Blog Feed Changes
For the approximately baker’s-dozen subscribers to the BlogRodent feed out there, I apologize for the frequent updates to my articles, and the recent change from the full text of the article to just summaries. I personally like receiving the full text feed, but I also worry about constantly resending the full text of articles you’ve already read just because I fixed a typo or uploaded an image. If you want the complete unexpurgated feed back, let me know. (Use the contact link in the navigation bar.)
As soon as I get over the novelty of a new blog and constantly fiddling with it (does it ever happen?), things should settle down to normal. Then you can happily read one or two half-baked posts a month.
Maybe.
Notification by Email
I’ve been working over the past couple of weeks with Scott Merrill, the developer of subscribe2, which provides the ability for you to subscribe to the blog via email, so you get a new post every day with fresh content in it. Unfortunately, my ISP, HostedToday, has blocked the ability of WordPress to send email under a real account. So, email sent by my blog doesn’t make it off the server. (Update: I’m on a new ISP now — midphase.com — and loving it.)
I understand they turned this off to prevent spamming … but if they trust us to host content, they should be able to trust us to send email. My complaints to the management generated no response. Just the stilted, stiff language from the tech support people in India.
So, I’m looking for an inexpensive hosting solution that would allow me to move my WordPress database over to it. Anybody have suggestions?
Meanwhile, I’ve resorted to using off-site, third-party tools for people to subscribe to, but I don’t entirely trust them. At least the one I’m using now allows me to see who’s subscribed so that if I ever do move to a self-generated notification, I can move you all to it and you’ll stop getting email with ads in them.
If you can’t sub to an RSS feed, or don’t know what in tarnation that is, just sign up for email updates. All this chocolately gooiness will show up in your inbox in now time, and you’ll have one one more source of information overload!
My Blog Tools
In other so-called news, if you’re interested, I’m not using w.bloggar any more, and I’m about to shell out the $ for a nifty WYSIWYG blog editor called BlogJet. I really, really like this tool. It offers a pared down HTML editing interface for the blog post itself, with tabs that allow me to quickly switch between HTML code and post properties. It supports a ton of different blog engines, and it’ll even upload and resize and thumbnail images, if I want it to. My chief complaint right now (and, believe me, I’ve raised a stink in the support forum) is that it doesn’t play well with proxy servers. But, I think I can live with that.
To arrive at BlogJet I tested everything I could find that ran on Windows. Qumana, SharpMT, w.Bloggar, Zempt, Ecto, and others. None of them had exactly all the features I needed in one package. Several were very nicesy designed and had some killer features, but BlogJet had just enough decent features in one package to push it over the edge for me. It’s the underdog of WYSIWYG blogging.
My chief complaint about w.bloggar, by the way, was simply that it kept crashing unexpectedly, taking my post to the grave, with it. That won’t do, and I got nothing from the developer by way of feedback. So, off to the bit bin.
Rich.
[tags]blogging, blogjet, BlogRodent, ecto, oumana, sharpmt, tech, wbloggar, zempt[/tags]
“Unfortunately, my ISP, HostedToday, has blocked the ability of WordPress to send email under a real account. So, email sent by my blog doesn’t make it off the server.”
“So, I’m looking for an inexpensive hosting solution that would allow me to move my WordPress database over to it. Anybody have suggestions?”
I haven’t used WordPress personally, but many web apps (forums/blogs/etc) which allow for automated emailing allow you to specify either an smtp server to use, or sendmail. If you use an smtp server, it doesn’t have to be one where the blog is hosted, so if your webhost is different than your personal ISP, try using your ISP’s smtp server instead. Sendmail is generally better, but it does run from wherever the blog is hosted, and that is likely what HostedToday is blocking your blog from accessing.
Check your WordPress options first though. If you’ve been using HostedToday’s smtp service, see if you can just switch it to sendmail or vice-versa if you’ve been using sendmail. Failing that, try your personal ISP’s smtp server.
You COULD install your own smtp daemon (there are many free ones) and be your own email server as needed, but that’s probably more trouble than it’s worth.
See also (WordPress plugin) plugin-wpphpmailer