The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

blogging

I have visited some blogging sites like TypePad. I can understand why blogging is cool.

But, some of the services of the blogging sites are pay-for services.

This is very strange. I mean, why would anybody PAY for blogging, or for enhanced blogging features?

This is not a troll. I plainly don't understand the thing, and I'm very curious to know the explanation.

Barrett
Monday, November 3, 2003

well its only like $4.95 a month. if you are non technical, you would have to figure out how to set up a website, find a hosting provider, install moveable type, bla bla. and it would probably cost more than $5/m. whether or not it is better than the free blog sites, i'm not sure.

it is sort of the same thing as web based email. i could set up my own mailserver, or just use yahoo's free acount, but instead I pay $39 a year to have an expert mail place host my mail. Or the same thing as fog creek... why would anyone pay for a bug tracker, when you can just install bugzilla?

rz
Monday, November 3, 2003

Before the Internet, many people paid vanity presses to publish their writing. Blogs are the online version of the vanity press. Yes, you can blog "for free" (well, you have to pay your ISP or someone else to host your site unless you have your own server), but TypePad and other subscription products offer somewhat more user-friendly alternatives to free blogging software. So people who want to jump on the blogging bandwagon but aren't techincally inclined will be willing to part with money in order to be able to do it.

Brad
Monday, November 3, 2003

Why do I pay the kid down the street $25 to mow my lawn? I *could* do it myself, but it'd take longer, require more effort on my part, and the end result is no different either way.

The question is whether your new activity is blogging, reading friends' blogs, or building / dorking around with blog software. If you find that last one fun, great. The first two are more fun for me.

Also, there's a certain community effect. I may be a technical person capable of doing the RSS stuff to get whatever I want, but my friends aren't. That means if I weren't in the same blog community as them, I'd lose the other half of the reason for writing (having an audience).

Mikayla
Monday, November 3, 2003