As part of the ongoing 'Purge Google from my life' project I have been looking for a new blogging platform. Even if Blogger weren't owned by Google, I'd want to dump it, because it hasn't been very good for a long time. So I've been trying out blog services and I've reached a few conclusions.
Rejects
- Wordpress.com is not an option because I am always aware that it's a cheap and limited version of Wordpress.org and that's annoying. Wordpress.org is not an option because I do not want to have to work that hard.
- TypePad went out of business, didn't they? No? Why not?
- Of course there's Tumblr, but seriously, do I look like a twenty-something hipster?
- Ghost is too expensive and I had a problem getting started with it that makes me wonder about their designers.
- Logdown looks exactly like what it is, and while I'm pretty geeky (I like the support for Markdown!), I'm not so geeky that I've stoped caring about how things look completely. I'm not really a coder, I'm an application designer. (Sounds a bit like "sanitation engineer," I know.)
- Postagon isn't awful, and supports markdown, but I couldn't figure out how to insert an image into a post. I gather it's possible but I shouldn't have to write to support to figure out something that basic.
- Silvrback (sic: it's like Flickr or Tumblr) has been the best thing I've seen so far. And it's very affordable. It's minimalist, which I like in theory. I'm just worried that it's a tad too minimalist for me.
We have a winner!
Which brings me to my latest discovery, Posthaven. I find myself wondering, Where have you been all my life?
Big spender that I am, I threw down five bucks and here I am, blogging. Sweet.
And images?
I'm going to want to include images. Important to me. And I think Posthaven may do this exactly right: allow me link to an image in my ImageShack account. Like this:
I wish there was a 'preview' option. Maybe I just haven't found it. Otherwise, I think I'm in love.