Tech T.I.P. 5/1/2013

Today in Blogging

Tech T.I.P.

Denise Barrett Olson

Since the Graveyard Rabbit’s world revolves around blogging, it’s good to know what’s happening with the platforms and services that make it possible for us to continue blogging. While the blog format isn’t going away any time soon, there are some significant changes happening in the blog world that could impact how we rabbits function. Here’s a look at what’s happening today in blogging.

WordPress and Blogger continue as the most popular traditional blog platforms. Both offer free options and premium services. WordPress (http://wordpress.com) includes a self-hosting option for the adventurous rabbit. The hosted WordPress.com platform offers premium services in bundles or a la carte. There is a built-in reader where you can follow other WordPress (hosted or self-hosted) blogs, comment, like, and even re-blog their posts. Re-blogging is very similar to retweeting in Twitter only you’re not limited to 140 characters. A portion of the post is displayed on your blog - as a block quote - which links back to the original article. You can add your own comments regarding the article as part of the re-blog. 

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has developed mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices to make it easy to read and blog from just about anywhere. It is also possible to set up your blog so you can post content via email. The platforms - hosted and self-hosted - support both importing and exporting content to/from other blog platforms.

Blogger (http://blogger.com) is the oldest of the platforms discussed here, but it still serves its community well. There is no cost to use Blogger, but if you are storing your photos in Picasa, you may need to upgrade your storage limits at some point. With the introduction of Google+ - a new social networking platform - Blogger was recently updated with a new look and options making it easy to announce your posts within your Google+ profile. You will find a reading list within the Blogger platform, but it appears that they encouraging users to move to Google+ as their reading platform.

Although the Blogger mobile app is only available for Android devices, there are a number of iOS blogging apps that support Blogger. Like WordPress, you can set up your blog for email posting. Blogger supports both importing and exporting content to/from other platforms.

While these are the primary traditional blog platforms, there are a couple of interesting micro-blog platforms gaining popularity. These platforms started the combination blog and social network format. Posts are easy to publish and by taking advantage of their mobile apps, a blogger can publish photos, videos and news from just about anywhere. They do not have the organizational and management tools included in traditional blogs, but they make up for it in ease of use. 

The most popular of these is Tumblr (http://tumblr.com). It is quick, easy and fun. It has pre-defined post formats for text, photos, video, audio, links and more. The editor is quite simplistic and you will need some HTML skills to perform anything beyond basic formatting. You can schedule posts and organizing them is as simple as adding tags. Take advantage of the sharing features and Tumblr will automatically announce your posts on Facebook, Twitter and via RSS feed. You can post via email or by using the Tumblr app on your Android or iOS device.

Tumblr is known for its gorgeous themes. Many are free, but you can also choose one of the premium themes at costs ranging from $9 to $49. There are third-party apps for exporting your Tumblr content to migrate to other platforms, but you cannot import posts from other platforms.

Last on the list is a platform that is still under construction. Once Twitter announced they were shutting down the Posterous micro-blog platform as of April 30th, two of the original Posterous developers decided to reconstruct the platform and bring it up-to-date with current technology. This new platform is called Posthaven (http://posthaven.com) and is currently functional with limited features. Obviously, the priority was to have a place where Posterous users could migrate their content before the shutdown and that has been accomplished. Now they are working to build the other features that made Posterous unique. 

Posthaven will be different in one very significant area. There is no free version. An account on Posthaven will cost you $5/mo. There’s a reason for this. The Posthaven crew want to insure that their users won’t get caught in a buyout/shutdown situation like the one that closed Posterous. Users paying their $5/mo can maintain up to 10 Posthaven blogs and the developers will generate enough revenue to maintain the platform without the need for outside financing - and the strings attached to it. 

Is Posthaven worth waiting for? I think so. Posterous had a divine private blog system that also served as a very nice community mailing system. This allowed my family to set up a private news service via email. Family members didn’t need to remember passwords or know anything about blogging to share news and photos. All they needed to do was email their photos or news items to the blog’s address and it was not only posted to the private site, but forwarded via email to every site member. Reply to the message and your reply became a comment to the original post - and was emailed to every member. This was perfect for my digitally-challenged family. It will be some time before all that is functional again, but to me it’s worth the $5/month and the wait.

Note that Posterous also had a mobile app making it easy to post and follow content from your phone or tablet. Hopefully, there will soon be one for Posthaven too.

If you are considering a change in platform, first determine what features are your priority. The micro-blogs offer apps and functions which would make it easy to post tombstone photos and transcribe them right there in the graveyard. Full-service platforms are better suited for long-form posts with special formatting such as footnotes. Import and export functionality should be considered as part of your decision. None of us can predict the future of any of these services.