Monday 20 February 2006

Blog bleg

A quick question about the pros and cons of different weblog platforms. I'm organising an academic conference for next year and I intend to do the website in blog form. I'm trying to decide between Typepad and Wordpress. From what I've seen, Wordpress would be a better option in the long run, but is it very hard to set up (especially for someone who knows next to nothing about web site building)? I have access to hosting. Will I have to spend a lot of time learning things to be able to install & set up Wordpress? Should I just bite the bullet and pay the Typepad subscription?

Advice and opinions very gratefully received.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does your host support an automatic Wordpress install? For instance, my host lets me install all sorts of photo galleries, forums and blogging software from my site's web configuration page. (I went with Drupal on a whim, and it has gone fairly smoothly. But installation was non-trivial.)

From what I've heard, I fully recommend Wordpress - versatile yet free. You can always give it a shot, I'm sure you've got plenty of readers who have their own WP setup and could help with the installation.

Anonymous said...

WordPress is usually really easy to set up, but your experience will vary depending on your host. If they're good, it won't be a problem, and it'll only get remotely hard if you have very specific ideas about advanced customization. If they're not, it'll be far easier to go with a hosted service than it will be to work around them.

You could also consider WordPress.com, which is basically a WordPress-powered TypePad, but it'll give you much less flexibility than either of the other choices.

lucy tartan said...

Thank you both. I feel much less scared about WordPress now, and once I've checked the details about the host I'll probably go with the WP option.

cfsmtb said...

We use and endorse Wordpress, as our first choice for slightly more serious blog purposes.

Anonymous said...

I think you can get a free thirty day trial at typepad ...is that long enough for you?

There used to be some codes which you could subscribe to typepad with that made it cheaper...Angus at 'I feel love' mioght know them.

Anonymous said...

Go with wordpress. Typepad is good for the beginner but it becomes seriously limiting after a while. If I were lass lazy I'd organise my own wordpress site.

Anonymous said...

Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress Wordpress

And so on. Very easy to install and most web hosts have an automatice installer.

Plus you get HEAPS more functionality (well a fair bit anyway which will be useful if you want multiple users and so on.

Anonymous said...

Totally offtopic, but I just picked up the posters you sent -- brilliant! Thankyou thankyou!

Unknown said...

Definitely WordPress.

Over the past few days quite a few long-time Typepad bloggers have made the switch, or are making the switch, to WP.

Tony said...

Agree with much of what's said in the comments above.

I'm on Typepad and reckon it's pretty damn easy to use. The reason I picked TP in the first place was because of the hosting issue.

But from what I've seen of Word Press, it's a better system. I probably maybe wish I'd selected WP instead of TP to start with.

That said, TP are improving all the time and they spend a lot of time keeping users up to date.

Short term use TP - Long term use WP.

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Anonymous said...

I like both platforms - Wordpress, of course, is free which makes it very appealing. James Farmer from Deakin University has a consultancy over at Blogsavvy (www.incsub.org), if you have serious iss-ews. He has installed a free Wordpress powered host for education bloggers at www.edublogs.org - however for assisting with an event, he might want some dollars.

There is also Wordpress.com, and Blogsome, an Irish outfit which is longer established and rather impressive.
I've put my edublogs address down below, but it is me, from Cried for Night. Just in case you were wondering.