I am using wordpress at the moment and I am quite satisfied with it, despite the recent security vulnerabilities that are found from time to time ever since the launch of the new version, 1.5. One function that is lacking is the verification code for comments. Since there is none, it is quite susceptible to spamming. Version 1.5 has actually made improvements on this aspect, banning users for repeated commenting at a short time. But it is still not enough.

A blog is not a diary. I think people blog for (at least) three reasons. 1) Peeking into others’ lives, 2) Speaking ill of others freely and 3) showing off. I put up my blog mainly for reason 2 and 3. (You won’t show off in your diary, right?) I have actually witnessed the power of blogging when a certain rumor spread in my school simply because a certain blogger put it purposefully on her blog. You will notice the difference once you switch from diary to blog. There are far too many things that you will hesitate to put on the public domain. For me, the diary is much hardcore, containing things that would make me blush. In the blogs, people pretend to be humorous, funny and talkative. You will start portraying yourself as another character in your blog. Blogs are therefore never sincere. They serve important social function though and are likely to play more important role in people’s lives.

I won’t recommend xanga and space. The day will come when they will actually charge you for blogging and you will find that you cannot move your articles elsewhere. Whereas if you blog by wordpress, you can import and export the database freely through phpmyadmin.

 

 

 

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Wow! Just came across your thread. I just started to use WordPress myself. So far, I'm very impressed with what you can do with it. Before then, I used Blogger (which is also a very good blogging service, and it's great for beginners who want to start their own website but have no background in HTML).

Anyway...back to WP. I have 1.5 and I love using the Themes (and the plug-ins), and I hope to create my own someday to add a more personal stamp to my blog.

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The problem with Wordpress, MovableType and so on is that you are forced to make all sorts of security arrangements more or less right away. A "clean" install of either system will be open for all sort of spammers; like comment spam and trackback spam.

Jaques Distler had 429 trackbacks/day in June. And it's not like he has the most visited blog ever. He is running MT, which is considered a pretty good system as far as I know, still he is continually editing the system to stop spammers. And he already has a highly adpted system. A clean system (again, both MT and WP) have all sorts of "standard" files for spammers to exploit.


While I'm at it, what's the point of trackbacks? I mean, if someone posts in their own blog about something you've written, you'll see that in your referer log? The only thing you're missing out on is blogs that write about you but where the readers of that blog never visit your site. To me it seems like trackbacks and pingbacks bring more problems than pleasures...

 

 

 

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MSN Spaces just started recently right ?

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I've used almost all of those bloggy places, like Xanga, Livejournal, PItas, Diaryland....etc. I drop them out or delete them or leave them dead after a few uses. (cuz i got made my own blog now)..

Nwayz, have u guys check out dis place yet? http://www.twylite.cc/

It's like an anime/interactive/blogging comunity, where you can have your own blog there. It's different from Xanga and Livejournal. I would say that you can edit your blog just like a normal webpage without a blog system like Xanga/Pitas has. They don't need any confusing codes, and there are no ads. Xept you have to give them credit at the bottom of you page of where you hosted your blog.

Go check it out!

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