I initially started on Blogger, but I thought their interface was pretty clumsy. LiveJournal has always looked like a complete mess to me, and I still don't read blogs on there if I can help it-- and probably for the same reason I don't bother with Twitter, if you get my drift.
Wordpress seems to have a lot of good folks, and the interface is nice. I like that I can use their engine (when I get some space of my own) and retain the feel of my current blog. On the down-side, I really don't care much for some of the more frequent WP forum users-- that situation they have going with the volunteer help lording around like over-proud house slaves is kinda weird. Anyone else notice this?
Welcome to the group! Feel free to start a new discussion, etc. (This goes for everyone here). I may have created it, but it's all about sharing. :D
My mini-story:
I actually had a LiveJournal and a Sanga account. No telling what's become of them now. I created a Blogger account mainly so I can keep up with Blogger blog friends in their comments.
IA...WP has a lot of good people on it...I love the new / popular links in the Dashboard area - has provided oodles of entertainment and links. Most of the WP "staff" has been nice, I don't think it's really intentional any "lording" done, well at least I hope not. Matt's by far the coolest one I've seen I think.
I had been through quite a few. I started out years abck in Xanga, then on to angelfire, foloowed by Suarespace and then Blogger.
Blogger's commenting system was making me crazy - so I decided to look into wordpress.
You could buy a web address and have it pointing to your blog in minutes. Good enough.
I still use Blogger for my mobile blog and that one is doing fine so far.
I was hoping someone would do a WP group, and then I found you guys here at NaBloPoMo
Looking forward to sharing,
Frances
yeah, Blogger's comment system is such a crock. I hate having to maintain a shitty Blogger blog that doesn't even have any useful activity on it, just so I can comment on a couple blogs I dig reading each day. So here I am, stuck with a crummy blog over there that basically is just a link to my real one. Stupid!
yep, me too. It's pretty silly, indeed. The only other thing I've used it for is kind of a testing area (see what works over there vs. at WP). WP so rocks their socks off! :D
As for the original question, for three years I used to host my own using the wordpress software, but I got knocked up and next thing I know there just wasn't any time to fix my constantly screwy database, and I didn't feel right blogging there as I went from a fairly entertaining blog of a world traveller who got laid a lot to a lame "mommy blog". I wasn't the same person any more, and so my previous one fell by the wayside and I moved over to wp.com. I always loved using WP and as I had also grabbed my name as soon as wp.com opened it was just natural to go over there. It's nice that I don't have to think about anything any more.
I just started blogging a few months ago and chose WordPress because a friend of mine was using it. It's been great so far, although I'm still learning to use it. I did try blogging on our dot mac account, but that was too much work using iWeb. With WP, I'm not locked to one computer like iWeb, and can blog from work, home, or wherever.
A friend of mine decided to change from a group to a blog to maintain contact with the group of diabetics she had created. In trying to get signed up so that I could post to her WP blog I inadvertently created a site for myself. I really hadn't planned to do any blogging. Then one day I decided to post something on my own blog. The rest is history. I'm still learning my way around. NBPM has helped me learn a lot and get 'way more comfortable with blogging. I'm glad I signed up.
I picked it partly because my friend used it and recommended it, and partly because I found I liked the Control Panel/Dashboard- switching/customizing themes, adding pages, and making posts are all a breeze. It's hard enough coming up with things to write about- I appreciate actually posting them not being a chore.
Yes, the dashboard makes it pretty easy, and yet you still have some control, too. The only thing is not being able to use javascript limits one a bit, but I totally get why it's excluded.
And, to Eve: That's proof that a "mistake" can turn out to be a great thing. Rock on! :-)
I used blogger briefly but I didn't like how complicated it was to leave comments and I loved the idea of being able to create pages. I love wordpress; it's clean and easy to use and it doesn't take [what feels like] half an hour to leave a simple comment.
It was offered for free from my hosting service, so I thought I would use it. I'm in love so far, so that's a good thing. Although, it is a bit of a challenge for those not particularly tech savvy.
