Posted by
The Interface on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 7:59:23 PM
This post is the last post I will be placing on this Townhall blog. The voyage will continue over at www.theinterfaceofdataandlife.wordpress.com. (Again, sorry about the long name, but the shorter one was already taken.)WHAAAAAT!!!!! I thought you said you had to stay here because you hadn’t found a way to write offline? Well, it would seem that Microsoft, that much vilified corporation, actually came to the rescue this time. I found a relatively recent tool for blogging called Windows Live Writer created by those software wizards. With it, I can compose offline with all the formatting and features I need, and then post from the Live Writer platform directly without even opening up and cutting-and-pasting into the blog editor to publish. It works with Blogger and WordPress, and I think with TypePad as well. Of course, it does not work with the Townhall platform (yes, I tried…I’m a scientist, remember?). Bottomline, my primary reason for not leaving Townhall has been removed by this tool that actually makes it easier to post than even the other platforms.
Now as to where I’m actually going, because I am not retiring from blogging, that is another story. My previous effort took me over to Blogger (aka, yourname.blogspot.com) and I experimented with that platform for several posts. I could use RefTagger there and had much greater control over my sidebar than in Townhall. But I was simultaneously researching the web for comparisons and contrasts and evaluations of the three primary blogging platforms out there, to wit, Blogger, WordPress, and TypePad (yes, there are others but those were the three in which I was interested). I was also soliciting comments from former Townhallers who’d migrated elsewhere.
I discovered one factoid to which few have given any thought regarding their blog content. Let me ask you this: who “owns” the content of the posts you, the author, write? Granted, for many this is not even an issue, but for those who put a lot of work into at least some, who is legally the owner thereof? On Townhall, it is Salem Communications, not the blog writer! Don’t believe me? Use the “Print It” option for any of your posts and go to the bottom of the window that opens for the printer ready version. Who has the copyright on the content? Likewise, Google owns the copyright for all Blogger posts. Thus, you the author do not have “rights” to your blog or your blog content on these platforms. WordPress, on the other hand, makes no such claims, and, in fact, the template I’ve chosen even says at the bottom, “Copyright © The Interface,” i.e., I own the content therein, not WordPress. I find I vastly prefer this on principle even if I didn’t plan on publishing my blog contents and making a million dollars therefrom in the future (Pluh-leeze! don’t make me laugh!).
The WordPress platform, like the Blogger platform, gives me full control over my sidebar (wherein I can put Archives and “Best of” Lists and Quotations, oh my!), and it is organized in “Pages” wherein I can put other interesting material, including my “About this blog” content. I can moderate comments and numerous other “nice to have” things with this blog that Townhall just doesn’t let you do. I still can’t use RefTagger with this version of WordPress, but I can’t with Townhall either and I’ve survived. And there is hope that at sometime in the future this can be added to the WordPress platform.
The Townhall blog will remain here for Archival purposes and my WordPress sidebar points to many posts here. Nevertheless, I invite you to migrate your links to my new one as we forge ever onward and boldly go into the realms of logic and common sense where no modern man/woman has recently gone before!