Blogging from the Ground Up - Post 0.5
Welcome to my blog. Before you start reading — something I hope you'll stay and do — I have to point out that the Frank Spot is still just a touch under construction So even though you're reading this, my first blog entry, you should know that it isn't my "official" first entry. That's coming shortly."What the heck is he talking about?" I don't know which one of you said it, or if you used more invectives, but I definitely heard it...in advance...while typing. (Could blogs be windows into the future? Find out in a future blog!) No, no. Let me explain:
I've been working to create my blog for about three weeks now. And it occurred to me that I could create an "unofficial" blog entry that gives me content to play with as I build, AND documents my odyssey from ignorant non-blogger (read: member of the unwashed masses) to enlightened blog guru. (Okay: maybe "guru" is a little boastful, but it's my blog, and I'll boast if I like.) I've decided to make it "unofficial" because I'm not sure I want to count this as my first real entry. There's something so blasé and unimaginative (not to mention dizzyingly self-referential) in blogging about blogging, no matter how amusing the readers will find my frustrating journey.
No — ultimately, I want my first "real" blog entry to be about something important. Something provocative. Something that bites into the social or political problems that are the meals of the modern news media. As I mention in my sidebar, I want to be relevant. So in short, blogging about starting my first blog ain't gonna cut it. Therefore:
Welcome to Post 0.5 (or: Creating a Blog Sounded So Easy, But Really Wasn't)
Finding the Right Site
Once I decided to start a blog, I had few decisions to make. The first, most basic one: what blog tool/site to use. I took a casual stroll through the myriad world of blogging products, and started gathering a list of things I liked. It took more than a week to examine the rich feature set that powered the blogosphere, but I came away from the analysis with a fairly simple list of what I wanted:- Hosted — Yes, I'm a web guy, but I don't have my own server, and didn't feel like building one to host myself.
- Free — I wasn't sure I'd like it or stick with it, so this was key.
- Flexible — I like to have a lot of control, so I wanted something that gave me control over almost everything: design, scripts, widgets, etc.
- Well-known — a site that people are using a lot; so I can get my thoughts out to a large audience.
- Nice design — a site that looks nice when you get to it, not just when you're on a blog. Not too ad-heavy, not too cluttered/busy, not loud and obnoxious.
- Cool templates to pick from — I knew I'd start with a basic template and go from there, but why not start with a cool one so I don't have to hate my blog while I'm building it.
- A name that's easy to type and say — Sorry Aeonity; not only am I still not sure how to say your name, but most people have dropped the "a" from Aeon. That means I'd have to stop and spell you every time I tell someone where to find my blog. Not intuitive at all...
The domain I wanted was available: www.frankspot.wordpress.com. I grabbed it, and started building my first prototype. I picked a template, selected my widgets and add-ons, added a header image and stylized logo, greeked up some text, and published. It looked cool, but not quite right. The template I picked was left-justified, and it looked fine in the little preview window. But full screen, it looked — well — wonky. I went behind the scenes to change it, and quickly found that I couldn't tweak the CSS without adding some coin to the mix. In fact, I was pretty hobbled in the customization area, if I wanted to keep my wallet closed. There were many great features: it was fast, and slick, and easy to use, and had brand recognition. But, the fact that they'd hidden the CSS from non-paying customers irked me, and not just a little. So, I left my greeked WordPress blog where it was (pushed all the way to the left!) and moved on to Blogger (which, incidentally, one of my carpool buddies recommended).
New host, new URL, new attempt. I went back to the drawing board. I browsed through templates, add-ons, etc., and the Blogger iteration of The Frank Spot was poised to take shape.
The Template and Widget Quagmire (Or: How Hard Can it Be When You Have Lots of Choices?)
Picking a template for WordPress was a relatively short process: they offered a few dozen standard (read: free) templates, some of which were pretty good. I could also upload a third-party template from one of the many gifted designers in the blogosphere. But, just like the ability to customize the CSS, use of a third-party template required the tacit approval of my wallet. And my wallet wasn't interested. "Blog free or die," it said crisply from my nightstand. "Maybe Blogger has more free templates."Indeed. Through its interface, Blogger has about the same number of templates as WordPress. Sharp and easy to understand, if a little understated. But Blogger supports pretty much any third-party template you can find, or any template you care to build. Three seconds with Google showed me an amazing number of sites devoted to Blogger templates. For every cool WordPress template out there, there were at least two cool Blogger templates. In fact, there were almost too many.
"Too many?" you ask, pursing your lips and raising one eyebrow. "Yes," I say confidently. "Too many." So many, that I wasted an entire day downloading, unzipping, and testing templates. Some were wrong for one reason, some were wrong for another reason. Some were wrong because I was just too picky. It was in the wee hours of the next morning that I found one that seemed to have the most promise: iTheme. Nice look, good color and backgrounds, and the ability to open/close and reorder the side widgets. I locked it in place with all defaults intact, pasted my greeked text from WordPress, and took the second iteration of my blog online.
"Much better," said my wallet. "And without any involvement from me." I offered a snarky smile, put something heavy on top of my wallet, and went to bed.
The next morning, it was time to figure out which widgets I wanted. The template came with four, but I figured there'd be more I'd like. I'd seen enough blogs during my research to know I wanted things like a calendar for my archives, a section about me, a list of tags, etc. Enter the next set of problems.
First off, the default recent comments widget didn't really work. Comments weren't showing up as expected, and when they did, they were kind of ugly. I remembered some forum discussion about that particular widget not working properly in iTheme, and several bloggers had built their own replacements. I tried a few of them out, and finally landed on a pretty good one by Hackosphere. I plugged it in, it worked, and I was happy. I'd worry about customizing it later.
Next up: an "About" section...and a tremendous headache.
In addition to all the canned widgets it offers, Blogger also has a basic HTML/JavaScript widget, that lets you provide your own code. As a web guy, I was confident I could build a section in one flurry of typing, drop it in the page, and be done. Nothing is ever that easy.
I inserted my clever text, floated it around a Simpsons avatar of myself, and published. I previewed the page in FireFox and it looked great. I went to IE6, and "Where the heck is my text? Why is there a blank section?" I checked my code, refreshed my browser cache, chewed my lower lip, and then tried to move the widget. I was shocked to see that when the widget detached from the page (and became partly transparent) my picture and text were actually there — hiding behind the layer. Such a curious thing. I was even more shocked when I tried to move it in FF and the widget moved WITHOUT the content. Could my code have been that wrong? I really didn't think so.
I opened the widget, parsed the code, and decided to try a little more structure — I had wrongly presumed that the widget brought enough structure with it. I built a quick CSS (loaded on googlepages) and cut in some styled DIVs and Spans. In FF, all was well, and the content moved with the widget. In IE, the text was still lost in the background. I pondered for several minutes before I remembered some quirkiness I had seen on another project. I went to the CSS, and specified a 100% width on the container DIV. Bang! Now my content was visible in both browsers. I thought I was done.
I opened the site up to a few others, and the next problem appeared: if you collapsed or resized any of the widgets, the page would break when you reloaded it. The wrong widgets would be collapsed, and the "About" content would be hanging out alone UNDER its empty widget. Somehow, my static HTML text was wrecking havoc with the widget code. If I took it out, the page was fine. Back in, and broken. Again, most annoying. I searched the web, posted questions on template forums, pored over help files, but to no avail. I had to fix it myself.
Flash forward a few days. The problem rattled around in the back of my brain while I concentrated on other stuff. When I went back with fresh eyes, I decided to dissect my first solution. I wondered if the surrounding DIV was somehow to blame. I changed it to a SPAN, and bam! the blog worked perfectly in FF. Collapsing, expanding, moving — all fine. In IE, no more content. It was back behind the widget. Ignoring the snickers coming from my flattened wallet, I tried combining my solutions. I added a styled DIV (with 100% width) just inside the outer SPAN tags, and republished. FF? Still fine. IE? Hooray! It's there! But man, was I pooped. And confounded. What a weird (and completely incorrect!) way to build that content. (DIV tags don't go inside SPAN tags...) I decided I needed to document that experience in my blog...
What Happened to the Calendar Widget (Or: This is the Longest Post About Nothing in History)
Those of you paying close attention may remember that I mentioned an archive calendar widget. There's nothing wrong with the flat folder list archive that came with the template; I just liked the calendar look, and wanted to have one. I did a little searching, and found a custom archive widget that seemed a good fit for my blog. I downloaded it, unzipped it, and let out a long slow breath — with just a hint of a low, sliding whistle. There were many nested folders and some densely packed instructions in the unzipped folder. I had just lost three days fighting with my 40-word "About" widget, and the thought of this next installation sucked the energy out of me. In short: I didn't have the heart to install it. I saved it, and may get to it eventually, but for now, my readers will have to make due with the default.WordPress vs. Blogger: Who Won?
I'm not sure when it happened — or even why, given the template and widget troubles I had with the site — but Blogger became the de facto winner of this contest. Although I still liked everything WordPress had to offer, I had invested far too much time into Blogger to give it up. I didn't realize I felt that way until I had written much of this 0.5 entry. I had fully intended to cross post this entry there so I could do a 1:1 comparison, but the idea started seeming silly. And despite the length of this entry, I'm not a man with an abundance of free time. So, Blogger it is...for now.Final Thoughts (Or: OMG! What More Can He Have to Say?)
As I close this unofficial first entry, there are a still a number of challenges in front of me. In addition to wanting to insert a sub-title/subheading under the post title (without messing up the look and feel of the page), and change some of the default CSS, I haven't figured out how to remove deleted posts from the archive list, or comments about a deleted post from the comments list. It seemed pretty obvious to me that if you deleted a post, the archive entry and all associated comments would go with it. Clearly, I missed something along the way. I have a few last-ditch (and even drastic) things to try, and I may have to settle. But The Frank Spot, now firmly in place on Blogger, is open for business.I hope to see you here.
