Of late it seems as if there has been a mass exodus of Blogger users to pastures new. The proprietor of plasticbag.org is but one of many to jump ship.
It must be said that Blogger is – without argument – the most popular personal web content management utility available, and must be credited for the popularisation of the weblog phenomenon. Without Blogger, blogging would be nowhere near what it is today. Without Blogger, I probably would never have started my weblog.
So it is with a slight tinge of sadness that I announce that last night, after much consideration, I downloaded Movable Type.
Blogger has been great to me. It’s helped me to improve my writing, exercise my research skills, interact with communities and people I would never have otherwise encountered. But I have come to a point where I want more. It may just be a hobby but I am serious about my weblog, and my website as a whole. As a result I want, I need more control over how my information is stored, processed and presented, even if only for my own education; I need more than Blogger can give me.
There’s also the fact that due to its immense popularity, Blogger feels like it’s turning into the Geocities of weblog publishing. Not that I’ve never hosted a site on Geocities before (in fact, this weblog began on Geocities), but I have an admittedly selfish need to move up in the world, and beyond such humble beginnings.
I’m preparing to install Movable Type on my server over the weekend. As I write this, I’ve been spending most of my time knee-deep code, editing the MT templates to fit the current uniform. Things might seem a little weird around here for a short while, but trust me; when it’s up and running, you’ll appreciate it.