CBox Chat Widget Has Moved

Quick Update: It wasn't getting a lot of use but I still think the CBox Chat Widget is a useful and interesting piece of bling… I've moved it to the Comment Archives / Community Page to improve load speeds of the blog. If you'd like to chat live with other readers of the blog, go check it out!

Wow… the blog is a lot faster this way!

Comments

[Posted: Nov 19, 2006 1:44:54 PM]

After a year of being with Typepad, I've chosen deliberately - albeit with some regrets - to move to Wordpress, self-hosted. Typepad is great for a beginner, but the paid service just can't deliver features that have been consistently requested by users. (i.e., a navigation option for users).

The poor responsiveness to users with advanced templates (many widgets can't be used without thorough knowledge of php, etc. takes away from the service as well. Isn't that what we're all paying for? Ease of use? When someone has to do all the work themselves AND pay for it.. then why not convert to a free platform that offers far more features, plug-in's etc.

I am not down or done with Typepad. I've just outgrown it at this point. Hopefully, they'll add some impressive abilities that will woo me back in the future.

I sure appreciate this site for helping me push Typepad to its limits. Typepad Hacks, obviously, was born out of the desire to add features and options to Typepad that they would not do themselves.

The funny thing is... why don't we pay John and hacks rather than Typepad? ;)

[Posted: Nov 21, 2006 1:23:18 PM]

Hi Jeff,

Wow. I'm sorry to hear that you're leaving the fold… I hope that you'll still participate in the comments here, since you were one of the early readers who provided so much valuable feedback and testing for the hacks etc. I'll miss hearing your thoughts. Drop in every now and then and let me know how WordPress compares, if you like. The new blog *does* look pretty sweet. Kudos on designing it with enough flair that it doesn't look exactly like all the other off-the-shelf themes out there for WP blogs!

In a way, comparing TypePad and WordPress is an apples and oranges thing. Before I started TypePad Hacks, the Support crew often suggested I try Moveable Type if I wanted more control. I've stayed with TypePad because it offers *both* the ease of use it was designed to provide as well as the ability to use MT code to add functionality through template hacks. Since starting the blog, I've found ways to add many of the features I wanted without having to get them incorporated into the base design of the software. I've got a few more hacks in the queue that also address some of these features. I'm hoping that between my efforts here; the new features that TypePad has added and continues to add; and the exciting new possibilities offered by widgets, perhaps soon almost everything will be covered.

You wrote: Hopefully, they'll add some impressive abilities that will woo me back in the future.

I'd love to see an itemized list of the features that would tip the scales back for you.

One last note here: The design team at Typepad really has been reading the blog here and listening to the conversations. They've added some things from the feature request list and (although I can't disclose specifics) I know that a number of other requested features *are* on their to do list. I've found them to be extremely responsive when approached with ideas that have broad support among the user base. Although TypePad doesn't have an open source culture, MT does and since most of the MT code can be used for TypePad blogs it is possible to get support for items that are not standard. I'm told that a lot of the work that has been done on VOX will be ported to TypePad as well, which is one of the benefits of having multiple platforms for different user levels.

I'd agree that it can be frustrating at times to get support for customized templates, but I've always found that if I state the problem very clearly and ask specific questions I get good results from the help crew. They've always been great about following up when I have additional questions. I also find that it helps when we as users stick together and help each other out when we run into a snag. That's sort of what my goals here have morphed into over time… providing a space where power users can help each other to make the platform more robust on our own.

Thanks for the kind words about my work as well! I wouldn't have gotten as much done though if it weren't for help from the support crew and testing by readers like yourself! I think you're one of the only readers who managed to successfully implement the hack for putting two sidebars on the right, for example (I'm gonna revisit that hack in the future and try to make it easier to do).

Anyway, good luck with Notes from the Trail and do stop in from time to time.