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Theistic Satanism Blog Network, 2007 concept:
The blog hosts we use: A comparison


by Diane Vera



Copyright © 2007 by Devil's Domain Press. All rights reserved.



The forthcoming Theistic Satanism Blog Network will include blogs on the following hosts:

Sorry, but we cannot include blogs on Myspace or Yahoo 360, for technical reasons.

If you're interested in participating in the blog network, please begin now to experiment with one or more blogs, on one or more of the supported blog hosts. Once you've decided which blog host(s) you'll be using, please email me the URL of your blog. Whichever blog host you choose, please put a link back to the main Theistic Satanism Blog Network page on a side panel. (Hence you'll also need to choose a layout/theme/template which lets you display a links list, also known as a "blogroll," on a side panel.)

Below are my thoughts about the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three blog hosts, plus some miscellaneous tips:


  1. Google/Blogspot
    1. Advantages
    2. Disadvantages
  2. LiveJournal
    1. Advantages
    2. Disadvantages
  3. WordPress.com
    1. Advantages
    2. Disadvantages
  4. If you decide to use more than one blog
  5. Miscellaneous tips on using your blog(s)
    1. Offline editors
    2. More lster
  6. Feedback requested about the three blog hosts


  1. Google/Blogspot

    2.

    1. Advantages of Google/Blogspot

      2.

      1. Lots of people, including lots of Satanists, have Google accounts, e.g. for Gmail. So, Google/Blogspot is probably your best choice if you want to maximize the number of theistic Satanists who can post comments on your blog without having to register for a new account anywhere.

        2. (The above assumes that, wherever your blog is hosted, you'll be allowing only registered users to post comments. I recommend this, because it discorages troublemakers and makes it easier to keep track of troublemakers and to report them if necessary. However, if you prefer instead to allow totally anonymous comments, that's up to you.)

      2. Of the three blog hosts, Google/Blogspot is the only one which, on a free account, lets you change the color scheme of a given layout/theme/template. So, you can choose a template based on factors other than color, then change the colors later. (The other blog hosts let you do this only with paid accounts.)

      3. "Link back." Whenever a post on another blog links to a post on your blog, a link back to the other post will automatically appear below the comments on your post.

      4. If you also have a Google Ad-Sense account, Blogspot lets you earn a small amount of money from Google ads on your blog. How much money? I won't have any idea until we've gotten the blog network off the ground, Probably not an awful lot, but even a little bit would be nice.

    2. Disadvantages of Google/Blogspot

      3.

      1. I've been told that the editor is primitive, compared to the editors on the other blog hosts. (I wouldn't notice this myself, because I'm in the habit of doing my own HTML coding.)

      2. No features to facilitate social networking amongst likeminded bloggers within Blogspot itself. (Nevertheless, as explained earlier, Blogspot will probably best for the purpose of meeting theistic Satanists via the Theistic Satanism Blog Network.)

      3. For whatever reason, Blogspot's login page sometimes crashes the browser I usually use (Firefox). But it works fine in Internet Explorer.


  2. LiveJournal

    3.

    1. Advantages of LiveJournal

      2.

      1. Various social networking features. LiveJournal is basically a social networking site, attracting a somewhat more mature and intelligent crowd than Myspace, or at least a crowd that tends to be somewhat more fond of the written word, as distinct from the extremely visual, nonverbal orientation of many Myspace sites.

      2. Some of your posts can be "Friends only," readable only to people on your "Friends" list. Such posts would not be listed on the Theistic Satanism Blog Network page, but may nevertheless be useful as a way of having more private discussions with people you've met online, either via our blog network or on LiveJournal itself.

      3. LJ lets you make posts by voice, automatically translated to text. Good for those who would rather talk than type, while still satisfying the Theistic Satanism Blog Network's requirement that blogs be mostly text.

    2. Disadvantages of LiveJournal

      3.

      1. Very few Satanists there, and even fewer theistic Satanists. (However, LJ might be a good place to meet intelligent people who share your other interests and who are more likely than the average person to be at least tolerant toward theistic Satanists.)

      2. Like other social networking sites, LJ is in some ways a boon to stalkers. (For example, people can see your Friends list.)

      3. No "link back" or anything similar (such as "track back" or "ping back").


  3. WordPress.com

    4.

    1. Advantages of Wordpress.com

      2.

      1. Although WordPress.com is not a social networking site per se, it does have some features that make it easy to find other WordPress bloggers who share your interests. For example, if you click a tag on one of your own posts, you'll be taken to a page listing all recent blog posts, by all WordPress.com users, with that tag. As far as I can tell so far, Wordpress.com tends to attract a somewhat more literate crowd than LiveJournal.com (although there are some very bright people on LiveJournal too, as well as some appallingly idiotic people on both sites).

      2. "Ping back," similar to "link back," but with some differences. Automatically generated links will appear below your post only when the post linking to yours is on another WordPress blog. (Incoming links from the other two blog hosts can be found on your "Dashboard," but not below the linked post itself.)

        3. From a blog post on Wordpress.com, you can generate publicly visible automatic links back to your own post on other people's blogs on either WordPress.com or Google/Blogspot. Thus, WordPress.com is best from the point of view of maximizing your ability to respond to other people's posts via posts of your own, rather than via comments.

        This is a significant advantage from the point of view of protecting your privacy, by reducing the number of people who can see your computer's I.P. address. (On all three blog hosts, bloggers can see the I.P. addresses of people who post comments directly on their blogs.)

      3. In addition to the blog itself, WordPress also lets you put up a bunch of static pages, including an "About" page, to which you can link permanently from a side panel.

      4. "Dashboard" includes "Blog Stats," including how many people accessed your blog in a given day, how many people looked at each post, what websites they came from, and/or what search terms they used to find your blog.

      5. Probably the easiest-to-use editor, amongst the three blog hosts discussed here.

    2. Disadvantages of Wordpress.com

      3.

      1. Hardly any Satanists there at all, and not very many Pagans or occultists either. However, like LiveJournal, WordPress.com can be a good place to find intelligent people who share your other interests and who are more likely than the average person to be tolerant towards theistic Satanists.

      2. A very annoying "snap previews" feature, but you can easily enough turn that feature off.

      3. WordPress.com serves as a showcase for WordPress.org blog software, hence is frequently updated with the latest version of WordPress's software. In general this is a good thing, i.e. it means that your blog will always be state-of-the-art, but it also entails the occasional sudden appearance of mysterious new bugs.


  4. If you decide to use more than one blog

    5.

    Members of the Theistic Satanism Blog Network may use just one blog if they prefer, or they may use more than one blog, on more than one host. If you decide to use more than one blog, then I would recommend using them for specialized purposes as described below, given their advantages and disadvantages as discussed above.

    I would suggest using a Google/Blogspot blog for most of your "Theistic Satanists only" posts and perhaps also most of your "Satanists and Pagans and occultists only" posts, both to maximize wanted replies and to minimize unwanted replies. Because a Google/Blogspot blog is not already hooked into any larger interconnected blogging community, the only way that most people would be likely to find your Google/Blogspot blog would be via the Theistic Satanism Blog Network's listings of posts. (A few may also find you via search engines.) On the other hand, since many of these people will already have Google accounts, it will be easy for relatively many theistic Satanists to comment.

    On the other hand, because both the WordPress.com and LiveJournal.com sites, especially LiveJournal, are themselves designed to facilitate interaction among members, blogs on these sites are more likely to attract attention from people who aren't theistic Satanists. Hence I would suggest using them for interfaith posts and also for those posts of yours that do not pertain to Satanism at all, and to which you don't give Theistic Satanism Blog Network tags.

    These are only suggestions, not requirements.

    For any given Theistic Satanism Blog Network tag, the more frequently you use any given blog, the sooner your posts with that tag on that blog will disappear from the listings on the relevant Theistic Satanism Blog Network page. Hence you might want to reserve one blog for those posts you consider most important, and which you want to stay listed the longest, while using another blog for more routine posts.


  5. Miscellaneous tips on using your blog(s)

    6.

    1. Offline editors

      2.

      It is often handy to be able to compose blog posts offline, rather than always having to use the blog's own online editor. Personally, I usually just hard-code my own HTML using Windows Notepad. But, I'm sure, most other people would prefer something that doesn't require them to know any HTML.

      To that end, there are some offline editors designed specifically for use with blogs. One of these is Windows Live Writer (about which more information can be found here and here). For Apple users, there's MarsEdit (about which see also this page).

      As far as I am aware, these editors work with all three blog hosts. I would appreciate feedback from members of the Theistic Satanism Blog Network.

    2. More later


  6. Feedback requested about the three blog hosts

    7.

    I would be interested to hear others' thoughts about the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three blog hosts. Feel free to email me about this. (Please include "Theistic Satanism Blog Network" on the subject line of your message, to help me distinguish your email from spam.)



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