The obligatory new-weblog-software post

You may be wondering why I went through the trouble of setting up new weblog software. Well, part of the reason is the never-ending stream of issues related to Invisionboard, which makes it difficult to deal with any changes (that is, if you do ANY customization). When there’s a new Invision forum, the blog goes out of date. When there’s a skin change, it may hurt the blog. Then there’s the Garage feature…and frankly the weblogs weren’t getting as much attention as I thought they deserved while at the forums. And, for what it’s worth, IPB never seemed to get the RSS feed quite right. Let’s face it, weblogs aren’t their thing.

This system, WordPress, is, as far as I can tell, the #1 system around. It’s got lots of support, lots of potential features via plug-ins, an easier interface, a lot more in the way of flexibility, and it’s easier for people coming in to see all the new stuff - or just read the posts from their favorite writer - or just read issues in one or two categories. It’s faster, has integrated backup, and doesn’t require me to jump through hoops to give people permission to use it. (For some reason IPB never provided per-user access to their weblog.)

In short, for once, it was easier to have two separate programs running than to try to make one program do too many things.

In the future, I’ll try to get the weblogs, upcoming photo galleries, and forums all working nicely together. Since this is a new version of WordPress, though, I think we should wait until things settle down first! Then there will be all sorts of plugins, tech tips, etc.