Pointers for setting up a weblog
photo by Lost in Scotland
This is a short one. I just thought I should make a few notes about why I set up camp here at WordPress.com, and give credit to the sites that I took inspiration from while setting up this blog, before I forget.
Generally good advice on setting up a blog can be found over at Skelliewag.org, and in particular I liked this idea of hers to celebrate the great body of Creative Commons licensed work that is published on Flickr. Especially on a blog like mine, which will presumably consist of a lot of dry talking (reflecting what I’m like), that is a very welcome addition.
Further on the topic of licensing, I then found Vincent’s Xubuntu Blog which is likewise covered by a Creative Commons license (his blog is pretty much all that I had hoped for my old blog to become - an interesting resource for GNU/Linux users) . Taking inspiration from him, I’m applying a similar license to this blog.
Now, then, why WordPress.com? I’ve already spent some words on that when I moved my older blog here from Blogger.com, but if you’re looking to start blogging you may also like this compilation of links that discuss a number of blogging platforms (some of his links are broken but the content is still available in other places on those sites). Basically, what’s important to me is a managed site - I want to be writing, not web mastering - and the assuring feeling that the service is going to stay around for some time. With WordPress you even have a double assurance in that respect, as it is truly free software.
That’s all I have to write about that. But what do you make of this Google Trends query (and take into consideration that “blogger” is also used as a word that doesn’t refer to the service by that name):
graph generated with Google Trends
6 February 2008 at 7:55
Creative Commons FTW ;)
8 February 2008 at 7:24
Thanks for the visit and pointers to things I could fix in my blog template, I made the change you suggested. You’ve got a nice site here - subscribing :-)
10 February 2008 at 23:20
That creative commons post was a great one! I had been relying on free stock photography and couldn’t put my finger on what it was I didn’t like. When I read Skellie’s piece, I realized she hit the nail right on the head. It was too stock-photography-ish. Flickr has been a Godsend.