Recommend blog thing easiily transitions to website

[woodsmoke]

Hi

EDIT: thanks to Feathers I need to add that I do NOT need to use onboard stuff, I just want to use stock, at the blog site thing stuff, very plain vanilla.
End of Edit:

I am in need of opinions about a good "blog thing" that will

a) be relatively easy to set up if I keep it simple.
b) have a relatively robust ....don't know the correct term ...community..... that might see it and judge it for worth, and
c) that I can have some kind of "metrics" to determine if they AT LEAST... "return" for multiple looks, don't necessarily need a "response" type thing.....

This so that I can test whether what I have to say is worthwhile, or not!

d) be able to relatively "transition" the whole blog "thing" to a website if there is sufficient interest....


And as a headsup, I don't like Blogspot, it is hooked into discus which absolutely keeps Firefox, at least, churning all the time and I don't want to do that kind of thing to unknowing viewers.

So.....

thanks muchly ahead of time!

woodsmoke

[claydoh]

wordpress.com (the free blog hosting)
You can easily take your free wordpress blog from there and migrate it to a wordpress blog to your own domain.

Wordpress.org (the actual software) is f/oss, fairly simple to use, has buttloads of themes and addons, and is one of the most widely used things out there.
Downsides?
-- soo many themes and plugins that it is often overwhelming
-- Like searching for solutions to linux problems on the web, the sheer size of Wordpress usage can make finding things interesting

Most web hosts offer this (as well a a number of other things) as a nearly one-click install.

My blog is using wordpress, I gave up using a full bore CMS because it was too much for me.
Also, my sis-in-law uses it for her business

[Feathers McGraw]

Hmm. Are you asking for a recommendation of software that you will install on your own server, or are you looking for a blog hosting company?

WordPress
I used to use WordPress... it's really simple to use especially if all you want is a blog.

It's normally quite easy to recognise a WP website, as it's often used for small websites for bands etc. Here are a few examples:

http://pantera.com/
http://usainbolt.com/
http://blog.linkedin.com/
http://www.27bslash6.com/ (this one is hilarious BTW)
http://www.beingbrunel.com/


Here's a tutorial I wrote for installing WordPress (for Raspberry Pi but will work for Ubuntu just the same).

Drupal
I now use Drupal, another content management system that is more security focused.

It's easier to do complicated things with Drupal, but there's more of a learning curve to begin with, which makes doing simple things more difficult. For example, the admin layout isn't as user friendly as WordPress. WordPress out of the box has "what most people want" turned on by default. In Drupal, many of those things are off by default and you have to turn them on yourself, like anonymous comments (allowing people to comment without creating a user account).

It's possible to do more with Drupal though - for example, Drupal Core has a built in forum and a more flexible structure for categorising content, as well as a statistics module.

A reasonable analogy: Drupal is to WordPress what OpenWrt is to DD-WRT.

Some Drupal sites:
http://www.samhobbs.co.uk
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
http://www.amnesty.org/

My site is pretty simple for Drupal (overkill really) but I'm using it to learn.

IMO, the single most compelling reason to use Drupal over WordPress is Drush, a commandline tool for Drupal (Drush = Drupal Shell). You can, in one command, backup your entire site (files, database and all) into an archive.

drush archive-dump default -r /var/www/drupal --tar-options="-z" --destination=/path/to/backup.tar.gz

Similarly, restoring the whole lot is one-liner, run from /var/www:

sudo drush archive-restore --db-su=root --db-su-pw=YOURDATABASEROOTPW /path/to/backup.tar.gz

I used this when I was tinkering with my theme: I set up a local Apache instance on my laptop and restored a backup file, made my changes there, then backed that up and restored it to the server. Zero disruption to my site.

SO, if you think you might want to move your site from one host to another, Drupal might save you some pain!

Statistics
As for the statistics, like I mentioned above Drupal has a module built in, and WordPress has plugins for it too (both have Google Analytics modules/plugins if that's your thing). If you're hosting on your own, you might prefer Webalizer, which is quite a simple log file processor.

Hope that helps!

[woodsmoke]

Hi guys....thanks for the info...

Claydoh, nice stuff, that is basically what I'm thinking about...

And Feathers, that is just what is great about this place...you asked what I did not say...

No, I went through the whole Drupal thing a few years ago, and I just want to use some stock stuff, like Wordpress would provide.

The critical thing for me is to get what I think is some "interesting stuff" out there and then to get get relatively quick feedback as to whether it is worthwhile.. if it isn't i don' have an ego in it and will drop the thing..

Soooo your comment about "finding stuff" is actually a double edged sword.

A) would it be better to use a .......don't know how to say it...."smaller blog thing" so that my stuff could be more easily rise above the other stuff so that people could at least give it a kick in the tires... but would that be a good metric?

B) or.......use wordpress and hope that what I have to say is sufficiently current that it will get some attention, either up or down.

But..........both of you.......great info and I will take it VERY MUCH to heart.

And, if anyone else want's to chime in.....please do so.

woodthankfulsmoke