Blog shift shwift

I was a proud user of Blogger. I have been a member since the year 2000, and it has faithfully kept and squealed my secrets, whatever the case may be.

I thought it was pretty cool to use something as unusual as Blogger. Unusual because I am part of a community wherein using free application service providers are not the norm ("Why use one, when you can create or install in your own server?").

With Blogger, I was unique.

With Blogger, I was also incessantly chided. It was only a matter of time, according to my "bitter half", before I finally become "true to myself," and customize a full-featured blogging application.

After almost four years, the time has come. I declared August 2004 as the time for change, among other things.

And so I began my research, and compiled a list of open-source blogging applications (too bad about Movable Type, huh?). I basically:

  • read the reviews,
  • visited sample websites,
  • browsed thru various support forums,
  • scanned user manuals, and
  • basically wasted my entire weekend.

At long last, I have narrowed it down to three: Nucleus, WordPress, and pMachine.

I’m a firm believer in the evaluation process. Although feedback from other users help (and unsolicited advice does not), each user has different needs. The only way I can choose the application is for me to actually install and try it out.

Thanks to Fantastico, I was able to instantly install both Nucleus and WordPress in the server.

WordPress

I ditched WordPress after an hour of tinkering. I found it too simplistic, and getting the required output takes too much code manipulation.

Nucleus

I tried Nucleus, and was actually becoming fond of it. I loved manipulating the skins and templates (after finally figuring out what they meant), and almost built an entire website around it.

However, I got frustrated when I tried to create a hack that will show the headlines of related articles. Surely, there must be something else which will easily accomplish this?

pMachine

With much hesitation, I installed pMachine. I had my reservations (and still do) about it. It has a highly commercial website which gives the impression that it is a Movable-Type-in-the-making. After all, who wants to receive an email after a few months stating in legalese that the script I was using is already for sale?

But I was getting frustrated (not to mention desperate), so I hurriedly installed it, and peeped inside the control panel.

Love at first sight

I was holding my breath. I immediately loved the way the control panel was organized. It took me a few minutes to figure out the purpose of each section, and how to modify the configuration.

Additionally, pMachine spoke my language (which is a cross between English, Filipino, newbie-techie, and basically a lot of unintelligible baby talk). I easily got the hang of the tags and variables, and started creating my own templates.

After approximately 3 hours, I have integrated all my templates into pMachine, uploaded a few sample articles, got my contact form working, and customized my search form.

As of this writing, this website is proudly powered by pMachine.

9 thoughts on “Blog shift shwift”

  1. It was love at first site with WordPress for me :-) I was actually a Blogger.com-to-Movable Type-to-Wordpress blogger. My experience (or frustrations) with the first 2 led me to love WordPress. It pretty much did everything I needed with enough flexibility. I haven’t tried using pMachine yet (for the same purpose that you have — “I don’t wanna pay later — see what happened to MT?”), But I guess, give or take, a completely GPL software has the huge advantages over all others at the end of the day.

  2. just making sure because nowadays you’ll see man’s blogging but their pictures are girls… or their layouts are so girlish.. or sometimes.. it is a girl but she acts guy

    just making sure.

  3. Hey there other Chette – this Chette is a gurl.

    Why else would she have baby picture with a skirt? Unless she is secretly a Scottish man…

  4. Ala lang :P I just dropped by here using google search.. just wondering kung may ka-name ako :P meron na nga lol hehehe

    Kasi nakakagulat lang, oh btw.. are you a girl or a guy? Coz Chette is a “GUYS” name. But I am a girl :P

    Drop by sometime ^_^ interesado akong mameet ka kasi interesting lang :D kapangalan kita eh :P

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