info @ the P.Pole 07.23.07

Here I am blogging happily on WordPress. Surprisingly enough, the decision to swap over didn’t take me too long and I’m (so far) glad that I have made the switch.

5 things I like about WordPress:

• Function: its sheer volume of other functions (or maybe Blogger was just crippled) that allow for me to do and know a lot more. I can track my blo’s stats using WP and find out which posts have the most traffic, or keep track of and display the most recent comments (something I wish Blogger had).
• Simplicity: for the most part, customizing the layout (of, say, the sidebar) is extremely easy. Xanga uses the same drag/drop way of arranging things but I could never get Xanga to work for me (nor did I have much interest in Xanga anyway). WordPress is easy to use and everything is right there for me. I guess not editing CSS isn’t a big deal after all, since I don’t know it know it anyway and the standard themes do a great job.
• Aesthetics: I am mostly not a fan of the generic, standard skins that people use for their websites (like Blogger’s pre-made templates or pre-fabricated Xanga layouts) just because they all seem to lack anything special about them. WordPress’ standard themes aren’t super original either, but I guess most of them I find pretty decent so I don’t mind using them. It sure saves me a lot of tinkering time, leaving more for me to write with. For the most part, the skins are clean and simple (perfect!) while very functional. Some, I admit, are slightly cluttered or distracting, but hey, I’m not using all the themes now, am I?
• Painlessness: there was little to no pain for me when switching from Blogger. I imported every single post I’ve written (all 500+ of them) since January two years ago onto WP’s servers. Apart from some server maintenance moments when I was signing up (I chose the worst time possible to decide to try out WP and did so right when they were making some changes), getting the rest set up was straightforward and surprisingly simple. I never swapped hosts before because I was afraid of losing my previous posts (I’m OCD so I don’t like having incomplete series) but WP took care of me. *licks “Import” button*
• Image: for some reason I’ve come to respect WordPress, ever since I first heard about it from Adwin’s blog. I don’t think it’s a solely perceived difference since there are obvious, useful differences between WP and other blogging services. Then again, I’m not entirely sureI haven’t become a bit of a fanboy of WP. Well either way, I think it gives off a bit of a more nerdy aura than services like Blogger. I mean, everyone knows about Blogger, but WordPress? Sounds geeky to me!

Of course, it may yet be too early for these impressions to be lasting but the outlook is good.