"Recommend Blog Host and/or Theme" Topic

Along with wargaming comes the blog, apparently, if only to record the glory of the campaign.

The options seem to be numerous. I already have a free Wordpress account. I see some folks use blogspot.

There are also quite a few themes. I think I know what I don't like.

Recommend a hosting site, or a particular theme, that you think is worth mentioning, or particularly suited to 15mm sci fi TTWG, if you care to.

Also any beginner blogging hints would be welcome.

yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

Hi Grommet, I'm fairly new to this blogging lark myself. So heres my thoughts. My efforts are above have a look.

I have used blogspot and really had no problems at all with them, I'm not illiterate with computers but my skill set is getting old ( passed my Computer Science O level in 1984 !). I had a little problem uploading photos initially but it was just the device l was using. I just used the basic theme provided by blogspot and added their gadgets as I went along. I havent quite got the hang of linking google+ with the blog yet.

I usually post a link to the blog on tmp in the relevant section when I put something new up. Friends and fellow gamers drop by every now and then and over time you will pick up regular followers.

I blog about what I do and hope others like it rather than trying to write what I think people would like.

I really like looking at the stats for my blog (which come as standard on blogspot) and seeing whos reading my stuff and where. Apparently I am a hit in Ecuador !

Enjoy your blogging and let me have your blog address when its up.

Cheers Ken

I like blogger and never have had any problems with it since 2008.

As for themes, I can't really recommend one particular that is better. I know some that I hate when I see them! ;-) I coded my own theme using heavily modified code I found online. I have extensive coding skills, well they were extensive in 1997. LoL.

What vibe are you trying to give with your blog? When I created mine, I was shooting for more of a tongue-in-cheek steampunk/Colonial/Victorian vibe. It's where I got the name of my blog. Also why I created the gears on wood background, my custom banner with "hidden" images, and the silly names for my thingies for followers, labels, and such. We play games at The League Headquarters (aka my man room). Players are "Agents". Yeah, I'm a bit weird.

Bottom line, have fun with your blog!

ordinarygaming.blogspot.com

I'm new to the blogging stuff have only been doing it for a short while I found it to be fairly easy using Blogger.

I have fun with it, I like to take everyday things I see and cheap too being on a budget and see what I can do with it in the 15mm range, to make for a great gaming table, sure I have some dumb stuff on there, but I have some good stuff to just being myself.

I was a Cold War era soldier for over twenty years and thought Silo 1313 was fitting for me

silo1313.blogspot.com

P.S. My computer skills are limited

I'm a blogspot blogger too and it has never failed me.

My one recommendation is to not have a massive image as a background because some people have slow internet and it takes ages to load.

There are a nice lot of gadgets on Blogspot and the blog is pretty simple to set up as well (I am practically a technophobe and I managed it).

My main blog is here: insosworld.blogspot.co.uk

but I have another couple too.

Some advice regarding what colour scheme to use on your blog … Don't use a dark background with light text. It can be difficult to read.

Likewise, use a non-serif font (I use Arial) as people who have reading problems/poor eyesight can have difficulty seeing the differences between letter such as 'c', 'o', and 'e'.

I chose a simple scheme … and it seems to work for most regular blog readers.

link

I use a dark colored blog, with light colored writing, but I think it works well.

Oh, and Blogger is my choice!

ambushedinthealley.blogspot.com

Just to put a different perspective on this, if you are computer savvy enough or would like a new challenge you could always host the blog yourself. I'm a web developer by day and this wasn't a big challenge for me personally but I realise this is not for everyone.

The obvious disadvantages of this are that you are on your own when it comes to building and maintaining your blog but on the other hand you are not tied to a particular blogging service. However if you do go down this route you have complete control over your blog.

The thing that swung it for me was when Google shut down their RSS service Google Reader. By using a blogging service you are at someone else's mercy and should they go bust or decide to shut it down you have no say in the matter.

If you are using a blogging service make sure you know how to back up or export your content and have one or two other providers in mind as a backup should the worst happen.

Don't feel too confined by focusing on only one theme. If your 15mm sci-fi bug calms down, it may be better to use the same blog to cover your next addiction, or rant about the mailman, or even the home improvement projects preventing you from working on your gaming projects. I still read plenty of blogs covering remodelled conservatories and the kids with the flu.

Yeah, just blog about whatever you like, although some will tell you its better to focus on your niche, don't ever feel restricted to just blog about one thing. it's your blog, and totally up to you what you want to do with it!

I'll just pip in about wordpress, its pretty good with plenty of options for customisation too when you get used to it!

Will

thegrinningskull.wordpress.com

I have used and do use a lot of technology. If you are wanting something easy and that you use on a computer rather than a mobile device then I recommend blogger. Its free, its user friendly and it gives you a lot with not a lot of effort.

Here are some examples I organise with blogger.

alternative-armies.blogspot.com
15mmcouk.blogspot.com
theionageblog.blogspot.com

This is my own site which is on Wordpress. More expensive and more technical.
gavinsyme.co.uk

Hope this assists you.

Gavin Syme (GBS)

Thanks to all for the many useful recommendations.

I finally have some hobby time and I think I've decided to use both Blogger/Blogspot and WordPress, for slightly different reasons, to achieve slightly different goals.

Many people who I "follow" in the 15mm SF "community" have Blogger/Blogspot sites: including several favorites like Dropship Horizon, Armies Army, Black Widow Pilot and dwartist, so Blogger seems like a convenient place to track those, and to cross-post pic-heavy batreps/AARs, as well those lovely "built and/or painted" posts. Those seem to look nice on Blogger.

I think I'll use WordPress for more of the text-heavy stuff, background and fluff and tutorials and TOEs and the wordy versions of the AARs. It looks cleaner or neater of prettier or it lets the whitespace breathe better or something. It's more serene, and less frenetic, to my (personal, unique) web-sense. I find it easier to concentrate and less distracting. YMMV.

Thanks again, and I'll post when or if I get either or both of them set up. 8)

Not just one but two(!) brand-new blogs, one of each!

Novaborea on WordPress

novaborea.wordpress.com

Twenty-One Eighty-Six on Blogger

twenty-one86.blogspot.com

And an actual post on each page!

Getting stuff done. Eventually.

I am simply overcome with ambition today.

Thanks again for the recs. See you in the blogosphere.

I use Blogger, I like it, but haven't used anything else, whatever you use, add a "follow" option, because I follow so many blogs, if a blog doesn't have the "follow" feature I can't manually add it to my list, I get a message saying I am following to many, and theres nothing I hate more than seeing a cool blog that I can't easily follow, believe me, there are a lot of blogs that don't have that feature added.

Hi grommet, there u go, just checked your blog, please add a "follow" feature.

Gunner,

Just added "Follow by Email" and "Subscribe to" gadgets to the BlogSpot page. Thanks for the hint. Cheers.

Hi grommet, thanks, following.

It won't be a very exciting blog, I can assure you.

A very small update to the Wordpress blog, for my rabid fans.

Thanks for the advice, bloggers.

I added a BlogSpot blog for my 28mm FIW micro-skirmish project, State of Empire.

28mmfiwskirmish.blogspot.com

Of note the the original topic: Since BlogSpot and Picasa are part of the "Google experience", it appears that images uploaded to a blogger blog are automagically uploaded to Picasa as well. So there is that. No uploading to a separate photo-hosting site, just directly to the blog post. Cheers.

I use Wordpress.com (which is free, if you don't register a domain) and the customized 3 column CORALINE theme. It's rather busy and I'm probably going to a 2 column theme at some point, but I like the ability to highlight individual posts (called "making them sticky") that I want to accentuate as a "lead".

It's not 100 per cent of what I would like, but it does the job. I would prefer wider article space, larger font styles and probably a graphic re-do. I haven't been on Blogger.com since 2009, so I don't know what changes were implemented when they came under the Google umbrella. Right now I vastly prefer Wordpress as a blogging platform because of the tight administration capabilities and the ASKIMET anti-spamming utilities that keep spam comments out of the blog (which was a huge problem in blogger.com days).

What I would LIKE (that blogger.com seems to have) is the ability to post a blogroll of interesting blogposts (from other blogs) in a Widget with a picture thumbnail. I'd also like to take my copious Blogroll links off the main page and store them somewhere else, like a side page or discrete element that isn't slowing down the main page.

For what it's worth, this is mine: misternizz.wordpress.com

V/R

Walt