Wordpress.com Out Of Beta

Are you sure that it is highly customizable?

Can you install plugins? I couldn’t with one I recieved an invite for. Has it changed?

Neil & Klim, I was mostly wrong actually. You cannot self install plugins. Thanks for correcting that.

From their FAQs:

Can I upload my own plugins?
Thursday, October 27th, 2005

If there is a plugin that you feel is a must-have and would benefit users on the site then fill in the Feedback form on your blog! Tell us what plugin you want, where it can be downloaded and most importantly, why you think it should be included in the site.

All the feedback is read, and we’re collecting the most numerous requests for implementation.

From what I have seen previously, I’ve been impressed with WordPress. One thing I am really interested to know is if anyone has any ideas on how I could create a hosted blog with WordPress that uses my domain. The problem is that I want to still host my existing website (and my emails) on my current server but just have my blog on the WordPress server. Is this possible?

Galen, Have you thought about simply redirecting your domain name? You can set that up at your registrar (should be free) and it will work perfectly. If you just want the blog redirecting, set up a subdomain to redirect instead.

You may want to remove “and highly customizable blog” because it is not. Not to undermine the service…it’s definately great but is not customizable.

Hopefully soon they’ll fix the lack of stats. Right now all I can see is links from outside, I have no idea how many/if anyone’s visiting unless they leave a comment.

Hmmmm, I posted about this earlier today and my biggest issue is the lack of ability to monetize the blogs (as with blogger).

I emailed wordpress and am waiting for a response… maybe someone with a bit more clout (Mr. Arrington?) could dig around a bit?

Oh this is great! I have been considering downloading wordpress and installing it to the server to use it, now I can try it a bit more before going through with that long tedius proccess!

Michaels - do you know the ip to send a cname redirect to? Or is it done some other way?
I will check ofr online docs at wordpress dot com and see if there is any info ’bout that - that would be wonderful.

A highly customizable platform, that is now running a hosted service and removes the customizability

Don’t get me wrong, WP.com is cool and Matt deserves lots of credit, I just think this entry is a bit off the mark.

customizable? i think not. unless of course you count the recent ability to add “unique” buttons to the sidebar customizeable? there are no current options to edit stylesheets, themes are limited to a set of nine choices… wait. users that choose to utilize the basic kubrick theme have the option to change the banner color! [as of nov 22nd]

don’t get me wrong. i’m not knocking wordpress.com. matt and the gang are doing a great job. i remember when i first registered when “golden tickets” were scarce. feedback and bug reports were answered almost immediately. these days the only interaction i’ve recieved are in the form of automated messages that ultimately remain unanswered. my recent and semi-annoying / frustrating problem with wp.com is the fact that 80% of my images that i’ve uploaded to my wp.com have disappeared. poof. where did they go? no one knows.

there are days when i want to post something original on my wp.com but don’t in fear of my content disappearing. my issue with the service might be isolated. who knows?

ok, I took customizable out. Extensibility stays.

Well, for those who want customizability, there are always others offering wordpress blogs with a few google ads(not like xanga ones :shudder:). I can only remmember Blogsome off the top of my head.

The best option of course is to install it on your own server. And most have it preinstalled nowadays. I recommend Eleven2.com for hosting.(links to my review)

–Note: I’m not affiliated with any of the links. Merely my honest recommendations.