Posted on by mwhybark

Textpattern

Textpattern: web writing tools: is this a partial answer to Matt’s needs? Some initial viewers seem to think it may be simpler than MT for content management. I’ve yet to go deep on it.

Via Todd Dominey, who today also highlights Aizai, a sort of aggregate cable-access for the web.

Uh, if you’re using OS X, Allan, Eric, and Paul. And Melissa. There’s my 10% right there.

Posted on by mwhybark

Can my granny blog yet?

OK, so I just got off the phone with my buddy Matt in New Orleans. He wanted to pick my brain about personal, semi-pro web hosting, especially for a non-technical, creative user such as he.

His budget is likely to come down to about ten bucks a month – the semi-pro needs come in for him in the context of online storage. 10mb for him isn’t gonna do it for him under any circumstances. He needs a good 50mb, I think, and might well need more.

His hosting needs are actually kind of similar to mine, except that I doubt he’ll need more than one domain. As I see it, his needs are:

  1. A template-based, but customizable, publishing tool for his primary web presence. I’m almost certain that Movable Type is the way to go for him on this.
  2. A browser-based file-upload photo publishing engine. Gallery would work perfectly, I think; if he’s a Mac user it’s possible these two needs may be addressable via .Mac.
  3. A no-brainer mp3 server. Again, I think Andromeda, which I use, fits his needs perfectly.
  4. The ability to work directly on the files at the system level. I think plain old ftp will work here perfectly.
  5. Stats. This is the least crucial aspect of the package, and also the easiest to find out on the web for free.
  6. NO BANNERS. I didn’t discuss this with him, but I’m sure of it.

So, if he’s a Mac user, .Mac pretty much is right up his alley, with the possible exception of his MP3 needs (which I don’t think he’s thought about deeply yet, but he’s a musician and a photographer, so…).

.Mac’s arbitrary bandwidth limits also make me disinclined to point him in that direction.

Finally, as I recall, real storage space (50mb and up) is reasonably standard with paid hosting plans. Some enhanced functionality was also being offered as is the case with Bravenet.

So: here’s the question. Has anyone put one and one and one together yet to provide all of this stuff in a straight-up, zero-user-configuration-time hosting service? Say, one that also provides as check-off options, oh, the option of wiki-ness, or live-journal-style buddypages?

What’s the state of personal webhosting, post napster and in the middle of the blog revolution, blogosphere? Tell me what’s crazappy and where the shizit izzz!