[workshop] Re: [innercircle] what's your ideal blogging tool?

[John S. J. Anderson]

Michal Wallace <michal@sabren.com> writes:

> The trouble is, there's a million ways I could build it. It
> could be like blogger (central server, remote publish), like
> movable type (cgi script, local publish), like livejournal 
> (central server, local publish), or maybe something entirely
> different. 

I'm not sure I understand the distinction between "local" and "remote"
that you're making -- from what I know of how MT works, I would also
call it "remote", in that the content lives on the server, not the
machine where the editing is done. (Don't know anything at all about
LiveJournal.) 

My current "roll yer own" blog tool does what I would call "local
publish": it writes files to disk _on the local machine_, then uses
SFTP to push changes to the server. 

> But my question is... What do people want? So I'm asking you
> all. :) 

Okay, I think I'm pretty far off your typical market sample, but maybe
I'll be a useful outlier. 8^)= 

>   - What features are most important to you in a blogging tool? 

The client side of the tool shouldn't be locked into being
browser-based; you should be able to blog from the cozy confines of
your favorite text editor, for example. 

>   - If you use one, why did you choose it over something else?

I use one I wrote; I wrote one because -- well, because I could, and
it seemed like a fun thing to do, and I had some fairly peculiar
feature desires. 

>   - Would you want to use the same tool to manage the rest of 
>     your site, if you could?

Nope, tried that and am in the process of bouncing off. What I think
of as "static" (i.e., not frequently updated) content (frex,
<http://genehack.org/linux/>) seems to require a fundamentally
different way of working. 

>   - how important are standards? For example, is it better to 
>     use a complex standard like XSLT for your templates, or
>     a simpler but nonstandard template language?

<shrug> Again, I'm coming from a DiY perspective, so I'd say it's more
important to be able to do what you want to do, rather than stick to
some standard _just for the sake of sticking to a standard_. 

(ObQuote: "Standards are good. Everybody should have one.")

>   - for the programmers: have you ever wanted to add your own
>     features to your blogging tool? If you could extend the 
>     tool just by writing a simple plugin class, what would
>     you want to build?

One thing that I wanted for a while, and finally got around to rolling
up just recently, was a "random image of the day" sidebar feature. 

>   - what DON'T you like about the blogging tools you use, or 
>     have used?

Don't get me started; I'm currently suppressing my "geez it's awful,
must rewrite now!" impulses. 8^)= 

>   - what would it take to get you to switch to a new tool? 
>     (or to start using one if you've never used one before)

I can't think of a situation where I would; part of the fun, for me,
is making the tools that I use. 


john.
-- 
"That's the problem with nature, something's always stinging you or
oozing mucous all over you. Let's go and watch TV."
              --- Calvin