Ah, web hosting. I used to maintain my own servers when I was learning how to set up and administrate Linux, but the novelty wore off some time ago. With all the security advisories, backup chores, and network management to keep track of, it was no longer fun. It’s a pain in the ass.

This is a review of what I’m using now, and what I may use in the future.

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I spent a good few hours figuring out how to make WordPress look more like MovableType. I ended up duplicating some of the structure (the content and right divs, in particular) and converted a lot of font-size CSS to use the named sizes. This seems to allow things to scale a bit nicer. I’m pretty sure there’s horrible, horrible things left in the CSS from my mucking, but for now seems to work.

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Very quickly, my impressions so far…

• I like WordPress’s admin interface slightly better, though there are some odd gaps (deleting a draft, for example, requires posting it then deleting it unless I’m missing something)
• The default CSS looks terrible on my computer…it looks like ass
• The template system doesn’t require rebuilds like MT does. Instead, you’re coding in PHP, and there is no “rebuild” every time you update a template in MT.
• The WordPress admin interface doesn’t compartmentalize all the editable files as cleanly as MT, but then again you’re really editing css and .php files directly…the flip side of being direct is that you have to be more careful.
• If you’re not careful about being XHTML compliant in your posts, you might lose some of your work :/
• The “Save” button in Write automatically opens a blank post window. I would prefer it to go back to the posts window.
• I like the “edit this” link that pops up if you’re logged in
• If you hate editing the templates via the admin interface, DreamWeaver works just fine!

NOTE: This post got ‘piratized’ by the text filter I used for Talk Like A Pirate Day and got saved back into the database. This seems kind of dumb. Is it a config issue? Anyway…

I’m evaluatin’ both Movable Type and WordPress, I’ll warrant ye. Movable Type has a nice interface, but th’ static page generation workflow bugs me a bit. Aarrr! I were bein’ also surprised t’ see a lack o’ built-in CSS class definitions t’ handle basic formattin’ chores o’ images, etc. My impression is that th’ power o’ Movable Type lies largely in its skeleton structure, integration with RSS feeds, and plugin support. There are also a few very nicely designed Movable Type weblogs, we’ll keel-haul ye! Aarrr!

Some advantages o’ Movable Type

• It’s relatively nice lookin’ out o’ th’ box
• It’s relatively easy t’ install, though ’tis still somewhat involved fer th’ novice on unix who’s ne’er installed a database-driven application.
• It has an active developer and user community, unlike “more powerful” roll-yer-own systems.
• A pretty powerful template-based content system, with lots o’ useful tags

Some thin’s that are iffy:

• A somewhat primitive upload admiral
• Nay asset management…ye need t’ define yer directory structure fer images, thumbnails, and so on in advance if ye want it t’ make sense later.
• A confusin’ dynamic template system. Partly this is due t’ th’ system itself not bein’ well understood by meself
• A requirement t’ know CSS t’ restyle yer site
• Cost fer multiple users (not a big deal, th’ prices are quite reasonable)

So this brin’s me t’ WordPress, which is free, has active community support, and installs quite a bit more simply, pass the grog, avast! Let’s see how this goes.