This is an article discussion thread for discussing the SitePoint article, "Blog Software Smackdown: The Big 3 Reviewed"

This article is a great breakdown of what these three software packages have to offer. As someone who is on the outside looking in in the world of blogging this was very informative. If I ever get off my butt and actually start a blog I now have a much understanding of what is available and will make a much more informed decision.

It is definitely a nice article. A problem I find is that the article is dated November 11th 2005, while all of these packages have received major overhauls which makes many points obsolete. Movable Type no longer just makes use of Perl but PHP as well, so rebuilds are not an issue if one does not want it. Textpattern is at a stable release with tons of new features and more ease of use. I am not too informed on the progress of WordPress. Beyond these factors, it still is a good orientation for those looking into using either of these blog packages.

Out of the three self-hosted, only Movable Type is in Perl (which I know and can modify)...well, but I guess with software as complicated as a blogging system that doesn't really matter since I will probably just use it and not try to hack it ;-)

Sure, neither WordPress nor Textpattern use Perl, however, even Movable Type does not need to be used with Perl as its scripting language eversince they have introduced an alternative version that runs on PHP like WP or TXP do. That was the point I was trying to make.

The only time I ever had to touch the code on any of these blogging systems was when:

1. I added a hidden field in MovableType 3.0 to help combat spam and had to add some Perl code to accept the hidden field.

2. I had to hack some PHP code to fix a broken function in a nightly build of WordPress.

Under normal circumstances you'll be able to work with just the system and plugins and you won't have to alter the system's core code.

Scrivs did a similar review of these three packages a year ago, but looked at how well designed the user interface of each tool was.

He moved to Wordpress since, but obviously hasn't got around to fixing the styling for his archives if that page is any indication.

Personally, I like Textpattern because it is easy to control the whole site's content, but I still find it difficult to fathom that functionality like date-based archiving is 1) not present in the core code, and 2) extremely difficult to implement using an existing plugin, as the plugins always seem to break with each new release of TxP.

hey vinnie, when did you actually write this article? did you do your research on what you are writing on just pulled off the facts offhand as you remembered them? I'm talking about TXP, about which you've mentioned dual licensing stating that one needs to get a commercial license to deploy it commercially.

Take a look at http://textpattern.com/faq/51/what-l...extpattern-use which clearly states that TXP is under GPL only & this was posted on Aug-20-2005.

I wrote this in July as I said in another post. That's why all the software is a point release or more behind (and in the case of textpattern it went from a 1.0 release candidate to version 4.0.x).

What an entirely pointless waste of time this article is.

That it's months out of date renders the conclusions wrong or useless (for example, MT3.2 has vastly improved spam filtering capabilities), and it has stupid stuff like the name of the guy who wrote MovableType wrong - it's Ben Trott, not John Trott - which more than 10 seconds on the Six Apart website would have told you.

Also, putting a note in another post that this is entirely out of date helps nobody - you can't guarantee that the person finding their way here from a link on a blog is going to read every piece of content on the site.

In future, can I suggest that you:

a) get your facts right - getting stupid stuff like names wrong is amateurish and casts doubt on the validity of the article - it just says to me that if you can't be bothered to get stuff like that right, what's the rest of it going to be like?

b) publish as soon as you write these kinds of articles - the web is a movable beast, and the date of publishing an article is generally seen as an indicator of when it was written, so something published now but written months ago is mostly useless.

c) if you're going to publish months out of date, at least put that fact at the TOP of the article, so those reading it don't waste their time getting to the end of it to find out that it's a waste of time, like I just did.

d) if you absolutely *must* publish months later, take some time to check your facts and update the article with the latest information?

It's really disappointing, I expect far better from Sitepoint.

pixeldiva,

Have you ever written an article for publication? Basically once the writer sends it off to the editor it's out of the writer's hands. Not being a member of Sitepoint's editorial staff, I have no control over when/how these articles are published, and I'm sure they get a lot of articles queued up in their publishing schedule. Should my article jump ahead in line past others just because it deals with blog software that gets updated more frequently than other software?

I'm just giving my perspective as a writer here, and trying to explain some of the editorial process that goes on behind the scenes. I'd be more than happy to work on an updated version of the article covering the new versions of each package.

Yes, your article SHOULD have jumped ahead given its topic.

This is not a criticism towards you, but to whomever who is responsible for how and when articles on a certain topic go live.

With a topic such as this, I see no point in having it queued for almost half a year. This makes no sense for a review of software packages that are all fast growing, community driven efforts. It's logical that these packages grow to mature in a speedy manner, given their purpose and the popularity, ease of use etc. A few thousands new blogs are created every day, so it boogles my mind why any editor would keep such an article in the pipeline for 5 months.

I am asking myself, how many people will ignore software xy based on the arguments that were valid half a year ago but are now obsolete? Perhaps the editors could at least put a timestamp in it saying something like "this article was written on July xx, 2005" or something down those lines to indicate that the article was indeed written at a much earlier point from its public release.

These are just my .006 cents.

oh yeah, I wondered!! still, it was quite late that this article was published!!

I'd have to say, that would've been quite right!! Article like yours, they can't wait months to be published!! Its not a tut or something on AJAX etc. which will remain readable & usable as it had been months ago when it was written. These kinda articles should get some priority so that they are served somewhat fresh!! and if they can't be given priority, then another option would've been to ask you to update some points of the article that are glaringly stale, like the version numbers etc. Because ultimately this would look bad on SitePoint that they are publishing an article(a featured one at that) reviewing some softwares which are outdated by months & have several releases after the ones that article mentions. Really, had I been a first timer at SitePoint, I'd have some serious thoughts about reading other articles since the first one I'd have read, a featured article on the homepage, has quite a bit of stale info.

I think that SitePoint should give some thought to this problem, its some constructive criticism that I think is my duty to provide as a SitePoint regular!!

In movabletype v3.2, the free singler user restriction on number of blogs has been removed. The free version can have unlimited blogs, but only one author.

I love picsFolio (http://www.picsfolio.com), it's got everything I'd ever need in a blog and even offers video hosting / blogging capabilities built in (does photos too). Has some cool stats and stuff as well.

check it out, looks a lot nicer than the ones in this article..

Vinnie: I am surprised to hear you say that once you send off your manuscript to the editors, you don't see it again. As an author myself, I see the manuscript back at least three more times although my publications are printed and therein may be the difference.

Despite the criticism from others, I like the article.

Good point! Give the author one last pass at it for very limited items with a very short timeline and then publish it.

I'd like to see thoughts on Nucleus CMS (http://www.nucleuscms.org). I've been using it for some time and have found PLENTY of uses for it.

Barelry even scratched the surface. :) There are *loads* of other blogging tools aviable (as Free/free/or paid etc.) - you missed functionalities like posting photos, managing banning/blocking/filtering spam comments. Managing URL's, multi user setups and etc.

I understand that your point of view is not exactly strict technical... But still this comparsion lags lots of features expected from bloging systems.

I have to agree on pretty much all points that WordPress is the most powerful and easiest to set up. What it seriously lacks, however, is a support network. There are extensive support pages in the Codex (http://codex.wordpress.org). but they're not for beginners or users with no knowledge of PHP.

One huge advantage that Movable Type has is the support forums. The users there are very helpful, and always glad to assist newbies with basic problems. The search there will also usually turn up great information.

WordPress's support forum just plain sucks. I always get the feeling that they think they're doing me a favor just by referring me to some techie page on the Codex. A lot of questions, especially the tricky ones go unanswered, making the search function practically useless, since it rarely turns up answers.

Even the format of the WordPress forum is something that looks more like a blog than a forum, which is very distracting.

WordPress is easier to get up and running, but it takes plugins and sometimes some PHP knowledge to get some of the same basic functionality that you'll find with the built-in template tags of Movable Type.

I'm totally sold on WordPress, and I doubt I'll ever go back to MovableType, but these are important things to note, especially for users looking to start their first blog, or start customizing one.

I wish I could comment on TextPattern, but I've just never used it.

Anyone heard of Drupal? That's a really awesome blogging platform.

there is another blog software called serendipity or s9y......it's good that it got a html javascript dom-based editor.....which means plain english 'm$ word-like content editor'

So a few verison numbers are outdated? Does it really matter *that* much? As an editor I know that it isn't the easiest thing to just spit out content a week after it was submitted. I have stuff sit there weeks before I even get to look at it.

Thank you. This was useful for me as I am researching a blogging platform.

Great comparison. Also check out RocketPost-- it's the most advanced blog editor right now.

http://www.anconia.com/rocketpost

It works with MT and WordPress, and I designed it.

very help - it has just been added to Slashdot

Last summer I wrote a popular review of blogging software simial to this: http://www.franske.com/blogs/bensblog.php/2004/06/27/the_next_big_thing_in_blogging_software
Ten days ago I did an update article specifically about multibloggins software (allows multiple blogs on one install):
http://www.franske.com/blogs/bensblog.php/2005/11/05/a_year_later_an_overvies_multiblog_softw

I think they're worth a read, but don't take my word for it...try a google search for multiblog software

Hey Vinnie,

nice article! I'm also a big fan of textpattern. You're pointing out that it's still a RC, however from my experience and what I know from others is, that the current release (4.0.2) is actually quite stable.

Yes it is a big deal. The entire article is now slanted because the facts are off.

It's not the authors fault (Though there were a few silly mistakes) but it is a big deal. As was mentioned, how many people will be influenced by this now outdated article?

All three blog platforms have been updated with named flaws eliminated. Even though I am a wordpress fan, which came out on top, I can see that it's outdatedness is an issue.

Good article otherwise. I'll go back to being a newb now.

well, I think there's a difference between being a book author & authoring articles for a website. what he said can't be a lie(why would he?) & quite understandable as well, SitePoint editorial staff might really be having hundreds of submissions waiting to be passed or rejected. But I guess giving the author a last chance to update the version numbers etc. in articles like this wouldn't hurt!!


yes it does matter!! not to the the ones who know about or use the softwares mentioned, but to those who are n00bs & for which this article was aimed at.


if you read carefully from top to bottom, you'll find a post by Vinnie where he explains that he wrote the article in July & TextPattern was indeed an RC during that time!!

The article should have been extended to include NucleusCMS, B2revolution, Plog, Serendipity and Bblog. These blogs are very popular too and have more features than movable type...

whoops...you're right... take it, it was a bit too late when I read the article...was just wondering...

Why the graphic for the "wrapping up" table?

Two factual errors:

"Free software" does not equal "no paid support"; there are a number of companies out there which make good money offering support for Free and open-source software.

And while "at time of writing", Textpattern may have had a release candidate, an officially stable version has been available for some months now, and two incremental releases have been pushed out as well -- the current Textpattern stable version is 4.0.2.

its b2evolution!! and I think that Vinnie has explained in the article that he's reviewing the most popular blog softwares, not all of them. there are quite a lot of blog softwares around to be reviewed in a single article!! Why did you leave out Expression Engine out of your list? IMHO it has even more fetaures than any of the ones you mentioned!!

Great article vinnie, made it to slashdot .

Oh I know, seeing as how I use Textpattern for 3 blogs and it's my personal favorite for now . I still consider it more of an expert-level package than your average WP or MT install though.
If I had done that the article would have either said very little about every system or it would have turned into a small book. As a writer you sometimes have to make tradeoffs between depth and breadth, and I tried going for depth with the constraints given to me.

----

This article was aimed at the more technical and truth be told. There is nothing wrong with blogger for making a blog. Why go to all the trouble of having to install and learn things when all you want to do is write.
I think the article should have also focused a little harder on the simple online blogs (like blogger).

Anyway I'm happy with my blog.
http://paperclipping.blogspot.com
The article was interesting but I swear by blogger and love it's usability.

I think Vinnie did an excellent job. A learning experience, and, you should keep at it. Write more!

I agree with you to some extent. To the casual or non-technical user (and even some technical users) a service like Blogger, Typepad, or Livejournal would be fine. However, that was outside of the scope of this article so I tried to keep discussion of those to a minimum even though they are a big part of the blog explosion.

An entirely more useful article would be to cover in-depth what's available for different platforms as good portion of people don't use php. I'd think anyone who's done any blogging research already or who is involved in the blogging community knows about the "top three" mentioned so the article is pretty pointless in that regard and is can hardly be considered a "blog software" smackdown.

I tried all three of the reviewed blog application. I just "didn't get" Textpattern, possibly because I didn't really want to learn YAML (Yet Another Markup Language), Textism.

I was looking for an Open Source application, so that dropped Movable Type.

I was was left with WordPress. And I was happy. Until I discovered Serendipity (aka s9y) http://www.s9y.org/

It is PHP/MySQL based, and licensed under the BSD licence. It as a very powerful framework for adding plugins, and uses smarty templating (http://smarty.php.net/) for the heavy lifting in the front end.

While the s9y web site is poor, the forums are superb, and I have always received a quick and thorough answer within days if not hours.

No server? http://www.supersized.org/ has blog s9y hosting.

The official Serendipity blog:
http://blog.s9y.org/

(and me:
http://ffaat.pointclark.net/blog )

A review of the three most likely packages some aspiring blogger is going to use isn't useful? Color me surprised!

Everyone is going to have a different take on how this article should have been done. Going after the most likely packages seemed like a good way to go for me.

PS: MovableType is there if you don't want to use PHP.

A good start out article for the uninitiated. The only change I would made is more links to alternate products. It's always nice to beable to do a comparison. Additionally, alternate products which don't rely on MySQL, would have been nice. I've had nothing but bad experience with that thing, and have moved on to PostgreSQL.

Now, I'm off to check out that primer!

And it was. Well done. What's next then?

Next is updating the article with more recent information due to popular demand (and installing/configuring MovableType and WordPress all over again, what fun), then I don't know. I can't give all my secrets away

pLog is also worth trying - http://www.plogworld.net/, now it's called LifeType, it has a very neat MVC code.

I completely agree. I think most people will agree with that. The issue is more the date of release, not the content which is very well written and a gem for anyone looking into using a self-hosted php based (or in the case of mt a pearl or php based) blogging solution.

I think you're overstating the complexities of WordPress. I know alot of HTML, and absolutely nothing of PHP. Yet I was able to install and configure WordPress with no problems.. PHP is a different coding method, yes, but it also exists hand in hand with HTML and it didnt take me but 10 minutes to figure out how to use my knowledge to add or remove things from my PHP documents. Its easy from start to finish. Monkeys could blog with wordpress.