I’ve been “um’ing and er’ing” about the move of my blog from Windows Live Spaces to WordPress. I’m pretty certain that the move is for best from my personal perspective.
Windows Live Spaces was the place started blogging. So, there is a degree of sentimentality about the passing of a site where I learned a bit about blogging and “living part of my life in the internet”. But, there were a couple of things which happened on Windows Live Spaces which started to “switch me off’ blogging, and the service. These things included:
- Killing the traffic statistics. There was a bit of a “storm” of protest about the Windows Live Team, removing that facility. For me, it was one of the points of interest for me that I was getting readers to my site, and one of the underlying motivation for blogging in general.
- Comment Spam. I received a couple of doses of that over the years I was on Live Spaces. It was “a bit annoying”, but not a real big problem. It was a bit of a “problem” to find at times. I guess that being from Microsoft Window Live was a bigger target on the spammer ”hit list”
- Layout. Windows Live Spaces had things which seemed to be tucked away in “funny places”. Navigation around Windows Live did take “lots of trial and error”.
WordPress A Move for the Better?
All things considered I think so. It is nice to move to a blogging platform with following features:
- Traffic Statistics. These are a source of inspiration for a “blogger like me”. So, having traffic statistics again does provide encouragement to my blogging efforts again.
- A logical, menu based, site layout. This site really works, the layout of the features is “pretty good” (not perfect, but then nothing in IT ever is). I’ve not been in a quandary about to find options (most of the time), or wondering about how I found that option last time.
Also, just settling in WordPress does “feel” welcoming. I’ve been reading some of the posts about moving to WordPress from Windows Live, and the efforts of the community, and site hosts, do make moving into a new “neighbourhood” much less “painful”. The following are just some of links of information about blogging on WordPress and information for those (like me) making the migration from Windows Live Spaces:
- Welcome Windows Live Spaces Bloggers to WordPress.com
- Help and Tips for Windows Live Spaces Bloggers: Modules, Albums, Widgets, and Lists
- Welcome Windows Live Spaces Bloggers
What Will I Miss From Windows Live Spaces Blogging
There are a couple of things from the Windows Live Spaces Blogging which I will miss (and this is by no means an exhaustive list, only what I’ve found thus far). These features include:
- Lists of Books, linking to Amazon for the cover art, and details. This was something which I did enjoy having. It added a bit of “colour” to the blog layout, and was a very useful piece of functionality.
- An Internet Explorer, Blog This on Windows Live Spaces, accelerator. It would do a bit of “magic” and create a new blog post with a link back to the article. It was handy for both, blogging about something which I found on the net, and for creating links to pages on the net (much quicker than copy and post the URL, the Title, and a Quote (if you wanted that as well). I’ll have to have a read up on creating accelerators for IE, then I’ll decide if I want to create one.
- A Windows Live Writer’s good integration with the Blogging host. Ok, I’ve just installed 2011, and there are could be much better integration with the features of WordPress (tags in particular).
Craig's Eclectic Blog 
#1 by Minecraft on March 8, 2011 - 2:58 pm
It’s interesting to see this point of view. I can’t say fore sure if I agree or not, but it is something I will think about now.
#2 by Steaven Mainfield on October 26, 2010 - 6:24 pm
And what about adding some more images? I don’t want to offend anyone, blog is really nice. Just according to the scientists humans acquire info much more effective if there are some helpful images.
Steaven Mainfield
#3 by aussiecraig on October 26, 2010 - 6:56 pm
Steaven,
Point taken, this blog is mostly text, and light on images. I do agree with the observation that images are frequently easier for the human mind to digest that just text. I’ve long been an advocate of “a picture can be worth a thousand words”.
In my weak defence, much of what I blog about is “hard” to diagram. The category and tag clouds show what I do blog about.
I often use screen grabs to illustrate how to do something, which I hope illuminates the instructions. The blog posts which are about programming I include code (which is illustrative to another developer).
I’m cautious of linking to images on other sites. The exact copyright, intellectual property rights, position of doing so is questionable (and probably different within different jurisdictions). Linking to an image without the explicit consent of the owner is a “grey area” on the internet.
The way to avoid the legal question would be to pull out the digital camera, and take my own pictures. That is something I will keep in mind to do in the future.
Thanks,
Craig
#4 by Dr. Diabetes Diet on October 24, 2010 - 2:10 am
Sweet website! Continue the useful posts.
#5 by aussiecraig on October 3, 2010 - 8:50 am
Sajib,
I’ll not argue the point on the relative merits of WordPress compared to any other blogging platform. Quite frankly, I’ve only just started using WordPress, and Windows Live was a Microsoft creature with its own quirks and foibles. Thus, my experience in the arena, of blogging platforms, is not broad enough to make any reasonable judgements.
Money making in the blogging universe is not something which I have even considered, but Blogger sounds like the platform for that sort of thing. There is a bit of an exception to the previous statement, the lists of books on Windows Live did use an Amazon Associates ID in the links, which was a “quid pro quo” for using the cover art and information from Amazon.
The only reason I’d ever host my own version of any blogging platform would be for development purposes. Something again, I’m not considering at this point. But, sometime in the future I may well have that desire, and WordPress may well be the platform I choose to that sort of thing.
Craig
#6 by Lorelle VanFossen on October 3, 2010 - 5:27 am
The “Blog This” is replaced in WordPress by “Press This” a bookmarklet found on the Administration Panels, and the Quick Post feature on the Dashboard panel of the WordPress Administration Panels. The former can be dragged onto any browser bookmark bar for fast posting from any page. Highlight some test on the page and it will copy it into the Press This popup window as blockquote text with a referring link. You edit and make it whatever you want, saving it as a draft for later or publishing it immediately.
Many are using Windows Live Writer successfully with WordPress.com, but I thought I would add that WordPress.com tags on your posts do not link to your site’s content but to all the global tags on WordPress.com. The Tag Cloud Widget links tags to post content. I didn’t use WordPress.com tags for many years because of this.
If you are using Amazon.com images once in a blue, and not as a major ad source, they are permitted, especially if they are appropriate to the content.
Welcome to WordPress.com. It is a very flexible and complicated, yet easy to use, publishing platform, so expect a little learning curve. 😀
#7 by aussiecraig on October 3, 2010 - 7:27 am
Lorelle,
Thank you for the welcome to WordPress.
Thank you also, for the tips on the “Press This” and “Quick Post” features of WordPress. I’ll put them on my TODO list and try them out.
The IE accelerator for WordPress does not look too hard, from the IE side. Basically, IE 8 accelerators are just some XML representing some simple script. The WordPress side of creating a Draft Post, or potting a bit of HMTL/XHTML for a block quote onto the clipboard, is the side of things I’d need to explore.
I’ll have to figure out how to hook into the Global WordPress Tags. I would like to “leverage” that feature of the WordPress environment (if I can).
Window Live Writer is “working” form at present. I suspect that things will get better with my use of Windows Live Writer and WordPress, both as my use of it with WordPress improves (as I understand how to use the site more effectively), and as the development team move the primary target of the tool from Windows Live Spaces to WordPress.
At this point I’d agree that in moving to WordPress I’ve found a “learning curve”. But, learning how to get the most out of this environment is something that I approach with relish, not trepidation (or “Why has my blogging changed to this”).
Thanks again, for the comment, and also all of those very useful how to posts.
Craig
#8 by Lorelle VanFossen on October 3, 2010 - 8:35 am
Ah, the “IE accelerator” is the equivalent of Turbo, the Google Gears equivalent. Check your settings and tools in the Administration Panels to enable that. I haven’t used IE in ages, but Google gears applies to all browsers, storing the non-changing files of the Administration Panels on your computer.
There is no figuring out of how global WordPress tags works. Just add your tags in the Post panel and it’s done. It’s done.
As for Sajib’s comment, the self-hosted version of WordPress offers a lot of opportunities for monetization, but many businesses, non-profits, associations, and governments have their blogs on WordPress.com. It’s free, you can promote your business, establish a reputation, and all the things you need to do to get your billboard and company on the web. All of these are worth more than the 20 cents a month you might make on advertising. 😀
Thanks and good luck!