Conrad Zero

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

…at least that’s what WordPress antes up for you with when you load it over your existing previous blog.

I know, I’ve put off the change for as long as I could, but conradzero.com was licking/locking/lacking and WordPress seemed the simplest route for upgrading. 

Which begs the question, “So Z, why the change from Blogger to WordPress?”

Firstly, the proprietariness of Blogger (owned by Google) made me sad. There were many things about Blogger (some functional and some aesthetic) that either I couldn’t figure out, were not simple to implement, or were simply unimplementable, and they are none-too-keen on helping out self-hosted blogs like conradzero.com.  It seems that Blogger really wants people to host their blogs from their own blogspot.com. Those blogs get all the fancy Web2.0 drag-n-drop functionality, themes and plugins, while those who DARE to move their blogs to their own hosted site get punished with limited functionality and meager documentation. You want to create a Categories List? HA! Whatever. Meanwhile, WordPress is wide-open (source) and documented to the hilt, with a thriving community making themes and plugins galore. 

One of the bigger problems I had with my self-hosted Blogger blogs is the commenting system. Taking you off to some Lame-O Generic-O page for login and Captcha verification kinda wrecks the experience. WordPress blogs just seem more…open. Just look at the giant, friendly, open space below for filling in comments! And with some cool plug-ins, I should have some comment ratings system up before too long, not to mention the ability to recognize popular posts and avid commenters. All in all, it seems like a more interactive experience is possible; a bit more of a ‘community’ as it were.

You can’t step read into the same stream blog twice. – Heraclitus Zero

Another issue with self-hosted Blogger blogs is Search. I fought with Google/Blogger’s Search API, and discovered ”Featured” Google links rudely implanted in my search results. Actually, they’re YOUR search results, since you’re more likely to search here than I am. I’m all about Google/Blogger making a couple $$ off people who have their sites hosted on their blogspot servers, but Hey! I’m paying the hosting bill here, and I’m doing the site maintenance! Keep outta my search results! Crimeny, they already own most of my e-mail/calendar/contacts/docs/soul and with their recent purchase of FeedBurner and GrandCentral, they also own my rss and my voicemail. [sarcasm]It’s a good thing Google isn’t Evil![/sarcasm]

And the price difference is nil. The only drawback seems to be that my Blogger posts aren’t importing into WordPress. Surprise? No, just another one of the ways Google/Blogger punishes self-hosted bloggers. Ah well, I guess you can’t read into the same blog twice. We’ll just call it a period of death/rebirth and possibly recycling as I sift through the 528 old posts dating back to Jan, 2004.

Art Is Resistance
-Zero