Owen Winkler writes about “Why Am I on WordPress dot com”:
So why would someone jump to using WordPress.com when they’ve already got a blog running? I can see the case for users who want to start out fresh and have no experience, or maybe for people who are tired of paying hosting fees and are willing to give up those extra features to avoid paying for hosting. But I can’t see a practical reason to jump to shared free hosting when you’ve got an established site.
Many of the folks on WordPress.com now are people who were invited to join WordPress.com, which is the only way to get an account. Since most of the early-adopters were excited developer-types who also didn’t know what to post on their WordPress.com blog that would be different from their regular blog, there are a lot of meta-WordPress posts. That is starting to mellow now that the invites are spreading to “normal? people, but it’s interesting that when presented with the cool new gadget, the techies find a way to make it work just to have it as a badge of technorati….
…I think that it’s just peer pressure. “Why don’t you have an account yet, Owen?? “I don’t know, what would I use it for?? “I don’t know but you should have one.? “Uh, ok.?
He raises some very good points, including some excellent descriptions of the various versions of WordPress. And the comments are also fascinating.
One of the big whines is the lack of blatant support for wordpress.com users. This is also one of the things I’ve been complaining about from day one, but that’s a different story. If you need help, you can use the Feedback button in the Administration Panels, and your feedback goes straight to the lead developers, Donncha and Matt. You can also plow through this blog for tons of helpful information, and check out the FAQ for wordpress.com users, What Can You Do With WordPress.com, Hello, WordPress.com Users and Testers, Latest News on WordPress 1.6 Status and Development, and Getting Help with wordpress.com.
What it boils down to is this. If you already have a paid independent blog, then why get a free one on wordpress.com? Just for kicks? For the thrill of seeing the latest and hottest new blogging software before it’s released? To experiment and push it to its limits just to see what it will do? Or because everyone else has one? Or is it because you really have something to say and this is another avenue?
Are you influenced by the “wordpress.com” in your blog URL like https://lorelle.wordpress.com and feel compelled to only blog about WordPress? Or does that not matter and all you want to do is blog?
Tell us why you want a free WordPress blog and what you think about having one. What will you do with it? And what do you want to know about wordpress.com?
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Lorelle on WordPress 
5 Comments
Actually, I had heard alot about WordPress. I had evaluated it along with Blogger, Typepad and Yahoo 360. Frankly, I was intimidated a bit with having to load software onto a remote host. Visions of having to do programming of the site and work on the site rather than just write stuff turned me off to the idea of WordPress. So when I heard about WordPress.com I threw my name in and lo and behold I got an invite! So I started using it and found that I liked it better than the others. And it wasn’t that it was free; I genuinely like the software.
As I was blogging here though, I found that I was yearning to personalize the look of my blog, be able to break up my posts, have the flexibility to do more with photos, and just be able to have the full WordPress feature set. So that led me to taking the dive and actually moving to my own hosted WordPress account (version 1.5 @ the host provider HostMySite.com). The installation was indeed a snap, one click and I was in. However, as I feared, I do have to customize my site and am learning how to do that (it looked really nice in Firefox but the margins were way off in IE).
The moral of my WordPress.com story is that WordPress.com led me to my own WordPress.org hosted site; that wouldn’t have happened without WordPress.com. I’ll happily blog at WordPress.com until I get my WordPress.org site spiffy in IE and Firefox. I guess after that time I’ll just use my WordPress.com site as another place to post on a secondary basis or maybe as a mirror to my main blog. I’m not sure really.
WordPress.com is a good service though with the usual bumps any alpha-ish thing has. It’s fine for someone like me who is starting out and it’s a great way for people to see that WordPress is worth moving to your own hosted site with.
I was looking for an elite online blog platform. WordPress.com looked sexy since I looked at it for the first time.
Even if it’s still buggy, I love it.
I’m bloggin about playstation 3 and I get lots of daily visits. I’m proud of my wp blog :).
I’m proud of the “.wordpress.com” keywords. That’s why I use it, when I could buy my own domain.
The only thing I would change on wordpress is to allow us to use javascript, or at least to insert Adsense support. Bye Lorelle 🙂
Frankly I was really excited to find a wordpress host for free. I love the wordpress interface, and now I can blog without worrying about the bandwith, unless I get slashdotted.
😛 I’m blind, and a good interface is important, that is why b2[22blog], and now wordpress is my fav blogging platform.
Serrebi, I’ve been really wanting to know but haven’t had the time to take the interface for a “blind” spin. So how does the new interface with Ajax work for the visually impaired, if you don’t mind my blunt question?
That is something that has worried me from the beginning. I’m a major proponent of accessibility and worked overtime to ensure my main site is top notch when it comes to that, but I have no control over the accessibility issues with WordPress. So I’d love an “expert” opinion!
Wooo, google is your friend.
It’s fine, for the most part. I use W.blogger to blog mostly, because I’m lazy, that is, when I feel like blogging, lol. I am not like most of the blind community. If I can use it in anyway posible, it’s accessible to me. On that note, I will say that it is a very easy interface for any blind person to use. I have several blind friends with blogs based off wordpress.
If you need any accessibility testing done, heh, my msn is serrebitranceaddict@hotmail.com and my yahoo, which half the time I’m on , is djserrebi .
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