On the outside, they will only look as could as you template them for - and another point about WP is that it has such an easy template system and template support it's great. I mean, here's a project using WordPress I haven't yet started up properly: http://www.sciencewatch.co.uk/ It's just a WordPress template - and all you do is upload the template folder to the server, and WP does the rest. It's so easy to work with. I have a couple of MT licences, but I won;t be buying anymore. Not least because: a) the install is bloody awful b) it uses Perl and comes across as clunky (you have to "rebuild" the site everytime you make a change) c) there's little user protection in MT - the company just does not seem to care about blog spamming issues, Trackback spam is hideously common, but will automatically publish to your pages unless you specifically disable trackbacks (WP has all comments and trackback on moderation by default - so spamming never leaves your site looking trashed just because you leave it a couple of days - whereas with MT it publishes all trackbacks by default, so leave it a short time and your entries will be filled with rape porn and incest porn links. From experience)
I just finished installing Wordpress and it was breeze. I'm also doing my first template/skin design. It is amazingly easy compared to Moveable Type. It took me hours to install and get MT working the way I wanted it too, but WP only took me 15 minutes tops.
Wow! Now that's what I'm talking about (http://www.sciencewatch.co.uk/). Lovely crisp, clean design. Good job! What held me back from MT were the bad reports I had heard about comment spam. What held me back from WP was a lack of confidence in the ability to customise the look to my own tastes. Both issues have been fully addressed. Many thanks, Brian!
No problem - this is where I checked out some of the better themes: http://www.alexking.org/software/wordpress/themes/blog/ Sciencewatch uses the Rin theme, which had an honourable mention in the WP template competition. For more information on WP templates, try this link: http://www.alexking.org/index.php?content=software/wordpress/themes.php In fact - you can see a range of templates - from the relatively pants, to the excellent, here: http://www.alexking.org/software/wordpress/theme_browser.php Hope that helps.
I've used blogger for my Pro Sound Blog at prosoundblog.com. My golf blog (hookedongolfblog.com) used to be a blogger blog but I didn't like it so I switched to Wordpress. I have found wordpress to be AWESOME. And wordpress is MUCH quicker than blogger.
Though I use MT for my personal blog (Largehearted Boy), I have been recommending Wordpress to everyone looking for competent blogging software. The ease of installation and use, as well as the close-knit Wordpress community won me over.
I use wordpress the most and have recently downloaed the Nucleus software http://nucleuscms.org/. for R & D purpose.
Wordpress is by far the easiest to get started with. I'm becoming more of a MT fan day by day though. Setting up spam filtering in either is pretty easy.
I think the templating system is much easier to work with. At least it's easier from a getting started standpoint. I was able to get going in editing the MT templates right away. The WP templates on the other hand I looked at and it wasn't super obvious to begin with (granted, i haven't spent much time looking). I'm a big fan of the spam plugin for MT too. I forget what it's called off the top of my head, but it seems to be a very effective way of doing things (using a clearing house). Also, MT handles multiple blogs easily out of the box, and there are a couple of plugins for making managing several blogs easier. WP has something in the works for multi-blogging, but afik it's still too early to use (two months ago last time I looked). I also think the out-of-the-box templates for MT were nicer - although the latest WP version has a nice template too. WP was a little easier with the mod_rewrite, but it didn't take too long to get a nice system going with MT. I'm not sure about WP, but MT has an option to spit out straight html files instead of dynamic ones, which I like. Really it all boils down to personal preference, kind of like office software. Most users will find either one easy to use and full of features. The brand-specific features are really for power users. One other thing about MT - is when you pay for a license, you get your latest entry posted temporarily at sixapart.com and believe it or not that has generated some traffic for me. (not a lot, mind you, but every visitor helps)
I'm surprised you like the MT template system. I found it to be a big pain in the ass. The WP setup just made more sense to me and I picked up on it right away. I agree that overall it's about personal preference. I know a few other people that prefer MT, but they haven't tried the newer version of Wordpress which is far better than what it use to be. Many people still think it doesn't have enough features. There are a ton of plugins and I think the WP is definitely motivated to keep things rolling. The only thing WP is truly lacking is multiple blog management under one install. I'm on the hunt for someone who can help me create a newsletter plugin for WP. It would be freakin cool to have something like Dada Mail functionality if possible.
Yeah, that's pretty much the only thing keeping me from moving from blogger - so easy to setup a new blog and I find the dashboard thing is very user friendly if you have multiple blogs to post to. It's a tough one though, because I would really really love to be able to categorize my posts. Look at my blog at the moment, case in point, meh. One solution would be to have multiple blogger blogs for different categories then tightly integrate them together, but that kinda seems like a waste of time, and multiple subdomains that just aren't necessary... bleh. I think I might try WP soon...
I played with Wp for a week and am definately going to switch over to it soon. Right now I still am using Blogger for my blog Arizona Real Estate News. I found that WP has many more choices for making your blog stand out from the crowd. I love all the template choices too! Seems like everyone and their grandmother started on Blogger and then eventually moved. Though I still use Blogger, I host it myself and just FTP the publishing. One BIG issue with WP, when I first started playing with it was that I couldn't log out. No matter what I did, I was still logged in next time I visited. Suck-o-la!
I have noticed that my blogger profile ranks for various keywords. From there my blogs get ranked as well. It seems to function as a sort of a sitemap. Someone here has given a resource before on building a search engine friendly sitemap for wordpress blogs. Does anyone know where it is? Mike
Yes... http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2004/05/23/sortable-nicer-archives-for-wordpress/ Not sure if it works in 1.5 though... You can find multiple installs for WP here...