Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘WordPress’

….tinkering….always tinkering.  This is my nature.

You’ve probably noticed a daily addition to my normal blogging activity.
“CourVO’s Twitter Updates for 2009-XX-XX” (see directly below)

The posts are automatically generated from a WordPress plug-in.

‘Not sure if I like it yet, but as long as I have something halfway worthy to tweet everyday (questionable at best)…you might find something of value there.

Let me know what you think about this addition.

CourVO

Hatfields v. McCoys
Pepsi v. Coke
Mac v. PC
Mounds v. Almond Joy
Cassius Clay v. Sonny Liston
Dems v. Repubs
Voice actors v. voice pretenders

What's your favorite rift?

I judge a: client…copy…software…first phone calls…and chance encounters much the same way. 

They either click, or they don't.

Sure, once in a while with a product, first exposure will fall in-between, but mostly it's a slam-dunk.  You're either cozy or cramped.  Pepsi or Coke.

I think I've found a new one.

WordPress v. [just about any other blogging service]

I started out with the GoDaddy blogging service.  It was actually pretty OK, but I started looking for something else when I decided to go with the 3-column format.

Bob Souer was most effusive about WordPress.  That was good enough for me.  I'm not Robert Scoble, but I consider myself to be very adept on PC's.  I've been at it since 1989.  MSDOS.  All the iterations of Windows.  I'm a geek.

Out of the gate, WordPress seemed unnecessarily happy about it's difficulty.  The "5-minute Install"  ended up taking me days.  I dug in.  i don't give up easily. 

In WordPress' defense, I DO obsess and AM a perfectionist.  But I'm also dogged.  I bought the "WordPress for Dummies" book.  I asked a lot of questions, queried my WordPress friends.  I WAS GOING TO BEAT THIS CHALLENGE!

In the end, it beat me…and I'm not proud of that.  I stuck with my Pro-Tools and ISDN installation for MONTHS.

But blogging software???!!!

Now I face the specter again.  A new-found friend from Twitter who lives in Las Vegas has prompted me to re-consider my blog…it's look…how slow it loads. 

He likes WordPress…'says Google does too.

Then, coincidentally, I see a Twitter post that says the new WordPress 2.7 is out.  Newer!  Faster!  Easier! 

I download it, and WHAM…back to that same ole sick feeling.  Again:  "The 5-minute Install"

1. Download and unzip the WordPress package, if you haven't already.
   
2. Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it.
   
3. Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.
   
4. Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details.
   
5. Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server:
   • If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/),
     move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (but
     excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web
     server.
   • If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), rename the directory wordpress
     to the name you'd like the subdirectory to have and move or upload it
     to your web server. For example if you want the WordPress installation
     in a subdirectory called "blog", you should rename the directory called
     "wordpress" to "blog" and upload it to the root directory of your web
     server.

My friends, in today's short-attention-span world…THAT is not 5 minutes.  It IS unnecessarily difficult and complicated.

I set up this TypePad blog in less than 5.  Blogger in just 2 mins.

Sure, OK…got it…WordPress is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room… all those templates, the widgets, an incredible user-base!!!  But sheesh, people…make it easier!!!!!

Am I missing something here?  Is there an easier way to set-up WordPress?  Do I really want to get into importing all these TypePad blogs for more than a year?  Can I (do I really want to) really redirect Courvo.biz to yet another blog assignment? 

And further:  DOES my blog load slowly for you?  Is it too…"packed"?…too "busy"?…to much stuff going on?  Is simplicity better?…or tons of resources?

Your honest feedback v. unadulterated praise appreciated.

CourVO