Friday, February 22, 2008

New Blog

This is going to be my new blog from now on.


I am 21 years old this year. Today is my first day as an adult, officially. I want to have a new start, so I decided to change my blog.



I have used these three blogging services and I thought it might be interesting to do a comparison based on things that are important to me when I blog, which are namely, template design, security, widgets, advertisement, spelling (shorthand) and editing.


Template designs

When I say template design, I meant those that are provided, not those that you upload and use. Of the three, LiveJournal have the best template designs. Of course, blogger allows templates from other sources to be uploaded. I always use the ones found on Blogskins.com. The skins are really nice but the words always tend to be really small. The templates feel very squeezy. I didn't like it, so I switched to using the original templates provided. It turns out that having too many templates to choose from also posts a problem because you don't know which one to choose. So I still prefer the templates provided by Blogger.

Security

What I meant by this not not the security of the site and leakage of personal information. What I am really concerned about is about the privacy. Sometimes I write posts which I want only myself to see, or only a certain group of friends to see. LiveJournal is the only one of the three that allows the author to choose who can and who cannot see a post. This is one of the most important reasons why I like LJ. It provides the privacy I need.


Widgets

In terms of widgets, as widgets in the sidebar, Blogger has the most. WordPress has a few for you to choose, but you cannot make alterations to them and that is what irritates me. LiveJournal has almost no widgets to talk about, only those that comes along with the template itself. Blogger clearly wins in the widget department as widgets can be added at will and the contents of the widget can be changed.

Editing

The ease of editing a post is very important to me. I often have spelling errors or I may want to change certain aspects of the post. All three are all rather good in this category. Still, Blogger wins with the clear display of posts in chronological order so that the author can pick out the post that need editing at one glance. WordPress does list out the posts in chronological order and they have an ID attached to each post, but the ID jumps and does not follow order, so it is as good as not having it.


Advertisement

One thing that really turns me off is having advertisement on my blog. I mean, it is my personal journal, so why should there be some idiot advertising on it? Out of the three, only LJ has advertisements on the blog. So it is a draw between Blogger and WordPress in this category.


Spelling (shorthand)

I have developed this dislike for shorthand writing. This is one reason why I had such a hard time choosing a template from LiveJournal. Most of the templates come with the dates in shorthand form. Instead of writing 21 January, they write '21 Jan'. I know it is practised everywhere, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it! So Blogger and WordPress get a draw here.


You know what? After all these comparisons, I have decide to revert back to Blogger. Since I do have a LiveJournal account, I will just use it t read my friends' locked posts.


For those of you who want to get me something for my birthday (which is today), here's a reference for you (I welcome late gifts):




  • Wild Swans by Jung Chang (Book)



  • The Baking Bible (Book) - Priyangi, this is a replacement for the baking book you gave to me for Christmas. I lent it to someone, but I can’t remember who I lent it to! It will be the best if you can get that book for me. I can’t find it anywhere! It is called Greatest Ever Baking or something like that. If you can’t find it, then this book is okay. If you intend to get me anything, get me either of these two books. Love you so much!



  • MP3 player



  • Yakuza Moon (Book)

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