Blogging platform: Wordpress or Webby?
Wordpress:
* Simple to set up
* Can write in HTML or use WYSIWYTYG editor. Can post from external clients that support Atom Publishing Protocol or Wordpress's XML-RPC. Can easily post from anywhere.
* Disqus plugin incorporates comment text into the actual page without javascript, so Google can index comments at my site
* Plugins provide relatively painless media embedding
* No good source embedding, but gist.github's secret .pibb format (http://gist.github.com/15914.pibb) provides a stop-gap solution, and I'm sure I could get someone to write a plugin to automate that.
* It's written in PHP and MySQL, and I hate PHP and MySQL.
* Since of course I will immediately become famous and widely read, Wordpress's dynamic page generation could be a performance issue.
Webby:
* More complex to set up -- I have to write posts, run the generator on them, and then upload them to the site. This can be automated, but it's still a higher level of effort.
* Can write in HTML, Markdown, whatever. Can write in my favorite editor easily. However, if there's infrastructure for the blog on my personal machine, I can't easily post from other machines.
* Disqus integration would happen via javascript; Google would index comments at the disqus page.
* Media embedding is more difficult, though a few custom template tags can make this easier.
* Excellent and very customizable source embedding.
* Not written in PHP and MySQL.
* Static files scale very well.
On the whole, I'm leaning towards using Wordpress, due to a lower amount of up-front effort needed, but I thought I'd get your comments, if you have any to offer.
8 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] threadI think the main concern comes down to how important embedding source code is, and whether there are any good wordpress plugins that do that. I don't know the answer to that.
Also, Wordpress is relatively painless to backup, move between hosts, upgrade, etc. I cannot speak for Webby, it may also be solid.
Sure, static files might scale better, but handling traffic is not usually the problem for most people. Getting traffic is.
Unless you're going to do a _lot_ of hacking on it. Because if you don't like to work with PHP/MySQL and you're planning on hacking the internals a lot, you should pick a platform implemented in your language of choice.
1. Analytics through Google Analytics 2. Some extra $$$ through AdSense 3. Auto-saving editing for blog posts
I just go tired of having to constantly worry about upgrading my Wordpress plug-in or making sure I pay for hosting and all that jazz, I'd rather just let Google take care of that stuff for me.