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User Feedback: WordPress is Nice

Today is WordPress day. Our guest blogger is Kathryn from Daring Young Mom. She rocks. You’ll soon see why (if you are the last person on earth not reading her blog, that is).

I switched from Blogger to
Wordpress in August of 2006, almost one year after I started blogging. Blogger was currently experiencing a lot of
down time, I wanted to start hosting a blog from my own domain, www.daringyoungmom.com, rather than www.daringyoungmom.somethingelse.com,
and I felt like I had outgrown Blogger. (Update: You can now host your own domain name at Blogger.)

I wanted more options, options I
didn’t even know I wanted and Blogger could not read my mind. I told Dan (my husband and resident computer
programmer) that I wanted to switch to TypePad and he began researching. He read everything there was to read about
the different platforms and their strengths and weaknesses. Then he presented a well-documented case that
Wordpress was the clear winner for me long term. I nodded and smiled and have not regretted
the decision for a moment.

Here’s why I heart WordPress:

1.  Customizable – I have complete control over
the look and feel of my site. If you
enjoy tinkering around with the code on your site, you’ll love that you have
total access to your WordPress blog template.

2. Versatility – It’s
open source so not only can you change things around, but everyone and their
dog online is creating plug-ins and upgrades you can use on your site. Some are super-useful like amazingly
effective spam filters and some are just fun like the Hello Dolly plug-in, which displays a different line from the song Hello Dolly each time you switch administration
screens. “You’re lookin’ swell fellas!” There are hundreds of different plug-ins you
can get to solve just about any problem you’re having, even boredom apparently. I’m still looking for one that will dispense
ice cream to all of my readers.

3. Idiot Proof – after a
small learning curve, I’ve found the software easy to use. The technology does not get in the way of the
functionality. It is super user friendly. It’s very easy to moderate comments, set
permissions, respond to comments and even edit them if, for example, your
sister uses your daughter’s real name in a comment she leaves you.

4. Supportive – There are
amazing forums for help on nearly every topic. I have used them to do all kinds of cool modifications to the HTML, CSS,
and PHP code in my blog, things someone with my level of knowledge should
probably never be messing with. Luckily
the forums are so well organized and clearly written that I felt confident
experimenting beyond where I would have been comfortable in Blogger.

5. Geek Chic – It seems
that WordPress is the current golden child among the techie elite and it makes
me feel like I’ve been promoted to the grownups’ table.

WordPress software is freely
available at wordpress.ORG but you need to find and pay for a web host and a
domain name (Most hosting companies offer a free domain name with hosting
service. I pay $50 per year for my
hosting and several companies are listed on WordPress.org.)

You can also use WordPress
software for free at wordpress.COM but your storage space and customizability
are limited and your URL will be yoursitename.wordpress.com. If you’d like to upgrade your storage or add
features, you have several different levels for payment options.

6 thoughts on “User Feedback: WordPress is Nice”

  1. WordPress is indeed the winner for me too. Although i wouldn’t agree it is totally ‘idiot proof’ – as this idiot has attested. The secret for me was always to keep two windows open – one for editing code and the other for looking at the damage – that way i could always get back to fix things.

    Nice roundup from Kathryn, long may WP prosper!

  2. I am fairly new to wordpress and have found the askimet has caught most everything. And for things they were uncertain of, they sent me an email asking for approval before posting the comment. As far as I know I didn’t sign up for anything special — so this must just be wordpress!

  3. I’ve really found askimet to work well. I also have my options set to moderate the first comment by any new user. That gets whatever askimet misses. The only problem I’ve had with this is that periodically it filters out actual comments by mistake. Since instituting this 2 step method, I’ve never had spam make it onto my blog and I get about a thousand each day.

  4. I use a wordpress plugin for anti spam. You can use askimet which comes with the download. I went with spam karma because I was having trouble getting askimet to work for me–this was way back. I tend to not change something when I like it so have always stayed with SK

    In the plugin directory at wordpress.org they have a list of plugins that you can download to help fight spam. SK is no longer listed there but you can read about the others

  5. I have had trouble with spam on my wordpress blog. I am not sure how to ask for help on this. Some of the spam is R-rated. Have you had this problem? Advice?

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