bloggertech

Second thoughts on remotely-hosted comments: after some mail from Hossein Sharifi, the author of YACCS, I've changed my tune. The problem with free remotely-hosted comments is not so much with the idea as it is with our expectations of them. Yes, Snorcomments crashing and burning, and taking all its users' comments with it, was a bad thing. However, Blogback shutting off new signups was only a bad thing in that there wasn't anyone else ready to take the next set of users. Blogback isn't a tragedy, it's a success. Its users are happy to have a stable comment provider (you are stable, aren't you, Marcus?), and Marcus learned some things (my only goal in what I do online), used some bandwidth he wasn't using, and made some people happy.

So where's the problem? I think it's in the way that Blogger makes us think in terms of a single provider. As Hossein said:

I think that the success of a web service relies on distribution of servers, control of growth, and cooperation between service providers. For the blog comment case, this would mean that the various services would share the ability to import/export a common file format, distribute users proportionately among themselves (giving more users to those with more resources), and reject new users when the entire system cannot support them.

All we need is a set of comment scripts, in PHP, Perl, and ASP at least, that are reasonably easy to install, and feature a standardized XML import/export feature. Then anyone who had some bandwidth going to waste and wanted the undying gratitude of a few hundred or a few thousand Blogger users could just install a script, set a limit on the number of users who can sign up, and list themselves on a central register of comment providers. If they need to shut down their service later, they would only need to give their users enough warning so that they could move to a new provider, telling their new host's script to import their comments from http://oldhost.com/export/user=foo. It's a beautiful idea, and I hope someone gets to work on it quickly, because I'm sure YACCS will be full before long.
posted by Phil Ringnalda at 3:27 PM | 0 comments

Status.Blogger.Com : "Fixed the FTP log page, so it displays the date of the file again." Woo hoo! A minor thing, but oh so annoying when you couldn't tell whether you still had the same problem, or whether Blogger just wasn't generating a new log page. Thanks, Ev.
posted by Phil Ringnalda at 5:54 PM | 0 comments

Comments on comments: the MeFi thread (where, inter alia, Meg complains about Blogger preventing anyone from starting a for-pay blogging system), and the voice of experience, Marcus commenting on commenting.

Blogger desperately needs some simpler way of adding comments. Using Blogtracker, I get to see all the ex-Blogger users making their first Movable Type post, saying "Oh boy, now I've got comments", and I have to wonder what's gone wrong, that so many people don't realize that they can install comments for use with Blogger in just a few minutes if they have any sort of server-side scripting available (or even have a free account somewhere else with PHP, ASP, or CGI). However, I don't think that privately run, remotely hosted comments are that simpler way. I suppose they do teach a good lesson, that anything you get for free and don't control in any way can be snatched away from you at any time, but I don't think that lesson really needs to be taught again. I just wish there were a few more free hosts offering enough scripting to run comments, since having Barrysworld as the only free PHP host, Tripod as the only free Perl host, and Brinkster as the only free ASP host makes running your own comment script on a free host nearly as vulnerable as using someone else's script.

Is Blogger stopping development of for-pay alternatives? I don't think so. I think that with all the frustration that Blogger causes any more, there's plenty of room for a cheap but not free alternative. The problem is more how you get it started: people would pay for a reliable, feature-rich Blogger-Pro, but would they pay for PhilBlog-Pro, sight-unseen? Probably not. Would they try it for a month, and then pay? Eh, maybe, but I'm not going to quit my day job just yet. I think there's more market for cheap Movable Type hosting than for PhilBlog-Pro. The benefits of blogging through a web app just aren't that great, unless you have Blogger's name-recognition and user numbers to go with it. Thus the lack of buzz about Big Blog Tool. If it costs $8 to take a look, I'll pass.

[Update: Before Ruzz's loyal followers come after me with the torches and pitchforks, let me explain what I meant: all I meant was that I think that BBT would be more popular if he offered a free trial, or even a free demo, so that you could see what you are buying. If he doesn't want to be that popular, or if he thinks I'm just plain wrong, that's cool, too. It's not my business, it's his, to run as he sees fit. Okay, flamethrowers on...]
posted by Phil Ringnalda at 12:49 PM | 6 comments

Things that make you say "hmmm": Blogger is overloaded. Bandwidth is a problem, server load is a problem. Yet, when you edit a post that isn't in your most recent archive file, Blogger publishes your (unchanged) most recent archive file, and to get the older archive file changed, you go to 'Archives -> republish all" (because it's too much trouble to remember which single file to republish). Hmmm.
posted by Phil Ringnalda at 10:56 AM | 0 comments

Blogger's inability to leave && in JavaScript alone annoys yet another person.
posted by Phil Ringnalda at 10:05 AM | 0 comments