Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

If at first you don't succeed ...

... feed it to the dog and try again.

I've given up on Bravenet. Currently I'm working on two different iterations of the same basic "review archive" blog, one on Netcipia and one on the Wordpress site.

The Netcipia blog is a combination blog/wiki. I'm getting the hang of how that works; it's kind of clever. The choice of skins is very limited, but they're pretty good: high contrast, eye-catching, sane colors, tidy boxes around different parts, and a three-column format with the large column in the middle. I'm using a blue-and-white skin. On the downside, it's not as customizable as some other blog formats; I can't, for instance, insert a thematically appropriate header. It supports some widgets but not others; it's got one for AdSense, but I found out that AdSense won't deal with anyone using a post office box.

The Wordpress blog is more customizable in some ways, less in others. The trick is finding the right theme. There weren't many that did what I needed, and none of the ones I found did all of it. I did manage to turn the customizable header into something seriously cool and relevant. I've got the three columns but they're fussy about what they'll accept. But in general, this one seems to be working better.

Most of my challenges stem from one of two things: 1) Computers go insane around me. 2) I don't think like most people think.

I have managed to drag my aptitude up slightly. I know this because I've actually spotted and fixed a couple of bugs, like when a dysfunctional widget deformed the entire format of the Netcipia blog. But most of the time when something works, it's beyond my skill to figure out what's wrong or how to fix it. When a program says it's doing one thing but really does another, pfeh.

So the Netcipia blog will run Amazon.com's picture-and-text book link but not the text link, the Wordpress blog will run the text link but not the picture-and-text link, and neither of them will run the search box widgets. I spent time building a Grazr reading list, but it wouldn't work; yesterday the whole site hangfired; and today it's eaten my account altogether. After finding out that AdSense is finicky to work with, I looked up another adserver, Chitika; I really like Chitika and if they give me an account I'll go into more detail.

I suspect that some of what I want to do may not be possible with the level of tech I'm actually capable of handling. *sigh* I'm thinking about downloading the Wordpress program to see if it looks any more useful onscreen than in description. Anywhere, that's where I am currently.
Tags: blogging
Subscribe

  • Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-21

    Here is my card for the Winterfest in July Bingo fest. It runs from July 1-30. Celebrate all the holidays and traditions of winter! ( See all my…

  • Bingo

    I have made bingo down the B, G, and O columns of my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. I also have one extra fill. B1 (caretaking) --…

  • Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, July 6

    This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, July 6, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Reality is stranger than fiction." I'll…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
    default userpic

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
    Help
  • 17 comments
kadiera

kadiera

November 24 2008, 18:36:28 UTC 12 years ago

Wordpress on their server has some limitations that wordpress doesn't have if you run it on your own server (more skins, for example, and I got the amazon search box working on my site on my server). Other than that, it's not bad.
laneth

laneth

November 24 2008, 19:42:22 UTC 12 years ago

I didn't know the wordpress.com accounts were that much different from the ownsite-hosted ones? Makes me happy though, cos it means if I ever got to be more technically minded about such things, I could fix up my blog...and perhaps start writing in it more frequently :)
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

November 24 2008, 21:52:24 UTC 12 years ago

Wordpress offers a dashboard for working with your blog, which simplifies things somewhat. The actual Wordpress program looks insanely complicated to me, but it's also pretty powerful.
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

November 24 2008, 22:37:42 UTC 12 years ago

I may try my hand at the full Wordpress program; I just tend to doubt that I'll be able to run it.
jazzerat

jazzerat

November 24 2008, 19:52:21 UTC 12 years ago

Definitely the dog, because there are some things a cat just won't eat. I speak with the voice of experience here. *grin*
ysabetwordsmith

*laugh*

ysabetwordsmith

November 24 2008, 22:29:52 UTC 12 years ago

Generally true, although my cats seem inclined to eat anything, even if it's blue and fuzzy.
jazzerat

Re: *laugh*

jazzerat

November 25 2008, 03:56:10 UTC 12 years ago

Ah, yes, fuzzy blue but have you ever heard of the cat eating your homework?
*grin*
ysabetwordsmith

Re: *laugh*

ysabetwordsmith

November 25 2008, 07:27:38 UTC 12 years ago

It has happened. Not with these cats, but it has happened. I just turned it in anyway, teeth marks and all. The teacher was bemused.
jazzerat

Re: *laugh*

jazzerat

November 25 2008, 07:41:18 UTC 12 years ago

I've had cats that urinated on papers left within their reach but never one eaten, nor even mangled.
Okay, you win that round. *laughs*
ysabetwordsmith

Re: *laugh*

ysabetwordsmith

12 years ago

  • New comment
jazzerat

Re: *laugh*

jazzerat

12 years ago

  • New comment
ayoub

ayoub

November 24 2008, 20:29:55 UTC 12 years ago

The beginning of your post made me grin :D

Grazr

Anonymous

November 25 2008, 02:21:59 UTC 12 years ago

We had a major technical problem here at Grazr over the past two days that I'm sorry you were affected by. We've been working very hard to get the system up and running again and it should be fixed soon. Again, I apologize for the problems you encountered!

Mike Kowalchik
Grazr Corp
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Grazr

ysabetwordsmith

November 25 2008, 16:40:41 UTC 12 years ago

>> We had a major technical problem here at Grazr over the past two days that I'm sorry you were affected by. We've been working very hard to get the system up and running again and it should be fixed soon. Again, I apologize for the problems you encountered! <<

Wow, I didn't expect anyone from the company to be surfing by. I like the idea of the service, so I've kept checking back. It seems to have a different glitch every time. Today it's "down for service." I hope it gets fixed, because I'd like to use it.
fayanora

fayanora

November 25 2008, 15:23:57 UTC 12 years ago

Have you tried Blogthings? I haven't, but I've heard of them. There's also Xanga.
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

November 25 2008, 18:00:59 UTC 12 years ago

Blogthings looks like it's just a quiz site. Xanga might have potential but it doesn't provide much information about what you can do with their blogs.
fayanora

Re: Hmm...

fayanora

November 25 2008, 21:22:00 UTC 12 years ago

Hmm... so what was it I was thinking of? *Thinks* I guess it wasn't Blogthings I was thinking of.

  • Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-21

    Here is my card for the Winterfest in July Bingo fest. It runs from July 1-30. Celebrate all the holidays and traditions of winter! ( See all my…

  • Bingo

    I have made bingo down the B, G, and O columns of my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. I also have one extra fill. B1 (caretaking) --…

  • Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, July 6

    This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, July 6, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Reality is stranger than fiction." I'll…