Moving away to blogger

Due to the limitations of the programs/server setup I’ve been using (read: “good enough” and “crappy,” respectively) to build this-here site, and the direction I have ended up going with it, I have decided to move my site to a “free” blog host: blogger. Why, specifically?

Well in actuality, I started blogging a handful of years ago. I actually started on blogger, before google was even involved. But it wasn’t “mine,” in the sense that it was “random bob DOT blogspot DOT com” as opposed to “randombob.net,” and I didn’t have the freedom to share photos & videos the way I wanted to. Essentially, I’m a control freak at my heart and I wanted control and freedom.

Enter iWeb. Preinstalled on my Mac, I gave it a try and fell in love with the idea of being able to do my site, my way. But of course it’s super-simple, and simply limited in functionality. OK then, enter Rapidweaver. It’s a lot like iWeb, but powerful. Cool, I can do this! I can create a site for my blog/photos/movies/whatever pretty easily.

Then, enter reality. My site turned into mostly a blog with some links to some pictures. Which isn’t bad at all, hey I can’t knock it if I’m doing it, right? Anyway, the problem was that the solution I’d grabbed onto was not optimal, to say the least. Rapidweaver is NOT ‘blogging software,’ it’s web-building software that has a blog functionality. Hosting on MobileMe, while essentially free since I have the service for other reasons, has huge limitations, namely a lack of php and mySQL support.

Note: don’t ask me what the hell these are or why or how they work or the square root of pi, I do not know, I only know that I NEED them to run server-side blogging effectively. Thanks :-)

Now I could continue to host my site myself and “do it my way,” but then it’s going to cost money. First, I have to purchase space on a real server, which costs money. Second, I have to buy a “plugin” or two or twelve to USE a good blogging platform WITHIN my Rapidweaver-created site; these also cost monies. And honestly, it’s not much money. But it’s money, and for what? A partial solution?

Let’s face it: doing a blog is a lot like a popularity contest: you want people to notice you and have something exciting to say about what you’ve shared, preferably “OMG what a MAGNIFICENT POST you totally rock I’m not kidding I’m totally going to follow you and hang on you’re every word you’re a GOD.” I’m not winning this popularity contest. I have nothing super-special to share. I’m but one ‘bob in a sea of literally BILLIONS of websites, and a lot of those are blogs. And a lot of those blogs are a lot more important than lil’ ol’ me. So why should I bother spending money to try to win a popularity contest that for all intents & purposes, I shouldn’t have even entered?

Answer: I shouldn’t. Instead, I should relent, admit my mistake, and sheepishly re-enter the fold.

Done, and done.