with this deal.” Or, to be more positive and simple, why don't they offer a “Blogging hoster special” and pre-install blog software for you?
[Update: It occurred to me shortly after writing this that I should do a no-nonsense blogging software guide. It came down to six questions and you can find it here.]
Blogging isn't the end of the world
To get back to my Sexdotcom blog – I want to be able to slot the blog into my existing site, but again we have a strange hangover from early blogging culture. The automatic assumption built into many packages is that you are going to run the blog as a separate entity, often to the extent that an entire website or domain will be the blog, and nothing else.
Alot of blog software crows on about its flexibility and simplicity, but the opposite is true. You have to be pretty conversant in a number of coding languages to make basic changes. Some blog companies recognise this but rather than simplify it, or build a decent management system, they offer Fisher Price options for the fools. Different skins, different styles. But why can't I just have a drop-down menu for font, colour, size, position, and so on.
Why is it all so bloody, unnecessarily complicated?
The answer is money. Some of the prices the companies are charging for blog software are ridiculous. And it's because of this divide. On the one hand, you have the free software, knocked up by open-source enthusiasts who take pride in their technical know-how. And installation guides for this software read like an alien's guidebook to Earth.
And then you have the companies hoping to make money who have a bewildering array of charges and can't decide what you're buying either. Is it a licence? If so, why do you have to pay for an upgrade? Am I commercial user if I have Google AdWords? These companies have a vested interest in making it all sound incredibly complicated. If it's complex, it must be worth paying $89.95 for.
But the truth is that blogging software is, in the greater scheme of things, extremely simple. You don't find normal software making you jump through 800 hoops while at the same time shoving in caveats and licences.
The real world of software
Grab any normal software. You get an exe file. You double-click it. It asks you where you want to save it. You tell it. And then a few minutes later it's there and working. Why on earth can't we have the same for blogging software?
As it is, I'm still not sure what blogging software to go for because I can't be certain that I will be able to get it to do what I want. And let me reiterate: all I want is for the blog to run seamlessly within my website set-up. That's all. I don't want to get involved in 500 different decisions to get to that point.
On top of this my hosting deal doesn't come with MySQL, so now if I want anything but Blogware – which I like but it is over-priced and too restrictive – I have to shift my hosting deal. Money down the toilet.
As it is I am going to experiment – starting with the free tools – on one hosting deal (with PHP, Perl, MySQL and three kitchen sinks) – and then make the decision.
Or I could just not bother to stick a blog element on my Sexdotcom site at all. That would be the easiest option.