b2evolution

I have moved my work blogs to b2evolution from the iBlog software I have been using until now. This should give me greater flexibility and make them more manageable. iBlog is very good software and has some advantages in being stored on a desktop and then uploaded but as the blog is growing the number of files being uploaded was growing. A single change may cause most of the pages to be rebuilt as the archive, calendar or links lists were changed on each page. The last update caused over 600 hundred files to be uploaded!

b2evolution is database driven and instead of hosting it remotely I have put it on my home web-server (the database itself is on another server not accessible from the internet) which offers better performance when I am at home but is still available when I am away. I can back up the database and save the backup to my remote host for security.

I did look at using elgg for this - I even went to the extent of writing a page to modify the posted date (something which is not available in elgg at the moment) before finally coming down in the side of using b2evo. The advantages would have been the file storage integration which is very useful and the community aspect: but the files I can upload to my server and just link to (not quite as easy but not that much of an effort) and the "community" is covered by the user managment and publishing controls in e2evo.

Elgg will win over b2evo in a larger installation where the community really comes into its own: this is an extra level over b2evo which is more of a pure blogging tool which can cope with large numbers of users writing & reading blogs.

I have copied any existing entries from my old blog for April 2005 into this one: entries pre-April 2005 can be found HERE. Prior to this I used Blogger.com but posted the files to my server: entries older from February to October 2004 can be found HERE