Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: ShortscaleDave on January 04, 2015, 11:17:46 PM
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Just a quick ask for what providers of blogging facilities people find the best for mini gaming blogs (pictures and all that!). I'm looking to begin one this year to document my re-entry to the hobby and would like to pick one that will serve the purpose as well as possible! thanks in advance for any advice :)
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I use Blogger.
The reason being is that I normally only use my tablet and only sometimes my PC and with its dedicated app this seemed like a simple choice for me. After running it for several months I'm quite happy with it. The pics, if taken with my camera not my phone, tinkered with on my iPad, come out ok and the text is very easy to add, update, edit or remove. Plenty choices of formats, etc too.
Now I've not used other host so can't talk about them, I don't want a world conquering blog and at the end of the day I'm really only writing for myself, not for an audience - so with these criteria being met, I'm happy!
www.stuartinschwargames.blogspot.co.uk
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I use Blogger as well, with my pictures stored in Picasa and the articles written in Google docs - just keeps everything in one place.
If you're into programming, there are APIs that let you automate a large part of the publishing process. I have it set up so that it downloads the appropriate document, scans it for picture references, finds them in picasa, then publishes the whole lot on blogger. Saves me quite a bit of time :D
Most annoying part of blogging for me is taking and editing the pictures - can't quite get the computer to do that bit yet :(
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Never had problems with my wordpress.com blogs. Plenty of templates, easy interface, decent free storage. Upgrades seem reasonably priced too. Good luck.
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Another vote for Blogger here :)
cheers
James
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Whichever provider you decide to use, it's worth submitting your blog to The Tabletop Games blog network - http://blogs.tabletopgamingnews.com/
Not sure if there are other gaming networks out there(*), but TGN covers a lot
(*) There's also the RPG Bloggers network, but it's more about RPGs than wargames
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Blogger, been using it for years now, easy to use
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I like Wordpress.com, lots of free storage.
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Whichever provider you decide to use, it's worth submitting your blog to The Tabletop Games blog network - http://blogs.tabletopgamingnews.com/
Not sure if there are other gaming networks out there(*), but TGN covers a lot
(*) There's also the RPG Bloggers network, but it's more about RPGs than wargames
Excuse my ignorance but what does this (or they) do?
cheers
James
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Blogger for me too, it's pretty easy to use if you are a beginner, with plenty of templates and ways to customise it to your liking. I have stacks of photos on mine, never had a problem with storage. It's easy to gain followers too, if that's important to you. I looked at wordpress but found it a bit too "programmey" for me - gave up computing years ago, didn't want to do it all again. It's also difficult to follow wordpress blogs - there's a few I like but cannot for the life of me figure out how to follow them. o_o
So yeah, blogger is highly recommended, here's mine if you are interested.
http://paintsngluenrocknroll.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://paintsngluenrocknroll.blogspot.co.uk/)
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Another vote for blogger but make sure you don't paste photos direct to the blog use an online provider (photo bucket etc)....these eat up memory like nobodies business
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I have several blogs (don't know why, it just means I post on each of them less than if I had one), all on Blogger. I found it easy to pick up and indeed I think I had my first post out in about 40 minutes if I remember rightly.
There is one thing I can't do on Blogger and when I tried to and realised I couldn't, I found it a bit annoying/baffling. However, that was ages ago, and I now can't remember what it was I was trying to do. So that might not be any help. ;D
I completely agree with Nord about the photos - I find it easier to have them on the blogs than on an external site, because it's easier to manipulate them. Blogger's range of options for photoplacement isn't extensive however and is a bit clunky. I find that that, added to resizing photos from an external site = photo-nightmare. Much easier to use the limited Blogger controls and at least the photos are relatively sensibly-sized. Never had any problems about storage either.
Having said all of that - I've been told by people that use blogs for serious purposes (like, work) that Wordpress is better because it's more flexible. So it may depend on what you want to get out of it. I think the fact that Blogger is currently winning about 8:2 in the answers that you've got, shows that it's perfectly suitable for most gaming blog purposes however.
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Excuse my ignorance but what does this (or they) do?
cheers
James
You submit your blog's RSS feed to TGN and they add it to their own list. Then, using a site like feedly.com, you subscribe to TGN's RSS feed. This means that every time anyone adds a new blog post, TGN update their own list and you get informed about the post. It basically saves you having to subscribe to every different blog you want to follow. Likewise, when you post something new, everyone subscribed to TGN will see the post
I've just re-read the joining instructions, and your blog must have been active for at least six months, but it's something to think about.
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Wordpress.com
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I've used WordPress for my blog for about a year now and its effortlessly simple to use. Highly recommended. An important consideration if you want to share your projects is the amount of wargame related traffic the site get.
I'd like to wish you the best of luck in this endeavour, the world could always do with more wargaming blogs
Once again good luck
Front line armchair
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Just in case anyone else is looking to start a blog. I did a bit of research before I starting a second blog. Between Blogger and Wordpress.
Blogger:
Pro's: Completely free, very easy to use and already integrated with the various google apps. Requires no programing skill and things like security are already handled
Cons: More limited in terms of layout, features, etc. Google has ultimate control and technical ownership of the blog (if they kill Blogger you loose everything.) Less opportunity to make your Blog really unique
Wordpress:
Pro's: Wide open flexibility to make your blog unique. Good community support (It's open source). You own the blog content.
Cons: It costs money (Server Space, Buying a domain name, security, etc), Making use of the possibilities for WP requires programing ability and/or money.
My blog is basically an open air journal. Not something I need to use to make $, and not something I want to spend money on so I choose Blogger.
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Wordpress has two versions:
Wordpress.com - this is free, dead easy to use, and has tons of options. Basically similar to Blogger, but more features. I use it for my own blog https://arteis.wordpress.com/ (https://arteis.wordpress.com/)
Wordpress.org - this is the more complex and professional one, as you need the hosting etc.
So when people talk about Wordpress as a singular, the question is which Wordpress they're talking about ...
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Wordpress has two versions:
Wordpress.com - this is free, dead easy to use, and has tons of options. Basically similar to Blogger, but more features. I use it for my own blog https://arteis.wordpress.com/ (https://arteis.wordpress.com/)
Wordpress.org - this is the more complex and professional one, as you need the hosting etc.
So when people talk about Wordpress as a singular, the question is which Wordpress they're talking about ...
Good to know. I was not aware of the .com version.
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No, I wasn't aware of the wordpress.com site either. I looked into Wordpress when I started thinking about a blog and since I didn't know if it was going to lead to anything worthwhile I plumped for the entirely free Blogger. I also wanted to post bits from my android tablet and the Wordpress.org site didn't work properly for me on my tablet, which may just be a problem with my particular tablet but Blogger worked perfectly so it was an easy decision at the time.
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+1 for Wordpress! :)
I use Wordpress for many years, had huge traffic and never a problem. Cool templates, many possible modifications, good statistics, nice storage, etc.
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I've been using blogger for a while, somehow I found it easier to use than wordpress, but it might be just a matter of taste.
http://demimorgana.blogspot.com/ (http://demimorgana.blogspot.com/)
Besides I also use other google applications so I like to log in only once to check email, write a blog post, update ad words etc.
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Thanks for all the fantastic feedback everyone, time to start making a decision methinks!
As an additional question the: Presumably one needs a decent photo storing site to host the photos - which is the best free one these days? I've got photobucket and flikr accounts from years ago but not used them in a long time.
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Photobucket is still doing the trick for me :)
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I noticed one if those 'magazine books' in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago - a guide to using Wordpress. Dunno if it was .com or .org! Still, I might go see if it's still there, for my own use.
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I have a google blog http://paintpigdave.blogspot.com.au/
and wordpress blog https://figvfig.wordpress.com/
Googles blogger is dead simple to use and you will be on your way pretty quickly wordpress may take you a little while longer and you may have to think about what you want from your blog and how to set it up but you will have a very customizable and beautiful blog (depending on the skins and theme you use)
I started with wordpress because serious bloggers (ie not war games ;) ) recommended it, it was a sharper learning curve, but I learned exactly what was going on. Blogger gets you up and running quick but you will soon realize that customization will require you to go back in there.
Both are free, Wordpress.com has large good internal storage space for you blog photo's, I prefer using over Googles Picasso
One last point blogger has a larger instant gaming community at your finger tips with wordpress your going to have to do a bit of work and advertise yourself and follow zemjw's advice and dont forget to let us know!
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I noticed one if those 'magazine books' in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago - a guide to using Wordpress. Dunno if it was .com or .org! Still, I might go see if it's still there, for my own use.
Wordpress provides software for a number of social applications this is "wordpress.org" the commercial side of wordpress
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I used to use Blogger, which being owned by google becomes easy to find on a google search, but more recently Wordpress which I prefer.