Blogging Requirements

So I’ve been trying out blogging software and platforms up and down the Internet streets, and I really haven’t found one that works really well (IMHO).

Until @daanraman suggested Roon.io which I hadn’t heard of yet. I have to admit, it has probably one of the best designed interfaces I’ve seen. I don’t need micromanage control over a blog. I have pretty basic needs actually.

1. I have to be able to blog from where I want to blog. Oddly enough this is where most newer blogging platforms fall down. Your amazing Javascript editor that took your 500 hours to get right is just something I’m not going to use all that often. Its pretty rare for me to want to blog inside of a browser actually. I usually have 100 tabs open and your stupid editor is often lost in the mix. It’s just nice to have something separate that I can pull things I have in those 100 browser tabs into without having to find the editor tab again. (yes, I realize I can pull out another windows but then the editors usually don’t fit)
2. I post code snippets, directory listings and a ton of other things that I don’t want officially rendered. This is probably not a common problem among bloggers but I can’t count how many times and platforms can’t get a simple windows directory listing to display correctly without me trying to figure out what code finagling I have to do to get the blogging platform to display it the way I need it to. I will use whatever syntax is needed, I just can’t be expected to remember every undocumented workaround to get a HTML tag to display without rendering.
3. This a bit of #1 but I need to be able to blog with ease. If it takes me 40 minutes to just get formatting correct or fixing blogging software to blogging platform incompatibility issues, I’m just going to stop trying. Or if it takes me 10 minutes of git update, git push etc to add a new post, it just isn’t worth it. (I realize you can script Octopress up, but then you’ll have it scripted up in one location/computer, which goes against #1
4. I really don’t care how many templates or formats you have, as long as one is actually readable. I know most customers/bloggers want their Ads, and support, and logos and stuff everywhere. I’m not them. If the reader has an easy time reading my content, I’m happy.
5. I will pay for these conveniences. I’ve been paying SquareSpace for close to 4 years now about $20 per month. I actually don’t want my blogging service to be free. The reason for this is because free == I’m the product. I don’t want Ads to one day creep into my site because the developer of the blogging platform needs money to live on. I would rather pay them directly. The other thing that “free” breeds, is direction inflicted by the one paying the bills. I use the word “inflicted” quite specifically since I have seen some blogging platforms go down the tubes because their VC had some “brilliant” ideas. I’d pay fair pay for fair service.
6. A developer/team/support who listen. I don’t care if they say “sorry, not something we are looking on doing”, thats fair, its their software, not mine, and I’m a big boy I can move on if its something I care about. But honestly, I have no idea why most applications don’t have a ‘vote for a feature’ option/service, or at the very least “feature request” buttons.
7. Hosted. I’m very much done trying to protect and secure a platform or OS that my blog is hosted on. I’d rather spend my time on other things, like you know, generating content.

Anywho, thats my rant on what I’d love to see in a blogging platform, promised someone I would write it up, so here it is.