I'm not confused, but I daresay that there are a handful of folks out there who are. Let me try to clear a few things up. There a couple of projects that you need to know about.
The first is WordPress. WordPress is software. Besides being the bane of my day-to-day, occupying much of my free development time and actually earning me freelance money, WordPress is the software that runs on this site to present this blog to you. (I'm being careful about avoiding this whole "Powered by" phrasing, which may become the topic of another post.)
You can download a copy of the WordPress software for free, and upon uploading it to a web host that supports WordPress' basic requirements, you can have a weblog up and running within minutes.
Another project is WordPress MU, from now on in this post called "WPMU" for disambiguity. WPMU is the Multi-User version of WordPress. It's a bit of a misnomer, though. WordPress itself supports more than one user. What WPMU does that WordPress doesn't is allow a central installation to control multiple distinct sites of WordPress. Kind of like Skippy's plugin. It should really be called WordPress Multi-Site.
WPMU is also released under a GPL license, which means (among other things) you can download an install it just like you can WordPress. After all, WPMU refactors the core WordPress code every so often so that it keeps up with all of the core version's features. But WPMU is being used for another WordPress project that is causing some confusion - WordPress.com.Something relatively new in the blogging world is WordPress.com. WordPress.com is actually a service, not software. The service allows people to quickly create a blog using the WordPress software. WordPress.com is run by the people who host WordPress.org, the official WordPress site. The software that WordPress.com runs is a version of WPMU that uses the alpha features from WordPress itself.
The crossover has caused some interesting issues. For example, where is WordPress.com support? Well, each administration page within a WordPress.com site has a link for providing feedback. I'm not sure where that feedback goes, who reads it, or how the person who reads it responds to it. And since WordPress.com runs on a variant of an alpha of the core WordPress code, it's likely to generate a few issues.
Moreover, the support team for WordPress has tried to avoid supporting the alpha version of WordPress, since none of its features have been nailed down. That works fine when there aren't any support requests from the WordPress.com folks on their WordPress.org forums. But there doesn't seem to be anywhere to submit support requests for WordPress.com. I didn't see any forums for WordPress.com anywhere.
WordPress.com isn't a pay site. So far, I haven't seen anything to indicate that you'll need to pay for WordPress.com hosting your blog. That's not to say that couldn't change.
But the question of using WordPress.com for me is a simple one. I already have a host - in fact, a whole dedicated server - for which I pay to host my sites. My blog is one of these sites. Via this server I have all of the benefits and pitfalls that one has when hosting their own site. I can install any software I want and run any services I want, but I also have to install them myself and troubleshoot any problems that they cause. I can see the allure of something like WordPress.com from this maintenence standpoint, but there are other issues.
For one, WordPress.com themes are somewhat limited. You can only pick from a handful of themes that were pre-selected for their ability to run within WordPress.com's safe environment. Untested code is not allowed to run on WordPress.com. So your chances of running any special plugins are nil, and even if you could install a plugin (you can't), you wouldn't be able to edit your theme to make use of it. I'm not sure what the developers of WordPress.com have in mind for allowing the modification of themes, but I hope it's not like some of the recent commits, which may suggest that this type of functionality is available for every theme, when it's not.
WordPress.com also offers a limit amount of storage. The free disk space currently reported on my WordPress.com account (completely unused) is 26MB. I used to go through the trouble of resizing all of my photos so that they wouldn't take up all of my space, but now I don't bother. With the space allotted in my WordPress.com account, a single outing with the kids (1 post) would suck most of my space. And then when I get it all on there, there is no export feature to let me take my blog elsewhere, even to a self-hosted WordPress site.
So why would someone jump to using WordPress.com when they've already got a blog running? I can see the case for users who want to start out fresh and have no experience, or maybe for people who are tired of paying hosting fees and are willing to give up those extra features to avoid paying for hosting. But I can't see a practical reason to jump to shared free hosting when you've got an established site.
Many of the folks on WordPress.com now are people who were invited to join WordPress.com, which is the only way to get an account. Since most of the early-adopters were excited developer-types who also didn't know what to post on their WordPress.com blog that would be different from their regular blog, there are a lot of meta-WordPress posts. That is starting to mellow now that the invites are spreading to "normal" people, but it's interesting that when presented with the cool new gadget, the techies find a way to make it work just to have it as a badge of technorati.
Another weird way people have been using WordPress.com is to get a preview of the features of WordPress 1.6. This seems ill-advised. While the WPMU code derives from the core WordPress code, there is no guarantee that anything from MU would be back-ported to WordPress itself, especially not the multi-"user" features. There have been many code changes in WordPress itself to facilitate the WPMU functionality, specifically the changes in the way the user metadata and options are stored in the database. But the best way to test WordPress 1.6 functionality will be to, well, install a WordPress 1.6 alpha.
This all leaves me answering the question - Why am I on WordPress dot com? Yes, I have an account. Actually, I was offered more than one invite to join, and did not do so until just recently. Initially, I thought the reason I joined was so that I could invite other people. This really doesn't do much for my blog installation/customization freelancing, since I couldn't charge anyone to install a WordPress.com site, nor could I customize it when it got online. Moreover, I only have one invitation to give out, and I assume that eventually the system will open up and invitations will be worthless.
I guess that I would use my WordPress.com site as a badge of technical connectedness. But considering that I host everything here at Asymptomatic, and this is how people know who I am, I would rather have them associate me to here than the WordPress.com site.
I think that it's just peer pressure. "Why don't you have an account yet, Owen?" "I don't know, what would I use it for?" "I don't know but you should have one." "Uh, ok."
So, if you had any ideas, I'm listening.
One thing that would be nice is to figure out a way that regular WordPress bloggers could benefit from any community features that WPMU could provide.
Start building some functionality on top of all of that XFN data.
I think you just hit the nail right on the head.
I would say as someone who is savvy enough to manage your own dedicated server (and much more) you aren't really the target for WordPress.com. That said, neither am I but I'm using it and moving most of my friends to it as well. Why? Maintainance is huge, I don't want to be responsible for upgrading and supporting 60+ wordpress sites any more. to be continued...
I don't have much to add: I think you've pretty much summed up my 2 cents already. WordPress.com will focus on the audience of Blogger and comparable services, and just like Matt says, when you're able to install and host WordPress yourself, you shouldn't have a blog at WordPress.com. What would be the use?
Here's an SAT-type analogy to help explain things:
Wordpress : Wordpress.com :: Movable Type :: Typepad.com
Hope that helped. As to why you are on Wordpress.com, I have no idea.
I've decided to use my account as a WordPress- and WordPress development-related blog. There are at least two benefits to this:
1) I can blog about trivial WordPress stuff without geeking up my main site too much.
2) If I ever tire of running my own site, what I have written will live on for the WordPress community.
I don't see myself moving my main blog to WordPress.com, well, ever. I'm too much of a control freak. But for this purpose, WordPress.com seemed like the perfect choice.
I assumed this was a way for the WP crew to stress test WPMU... and to get purchased by some big company ;-)
anyone who can install and troubleshoot their own site will always do so. Although I must admit that over the years I too every once in a while get fed up with the need to update and fixing things but I still run my own site so there.
I've localized WP to german back last year and my blog was just a place for getting .po files back then. Anthony wrote that he'd use it for blogging on WP stuff so I was wondering if I would use it for posting .po updates. The answer is no. I like to be in control, esp. when it involves uploading files.
That's also why I do not like flickr too much, since these are "my" photos but I have to admit flickr has some nice features. As does WP1.6 Alpha and making an account on wp.com just to get a sneak peak on these is not the only way, you can always get nightlies if you wish anyhow (at least those among us running their own sites).
WP.com is a service and I see nothing wrong with trying to make money that way for I am certain that is where wp.com is heading at some point.
[...] So, Owen brought up a good point on his blog. [...]
I do appreciate the breakdown of the services of WordPress, as I don't think that I fully understood them before. I will need to investigate that WPMU a little further however.
I'm really not a techie person, however I liked having my own domain name, as opposed to "something-something".blogspot.com. However, I'm very thankful to my host for helping me clean up some of the messes I make.
I guess if you're invited, you don't have to use it. Bowing to peer preasure seems like a lame thing to do and then write a post on why you shouldn't have done it to begin with.
Unless I missed the whole point.
Yes, I often do lame things.
Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. And we all know how that play ends.
But I'll give you my current reasons for thinking that having a WordPress.com account is good for me:
1) I don't know that I can send my own invites to people who I think need them without an account of my own. Since I'm hoping to switch all the Phillybloggers over to WordPress in some fashion, it would be hard to do that otherwise. But until WordPress.com enables the new 1.6 importers (they all seem to be hosted on Blogspot) I'm not going to be inviting anyone.
2) Another site with decent pagerank linking to mine can't hurt.
3) Knowing what the heck I'm talking about when comparing and describing features benefits you, doesn't it? Maybe? ;)
Wouldn't your own install of WPMU accomplish the same while retaining an extra level of control? For you (Matt) specifically, of course this is different but in the general case...
Not really, I would still need to upgrade it, host it, support it, debug it, etc.
I too have WordPress and just started it. I am totally illiterate when it comes to programming. I simply wanted to have my space on the web where I could have a voice.
I don't understand things like plug ins, and how to insert code into my site.
I use a separate hosting service that I pay for, so am not worried about other issues.
I think that I'm writing to myself as I don't know if anyone will ever read my blog.
Cheers,
Jeff
off topic: Jeff, you should get wp-shortstats. it's a dead easy to install plugin and you just have to upload it to your plugin directory and without any configurations it'll tell you if someone reads your blog or not. like magic :D
Why I’m here…
Since I already have a “full” blog running at Blogocentricity, why on earth would I need another blog? I have been writing a post on this in my head for the past so many days,, and what happens? Another guy (well, not just “another g...
[...] Read it here, replace “Asymptomatic†with “Blogocentricity,†“Owen†with “Navin†and “kids†with “guys,†and you have my post! [...]
I too find I'm at the same dilemma. Sure, I wanted to take advantage of the invite, A, so I could help run it through its paces so it could go live, so to speak, and in the beginning, there was no real clear answer to where support would be, so I wanted to be able to answer questions. That didn't pan out, however I hope I was able to help test things out. But I do find myself with less time to post there, and would like to be able to do more with the site. That said, I think it's a great idea, and will continue to poke around, lurk, and try and find a voice for the blog that Matt was so kind to share with me.
You said "wordpress" 61 times in this entry.
[...] I just read an artical on Asymptomatic entitled “why am I on Wordpress.com?” [...]
I'm all for what your reasons are too... I like to be able to control every tiny thing.
I am currently looking into WPMU as it sounds like a good idea since I've been having a few dilemma's about how I want to present my stuff.
The thing that I really want to ask is: Have you ever thought of making some kind of window for wordpress.com... so that for those who have a wordpress.com account AND a wordpress installed on some other server, like your circumstance for example; can just type in their main wordpress address into the other one so that even though the personal server is where you put your posts, others can still see your posts on wordpress.com even though you haven't posted a thing in there? email me if you want a better explanation :P
just wondering... if you'd thought of that.
@Matt: What can I say? - I like to talk about WordPress. I'm surprised it's only 61 times.
@jenseeka: Interesting idea, but the reason I don't do that is because I'm greedy. WordPress.com doesn't let you post Google ads, and I would prefer that the content resides where the Google ads can be shown.
[...] wordpress.com µÄÑûÇëÒ»¶È±»³´µÃºÜÈÈ£¬ÒòΪµ±Ê±Ö»Óм¸¸ö¿ª·¢ÕßÓµÓÐÕʺźÍÑûÇëȨ£¬ÎïÒÔϡΪ¹ó£¬ÕⶫÎ÷¾ÓȻҲÄÜÔÚ ebay ÉÏÅÄÂôÁË¡£×Ô´Ó 9 Ô 11 ºÅÒÔºó£¬wp.com ¿ªÊ¼×Ô¶¯·¢ËÍÑûÇëÐÅ£¬¾¡¹ÜÈÔÈ»ÏÞÖÆÁËÑûÇëµÄÈËÊý£¬µ«Ê¹ÓÃÕßÒ²½¥½¥¶àÁËÆðÀ´£¬ÓõÄÈ˶àÁË£¬¾Í»áÓÐÒâ¼û£¬ËùÒÔÏÖÔÚÓÐÅõµÄ£¬Ò²ÓÐÂîµÄ¡£ [...]
Well I feel pretty much the same about my wordress.com blog, especially seeing the limited functionality today.
However few reasons I am there are:
1. I wanted a blog to talk about blogging
2. I didn't want to maintain yet another blog personally
3. I think things will get even better with WP.com with even better features.
So until then I shall gradually work on developing my yet another new blog :)
[...] Bryan briefly tells us how to save OpenOffice documents as DOC files by default. Owen ruminates on WordPress.com. Bonnie learns how to set an expiration date for certain WordPress posts. Michael posts a collection of high-resolution promotion material and stills from “the 1956 science fiction classic”, Forbidden Planet. Khaled ruminates on blogging networks. Craig is frustrated to see that spam blogs are ruining the relevance of blog search tools. Orson reviews the 2005 science fiction classic, Serenity. Sarah posts a list of her upcoming concerts through the rest of 2005. Chris announces the birth of Jakob Michael Davis. Mark switches to a Mac. And, Tom takes a moment to explain RSS. [...]
[...] Owen Winkler thinks it’s all just silly peer pressure, and I guess to some extent he’s right. But there is something exhilarating about being part of a blogging crowd that’s cool - not the name-dropping sort of cool, but cool because they write cool blogs, with interesting and surprising stuff. Blogs like the ones I’ve got in my sidebar … eh? Haven’t done that yet! Better get my skates on then. [...]
Hi Owen
couple of things :-)
I only recently got onto WordPress.com, having installed and run my own blog on a paid server.
1) I like the novel environment with the possibility of seeing what may be upgrades to the finished product.
2) I like to blog about Wordpress as a specific subject and that is TOO boring for my main blog :-)
For the record, I submitted a fault via the feedback form and got a personal response AND a fix within 36 hours! That is good going in my opinion.
However -
1) they could give you the option to delete the blog!
and
2) I don't know how long I will keep up the blogging at WordPress.com as I have my own......
my 2 cents worth.. :-)
I've had my own WP blog since January, and was sent an invite in the initial phases. I don't know what to do with the thing, lol, and considering I have enough trouble maintaining one site, I don't know why I'd be interested in maintaining another. So I have this unused blog with an album review and a 'please delete me kthxbye' message (I don't like being subscribed to stuff I don't use, and couldn't find a delete option, heh).
My suggestion is to think of WordPress.com as a place to try out things.
[...] Akismet est un simple script PHP, que vous installez et activez comme tout autre greffon (plugin) dans votre site WordPress. Le seul réglage � effectuer est l’insertion de la clé API… provenant d’un compte WordPress.com. L� est le petit paradoxe d’Akismet, car Matt lui-même l’admet: si vous avez une installation personnelle de WordPress, vous n’êtes pas le public cible de WordPress.com… Du moins pour le moment, car l’équipe de WP.com semble avoir de grands projets en préparation. Mais chut! [...]