As you may know, my blog was already in Blogger at mr-rezac.blogspot.com. In that form, I could not upload new templates. Don't know what the deal was, but no template would work, and the small xml fixes I tried wouldn't work.
I was starting to lose patience, and now mr-rezac wasn't even publishable. On a side note, I was also frustrated with the fact that Blogger did not have a lot of three-column templates to choose from. I was not happy with even the free ones that were offered on other sites.So, since I use Edublogs.org with my students and it's powered by Wordpress.com, I thought I'd give it a try. I wasn't planning on hosting my own blog at this point, but I found uploading new templates a cinch. And even though I knew very little about CSS, I found swiping CSS from other templates and adding them to Wordpress's CSS editor very easy. Wordpress.com looked promising. But hold on.
So Much for Wordpress
Here's where it all went down with Wordpress.com- sidebar widgets
At Wordpress.com, unless you host your blog on your own server you can't use just any old widget. You have to use whatever widgets Wordpress already has on their list. And if you try adding any java or flash widgets to the sidebar, the code gets automatically deleted. I tried a couple of work-arounds, but hey- this was getting tedious...and boring.
I get the sense that they really, really don't want to suck up their server space by hosting your stuff, so they want you to find another server to host it. This had taken a couple weeks at this point. I can't even make a twitter widget work, and Wordpress.com doesn't have twitter on their list. Sure I can use an RSS for twitter, but sidebar widgets are what make your blog personal, and I'd say they very much express how each blogger shares how they work and express themselves. And hey, widgets are fun! I want my blog readers to have an experience when they visit my site.So, Wordpress.com, if you're going to take all of the fun out of my blog, and force me to download the Wordpress software (how very Web 1.0 of you) and host my own blog, then guess where I'll go?
Call Me A Web 2.0 Literalist
I very much believe in the "freeness" of the Internet. If you force me to host my own blog, then I'd have to pay ($$$) for server space somewhere, and I'm just not into that (right now anyway). I like free. So back to Blogger I go. I found that in order for my new template to import, then I'd have to start from scratch with a new blog. Henceforth, drezac.blogspot.com. With a little reading about code, I quickly learned how to host my own header photo, and learned how to widen the template to fit all of my gadgets and blog posts and stretch my 3-column template.
Widgets, Widgets, Widgets
Once I uploaded my template I found that I could add widgets from anywhere I wanted. Blogger also hosts hundreds of widgets themselves. In fact, I even found a place to create my own widgets, if I really wanted to learn about more coding (www.widgetbox.com). Not at this time with the code. I found people's homemade widgets on the web that were very creative, and I find this a great way to support the creativity of our developers on the Internet.
To Host or Not to Host?
If you want to host your own blog, good for you. If not, you can easily download your blog posts from Blogger (or Wordpress.com, for that matter) and back them up, if you're worried about losing stuff. Since I'm using disqus.com to host my comments, then I can export those as well, and I don't have to re-invent the wheel. Some folks feel like hosting their own content gives them more control, but I trust the Google-owned Blogger's servers far more than I trust any server I host on my own, or my school's servers, or Comcast for that matter. Plus, if it fails, I can just blame Google. Or the Economy.
Blog done. Now on to writing about Ed Tech.
So- enjoy! Thanks for following. It's good to be back.
CC Image: Blogger T-shirt from KeyExpert on Flickr.com.
CC Image: Wordpress logo from adria.richards on Flickr.com.
