Free Blog Recommendations?

[mark]

Okay, I've gotten the itch to try blogging, in a very casual way. Based on my own research, I've narrowed my options down to Blogger, WordPress or LiveJournal.

Does anybody love/hate any of these? Why? Is there some insanely great free blog service I've overlooked?

Thanks!

Mark

[Jucato]

You might find this thread interesting: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=223114

I would personally suggest Wordpress(.com) (http://www.wordpress.com) if you are looking for something useful and simple. Not so much bells and whistles. A very good one blog host if you're just starting out and don't know what you want/need in a blog just yet. The best part about Wordpress is that the software used here is open source.

If you are looking for a more community-oriented blog, without the need for social networking features, you might want to try LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/). I haven't had any personal experience with it, though. And it's also open sourcce.

I find Blogger/BlogSpot (http://www.blogger.com/) (Blogger is the blog service, BlogSpot is the free blog hosting service for Blogger) to be for those who want as much features as they can cram into a free blog service. The amount of features available, however, might be a bit frightening for absolute beginners. Unfortunately, some of Blogger's features are less than optimal for very large blogs (around 50 entries or more?).

If you want a website that will house your blog, pictures, videos, music, etc., all under one roof, connect you to a lot of people (social networking), but still be in control of who can view your site (more secure than MySpace), I would probably recommend Multiply.com (http://multiply.com). I'm still testing it out though, so I can't give a full thumbs-up recommendation.

Oh, both Blogger and Multiply are non-open source, btw.

EDIT: made some words clickable :D

[Christmas]

I use Opera's free blogs service. Here you can find it: http://my.opera.com/community/blogs/. They have very nice layouts, the only bad thing is that sometimes it takes some time to load the pages. Look at my blog in my signature if you want to see an example of how it looks like.

[jISh]

I use Blogger.

[RAV TUX]

Okay, I've gotten the itch to try blogging, in a very casual way. Based on my own research, I've narrowed my options down to Blogger, WordPress or LiveJournal.

Does anybody love/hate any of these? Why? Is there some insanely great free blog service I've overlooked?

Thanks!

Mark

Multiply is the best option IMO
http://multiply.com/info/about

[Jucato]

[off-topic]
@Jozef: did you receive my invitation in Multiply? How do I add you to my Contacts? I'll be posting some of my "first impression" on multiply in the thread/poll about blogs. :p
[off-topic]

[TravisNewman]

never seen multiply before... I signed up, just to play with it, doubt I'll use it much but it is interesting. A bit too much for my purposes though.

[gnomeuser]

The advantage of going with something like Wordpress is that if you decide to run your own you already know the system and wordpress is readily available from most hosts or distributions.

[Jucato]

The advantage of going with something like Wordpress is that if you decide to run your own you already know the system...

Maybe, maybe not. Wordpress(.com) is a very simplified version of the Wordpress(.org) software. It's so stripped down the only similarities that the two have are the most basic components/features. For example, Wordpress.com has no plugins, CSS customizations, very limited themes, etc. It would still require learning a bit more than what you have been used to in Wordpress.com

@panickedthumb: Yeah, it's a bit too much compared to your regular blogs. Multiply is a social networking service, similar to MySpace and Friendster. But with each passing moment, I'm beginning to see that it's way much better than those. Multiply is like Social Networking and CMS all rolled into one.

Of course, if all that you need is a simple blog, with basic or some advanced features, Multiply will look a bit too complex. But if you find yourself uploading more and more pictures, videos, music, etc., and accessing/signing up for separate services for those, then Multiply might be what you're looking for.

(Why do I get the feeling I'm advertising Multiply...)

[RAV TUX]

Maybe, maybe not. Wordpress(.com) is a very simplified version of the Wordpress(.org) software. It's so stripped down the only similarities that the two have are the most basic components/features. For example, Wordpress.com has no plugins, CSS customizations, very limited themes, etc. It would still require learning a bit more than what you have been used to in Wordpress.com

@panickedthumb: Yeah, it's a bit too much compared to your regular blogs. Multiply is a social networking service, similar to MySpace and Friendster. But with each passing moment, I'm beginning to see that it's way much better than those. Multiply is like Social Networking and CMS all rolled into one.

Of course, if all that you need is a simple blog, with basic or some advanced features, Multiply will look a bit too complex. But if you find yourself uploading more and more pictures, videos, music, etc., and accessing/signing up for separate services for those, then Multiply might be what you're looking for.

(Why do I get the feeling I'm advertising Multiply...)

LOL Multiply is as simple or as complex as you choose it to be, I'll look for your invite.


Also remember you can also cross post with Multiply:


http://images.multiply.com/common/arrow-down.gifCan I cross-post my blog entries between Multiply and another blog site? (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:toggle_faq%2862%29)
Yes, we offer cross-posting (posting a single blog entry to Multiply and another blog site at the same time) between Multiply and three other blog sites:
LiveJournal
Blogger
TypePadWhen you enable cross-posting, Multiply can automatically detect new entries you've written on one of these sites and post them on your Multiply site as well. And when you post a new blog entry on Multiply, we'll automatically post it on your LiveJournal, Blogger or TypePad site (unless you explicitly choose not to when posting the new entry). Even with cross-posting enabled, you can choose to prevent a specific entry on your other site from being cross-posted on Multiply. Just add the following code to your entry on the other site: <!-- multiply:no_crosspost -->
You can enable cross-posting the next time you import new entries from one of these sites. Just click on Post at the top of any page, select Write in Blog and select the service from which to import new entries and enable cross-posting for future ones.

If this didn't answer your question, please contact us. (http://multiply.com/info/inquiry)

[RAV TUX]

never seen multiply before... I signed up, just to play with it, doubt I'll use it much but it is interesting. A bit too much for my purposes though.


Maybe, maybe not. Wordpress(.com) is a very simplified version of the Wordpress(.org) software. It's so stripped down the only similarities that the two have are the most basic components/features. For example, Wordpress.com has no plugins, CSS customizations, very limited themes, etc. It would still require learning a bit more than what you have been used to in Wordpress.com

@panickedthumb: Yeah, it's a bit too much compared to your regular blogs. Multiply is a social networking service, similar to MySpace and Friendster. But with each passing moment, I'm beginning to see that it's way much better than those. Multiply is like Social Networking and CMS all rolled into one.

Of course, if all that you need is a simple blog, with basic or some advanced features, Multiply will look a bit too complex. But if you find yourself uploading more and more pictures, videos, music, etc., and accessing/signing up for separate services for those, then Multiply might be what you're looking for.

(Why do I get the feeling I'm advertising Multiply...)


Can you guys post links to your Multiply sites so I can send you both an invite as a contact.

[RAV TUX]

I found Panickedthumb and sent you an invitation:

http://panickedthumb.multiply.com/

Fenyx I don't know what your ID is?


btw I mostly use Multiply for its free unlimited storage.

[Jucato]

http://jucato.multiply.com
:D

[RAV TUX]

http://jucato.multiply.com
:D

Cool,....I love the sleepy kitten video...I sent you a invite btw.

[Jucato]

Yeah, and I just accepted it. I'm having fun exploring Multiply. I just discovered how to hotlink images so that they will display like so:

http://images.jucato.multiply.com/image/4/photos/1/500x500/15/CatPak1.jpg?et=5EPMgE%2CpICTSJHZGD2jbdg (http://jucato.multiply.com/photos/photo/1/27)
(Click to see larger version)

[RAV TUX]

Yeah, and I just accepted it. I'm having fun exploring Multiply. I just discovered how to hotlink images so that they will display like so:

http://images.jucato.multiply.com/image/4/photos/1/500x500/15/CatPak1.jpg?et=5EPMgE%2CpICTSJHZGD2jbdg
(From my Multiply Photo Gallery)


You can also create a private group and set yourself as a member to have a place to store whatever reference stuff just for yourself. Helpfull tool if you aren't on your own computer and need to reference a link that you don't want to publish but then you can always just set the authorization to any post to private also.

I like just having my own private group.;)

[Jucato]

You can also create a private group and set yourself as a member to have a place to store whatever reference stuff just for yourself. Helpfull tool if you aren't on your own computer and need to reference a link that you don't want to publish but then you can always just set the authorization to any post to private also.

I like just having my own private group.;)

I have no idea what you mean... :D
I'm still new at this Multiply game. Anyway, I didn't need to make a private Album/Group to hotlink the images. Right-clicking and copying-pasting the URL is enough.

[mark]

Thank you, one and all. Multiply looks good but my focus is primarily text-oriented - I don't anticipate much in the way of multimedia stuff going on.

At this point, I'm kinda leaning more toward LiveJournal. Oh, well - once I get started, if it's relevant, I'll publish a link here on the fora.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Mark