Godless Woman: Thinking

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Thinking

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I have been thinking about getting my own domain and running wordpress. In addition to a blog I was thinking the new site could also have a forum, photo and video galleries, as well as a section that has my reading list with a way for viewers to submit books that maybe I have overlooked.

So, what do you guys think? Is there anything else that I should add to it?

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deleted2152886 49p · 851 weeks ago

I run my won website on wordpress and I highly recommend it over blogspot. It's so much easier, customizable, and enjoyable for both the admin and the reader.

..... OK, where's my money? .....

Anyway, I think it's a great idea but unless you know there is a group of people looking for such a service a forum might be a bad idea. A sparse forum is very difficult to grow and the best way to have a large forum is to start one while you already have a large base to draw from.

Just my two cents based on running a few failed forums and talking with successful forum admins. Your mileage may, of course, vary.

3 replies · active 851 weeks ago

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Goddless_Woman 43p · 851 weeks ago

Thanks for the feedback. I really wasn't set on the forum idea, I just threw it out there to see what kind of response it would get. I don't think that I have enough traffic yet to make it successful.

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deleted2152886 49p · 851 weeks ago

As an aside, I once saw an ingenious little idea for increasing forum traffic. On a blog, I forget the name, instead of a link to comments or even a comment section at all each post would have a link to it's own thread in a forum. Essentially they replaced their comment section with a forum.

I suppose they borrowed the idea from webcomics but I thought it was inventive. It automatically creates incentive to visit and post on the forum.

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Goddless_Woman 43p · 851 weeks ago

That sounds really interesting, but I think I love Intense Debate too much :)

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Karen 43p · 851 weeks ago

I'm with Friar Zero on Wordpress. I think it's quite superior to Blogspot and moving at this point would probably be easier.

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Tony Sidaway · 851 weeks ago

Looking at different people and how they handle their following:Richard Dawkins has a huge following but his interaction is fairly sparse. He publishes articles that could be described as blog entries, but most of the action takes place on the forum, where he interacts at irregular intervals but the fans interact with one another. PZ Myers on the other hand is a blogging addict, having been through Usenet on talk.origins and then on various forums. Material finds its way onto his blog from various sources, but PZ makes the decision to post it.

I think the difference here is name recognition. If PZ became as much a household name as Dawkins it's conceivable that he could run to a forum. On the other hand being a habitual blogger he probably finds the curren setup preferable.

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dreid · 851 weeks ago

Start with getting your own domain and pointing it at blogspot. Wordpress can be a pain to setup and maintain. As is most forum software. I've seen many a blogger stop blogging simply because the overhead of maintaining their website/blog became too daunting.

So yeah, personal domains are great, get one, point it at blogspot and google apps for email and you'll probably be pretty happy. Unless you really like wordpress for some reason in which case, wordpress.com also does free hosting with custom domains. :)

3 replies · active 851 weeks ago

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deleted2152886 49p · 851 weeks ago

Wordpress.com is very restrictive. There are any number of widgets that you cannot use on wordpress.com and have to use one of their pre-fab themes. Your own install is open to any theme you can think of and any widget you can find. You can easily search for an install widgets from wordpress.org in your control panel.

If you can find a webhost with an automated install of wordpress it's quick and easy. I know go-daddy does this, I am currently with them, but would not recommend them.

What blog maintenance are you talking about dreid? Aside from spam, I don't have any maintenance to do on mine at all. Of course I may just be lucky.

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Goddless_Woman 43p · 851 weeks ago

Yeah I am going to be doing my own install for sure :) I really would like to be free and not have someone telling me which things I can and can't use, that is part of the reason for the switch.

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Goddless_Woman 43p · 851 weeks ago

I have used wordpress in the past and actually was pretty happy with it, but I understand what you are saying about it being difficult. I do however have a terrific husband that is willing to handle the technical aspects of the site. Also, my husband has a hosting company and hosts several different sites, so I would like to have him host so that I have more control over what happens with it.

However, if I didn't have such a knowledgeable husband I would never had thought of doing this move. Thanks for your comments

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looptheloop 53p · 850 weeks ago

I think it's a great idea. I recently made that transition myself, and I'm so happy about it. It motivates me to blog a lot more because I have that freedom of manipulating the blog in whatever way I want.

I'm a bit too busy to make my own theme so I'm using a custom one, but I'm happy about that.

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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