Some WordPress-ions...

A few early impressions on WordPress (the standalone version, not WordPress online…

Installation – WordPress is a snap to install.  it literally took me all of 5 minutes, just like promised.  This, I have to say, is a huge plus (in contrast, I’ve worked about an hour and a half so far to configure Movable Type, and I’m waiting for Support at my ISP to make a change for me so I can enable it).  A point for WordPress…

Configuration – on Movable Type, the first thing I had to do was edit ten or so pages to point them to the Perl interpreter on my webhost.  Can’t that be abstracted somehow, so you just edit/enter it once?  Virtually no real configuration necessary to get WordPress up and running with the default skin/interface.  Point:  WordPress.

Importing from Blogger – OK, so this DIDN’T take 5 minutes, more like an hour and two or three tries.  The point, though, is that there are a couple tutorials for doing this.  It wasn’t clear to me that if I wanted to import from Blogger and HaloScan that there was a separate Blogger template you set up temporarily (i.e. there’s one Blogger template you implement for the stock “import from Blogger” action, and then a different one if you’re using Blogger and HaloScan).  Not a big deal, though… I did a test import from a test Blogger blog, and then when I went to what I thought was the next step – importing the Haloscan comments – I found that the procedure is an either/or, not additive.  Adapted, and the Blogger import seems to have worked like a champ.  Point: WordPress (note - this is conditional… I’ve been reading up on importing from Blogger to MT and it looks more complicated, but honestly I haven’t done it yet, so watch for this to be rescinded if it works better).

Multiple Blog Support/Blog Hosting Services – I think Movable Type has WordPress beaten here, although it could be that I’m just more familiar with Movable Type’s licensing and provisioning models than WordPress’.  WordPress seems to be set up for administrative aggregation for multiple blogs, and I haven’t found that capability yet in WordPress.  Considering the Movable Type is down a couple of points, I’ll give them this one, conditionally.  Point:  Movable Type.

All for now.  I’m playing with WP skins, slogging through the PlugIns, and making a few more test entries.  I also have to wait for the www.blahgkarma.com domain to propagate.  When it does, I make the FeedBurner tweak, give you a new URL for live browsing, and then we’ll see what’s up… still trying to get MT up and running – way more to do than to get WP running, thats for sure.