Cruising blog - website templates

[Canibul]

I've been using blogger/blogspot since 2007. I also downloaded the Blogsy app for an iPad, but had miserable results with it. Miserable results trying to create anything on an iPad, anyhow. They're not really any good for creating content. I tried for two months, and came out of it with the firm impression that for a blogger, an iPad isn't much more than a television with a finger painting program. They're also useless for photo editing or CAD/ 3D printing. Works okay for navigation, but then, there's no creativity there to worry about.

As for blogger, one of the advantages is that it's Google, so you get their full weight and support behind it. For photos I use Picasa, which is pretty seamless integration with Blogspot since they're both Google.

[Celestialsailor]

I also use blogspot for no other reason than, it's simple and I'm lowtech. To me, the writing content is more importance than looks.
See blog attached.

[Target9000]

The key to any good site design is evolution. We started with a WP template that we sort of liked and then just kept making small changes until we had something we did like. This makes it manageable to take it in baby steps. The web is always evolving. Embrace its dynamic nature.

[Sondor]

I'd vote for WordPress (WP), but keep in mind there are two types - Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org.

The .com (they host) is easier to initially setup, but the .org (you-host) is far more flexible.

Whatever functionality you may be looking for down the road can be had in WP.org via "Plugins". Do a bit of googling and you'll see the sky is the limit with WP.org.

Part of why I don't feel comfortable with the template sites (blogspot, weebly, wix etc...) is that if you read the fine-print, you'll find THEY and not YOU "own" the content you post. I've never heard of that going bad for anyone, but it just rubs me the wrong way...

Whatever you decide, enjoy and good luck!

[Normanby]

Interesting.
If the host owns the intellectual property, might one have a copyright problem if one later chooses to cobble posts together into a book?

[Sondor]

Originally Posted by Normanby

Interesting.
If the host owns the intellectual property, might one have a copyright problem if one later chooses to cobble posts together into a book?

I may have to backtrack on my prior comment. It has been a few years since I last looked, but did so again and am finding the situation has changed at least for Weebly, Blogger, and Wix.

Here's a quote from Weebly's current ToS: Weebly does not claim ownership of your Content, but you give us your permission to host your Content on the Service. This permission exists only for as long as you continue to use the Service or remain an Account Holder.

And from Blogger's ToS: Some of our Services allow you to upload, submit, store, send or receive content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

Lastly, Wix:
Wix does not have the ability to determine the actual owner of content created and/or uploaded to the Website. Accordingly:​
(i) in respect to content (such as websites, webpages and widgets) created and/or uploaded to the Website by a free User (and which Wix has not been paid for), the owner of such content shall be considered as the Wix User listed as the owner of the Wix account under which the content has been created
or uploaded to the Website;


Soo... for whatever reasons things have apparently changed. Perhaps the takeaway here is that by using a third party service you are always at the whim of their ToS and any changes they care to make. Whereas self-hosting gives you the flexibility to do what you want w/o concern for the latest ToS/guidelines etc...


Lynda.com has fantastic training courses for all things computer. I'd encourage anyone who is interested to check a WP course out and see how easy and powerful WP is these days. Not to mention for those concerned about SEO - WP is loved by Google

[cwyckham]

There are hundreds of free wordpress themes about. That's all I'm using at the moment. They tend to be a bit limited, but are good enough for most personal blogs.

If you really want to look great, you probably have to spend $75 on a premium theme. Studiopress or Woo themes are good places to go for these.

[Normanby]

Ah ha.
Thanks Sondor for looking I up all those terms.

[AnchorageGuy]

Not sure about wordpress, but Blogger will let you use a custom template. So if you find one you like or can get someone to make you a template, it should work fine to customize your blog. I tried wordpress as a backup to our blogs. I had a lot of problems that I just couldn't get any help with. That is unless i went to the paid wordpress. So I gave it up. Chuck

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Sondor

I may have to backtrack on my prior comment. It has been a few years since I last looked, but did so again and am finding the situation has changed at least for Weebly, Blogger, and Wix.

Here's a quote from Weebly's current ToS: Weebly does not claim ownership of your Content, but you give us your permission to host your Content on the Service. This permission exists only for as long as you continue to use the Service or remain an Account Holder.

And from Blogger's ToS: Some of our Services allow you to upload, submit, store, send or receive content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

Lastly, Wix:
Wix does not have the ability to determine the actual owner of content created and/or uploaded to the Website. Accordingly:​
(i) in respect to content (such as websites, webpages and widgets) created and/or uploaded to the Website by a free User (and which Wix has not been paid for), the owner of such content shall be considered as the Wix User listed as the owner of the Wix account under which the content has been created
or uploaded to the Website;


Soo... for whatever reasons things have apparently changed. Perhaps the takeaway here is that by using a third party service you are always at the whim of their ToS and any changes they care to make. Whereas self-hosting gives you the flexibility to do what you want w/o concern for the latest ToS/guidelines etc...


Lynda.com has fantastic training courses for all things computer. I'd encourage anyone who is interested to check a WP course out and see how easy and powerful WP is these days. Not to mention for those concerned about SEO - WP is loved by Google

Actually none of the services have ever claimed copyright. If they did then they were doing so illegally (or so I have been taught). What they all do is claim the right to usage for all materials hosted by there services. This gives them the right (technically) to use anything they want without asking permission. It gets into a bit of a grey area if they try and sell it though. This also applies to most things like Facebook, Twitter etc. They cannot, however deny you the right to use it. One of the things most people don't understand is copyright is inherent; you don't have to claim it, it just is.

Still, hosting your own blog using Wordpress's free software is easy and fairly cheap (like $5/month). And as has been mentioned, its extensibility is almost unlimited with little knowledge of programming needed. I went through a long phase of trying a lot of other software and I still come back to Wordpress, even if I want it more for a static website or even a CMS (content management system).

Hell, I even have it installed on the computer I am typing on which I use as a testing machine but can still show to others as a development website.

[John Casey]

Great explanation of setting up a WP site here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oiov0L4blIw

[bletso]

Further to my post # 6, I have finally figured out how to add 'bookmarks' to direct one to a specific spot on a page in Wordpress. For those who are interested it has to be entered in html code from text edit. The bookmark is identified with the following code <a name="bookmark name"></a> and the jump is identified by appending the marker as #bookmark name to the jump as an example 'http://69.89.27.238/~sailboa1/2013/10/29/protecting-vigah/#emt' In this case the bookmark name is emt. I have removed the auto url jump codes inserted by this website. so the actual address is with out the '

[Lars_L]

I agree that it’s inconvenient to read a blogg from the top and downward. But in the same time it’s convenient that the latest text is at the top of the page. There needs to be more bookmarks on the page. I have tried it on my blogg. Have a look at Långsegling med Frida although texten är på svenska, you can see if you think it's a solution.

In blogger you makes the bookmarks with this code
<a href=http://www.blogger.com/null name=”20140830”></a>

In blogger the code to jump to the bookmark is
<a href="http://sy-fridas-dagbok.blogspot.se/p/blog-page.html#20140830">Jump to bookmark</a>

Both are quite similar but none of them is correct html code.

[Macblaze]

One of the things I like about Wordpress is that there are always ways around things. For example if you ensure that a previous page and next page link are in your template (most but all themes usually have this already) then you can have a link to the first page (usually something like this: <a href="http://mywebsite.com/?p=1">Start from the first page</a>) and then just keep clicking next to read from the beginning.

Another option, and the way I do it, is make sure that all my sailing posts are in one category then make a category page template that reverses the order. So if my category number is 27 then I create a copy of my category.php page in my Theme called category-27.php then include the following in its header:

<?php query_posts($query_string."&orderby=date&order=ASC"); ?>

Anyone reading the Sailing 2008 category then reads in ascending date order. It seems way more complicated than it is once you get the idea behind it and works really slick.

Like I said, there is usually a way to do something in Wordpress and if there isn't, often a call out to internet-land will spur someone to find a solution.

[SailRedemption]

Great information here, thanks guys. I am good with computer hardware and software but coding/Web design is like Arabic calculus to me. I'll have to give it another try with everyone's tips when I get home next month and can use my desktop.

- Ronnie...on the geaux