World's simplest blogging system

April 21, 2007 10:40 AM

Blogging for the technically challenged.
posted by bobbyelliott (55 comments total)

That "e" was really slowing everyone down!
posted by tittergrrl at 10:51 AM on April 21, 2007 [4 favorites has favorites]

I thought blogging was for the technically challenged?
posted by b1tr0t at 10:53 AM on April 21, 2007 [6 favorites has favorites]

Blogging by caption.
posted by Brian B. at 10:53 AM on April 21, 2007

Blogging: evolution of the post

Op-Art from The New York Times, 5 April 2007
posted by acro at 11:00 AM on April 21, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Tumblr is your friendly and free tool for creating tumblelogs.

I really hate web 2.0 companies that insist on creating new nouns for the things their products create. gag.
posted by delmoi at 11:01 AM on April 21, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Finally! We've been missing so much from the technically challenged.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 11:01 AM on April 21, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

So is this like that scene in Idiocracy where he goes to the hospital and the triage nurse has a giant picture menu to point at?
posted by Rhomboid at 11:04 AM on April 21, 2007

But tumblelogs is six letters longer than blog. How is that supposed to speed things up?

Madness.
posted by quin at 11:08 AM on April 21, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

So is this like that scene in Idiocracy...?

Why come you don't have a blog?
posted by buriednexttoyou at 11:24 AM on April 21, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

'cause there was such a problem that not enough people had blogs.
posted by octothorpe at 11:27 AM on April 21, 2007

I kinda like it. What the hell, why not?
posted by interrobang at 11:34 AM on April 21, 2007

I really hate web 2.0 companies that insist on creating new nouns for the things their products create. gag.

In fact, a pretty old word (in Internet years) for a format already defined:
The term "tumblelog" was coined by Why the lucky stiff in a blog post on April 12th, 2005.
posted by bru at 11:37 AM on April 21, 2007

Predictable webN.0 snark aside, I kinda like this. Not because I'm technically deficient, but because I usually can't be arsed to come up with actual copy. I like posting photos, and the occasional link or book opinion, and this caters to my kind of laziness. It also looks pretty.

And, yeah, the name is cringily webN.0 stupid.
posted by everichon at 11:37 AM on April 21, 2007

I think it is awesome that they have developed a fuss filter. Now I never have to think "What was all that fuss about?" because there is no fuss!
posted by srboisvert at 11:44 AM on April 21, 2007

It could be that we are now past the point where Yet Another Blogging Tool is a big deal, and people can just use what works for them.
posted by everichon at 11:57 AM on April 21, 2007

This appears to generate blogs ("tublelogs") that look an awful lot like those jumbly spam-blogs that often show up in Google results.
posted by rxrfrx at 12:05 PM on April 21, 2007

I thought having a diary in a notebook was blogging for the technically challenged.
posted by wheelieman at 12:06 PM on April 21, 2007

I'm going to punch the nxt prson who starts a nw wb 2.0 thing with a nam missing an e.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:16 PM on April 21, 2007 [4 favorites has favorites]

Just as one must reach a certain age before one can drive or vote or drink, one must reach a certain level of technical skill before they're allowed to contribute to the Internet.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:18 PM on April 21, 2007

I'm going to punch the nxt prson who starts a nw wb 2.0 thing with a nam missing an e.

Punchr. It's in beta.
posted by srboisvert at 12:26 PM on April 21, 2007 [6 favorites has favorites]

I like tumblr a lot, and I use it to keep a linkblog. It's so dead simple that I can drop a link into it in just a few seconds and be on my merry way. For lengthier posts, I stick with MT.
posted by chrisamiller at 12:26 PM on April 21, 2007

The future, I think, lies in aggregating this kind of stuff. I love the tumblr approach to accumulating quotes and snippets and so on. But I still write long-form stuff. Do i want to fragment things into two sites -- one for longer pieces, another for shorter ones? Not really. That's the appeal of twitter, at least for me. Not in telling the world I'm getting groceries, but in having an easy way to channel short-form text into a larger pool of personal information. This seems like a nice piece of the puzzle, but they aren't thinking big enough -- they're pitching it as an alternative to other appraoches, rather than a compliment, an api for short-form snippets.
posted by verb at 12:29 PM on April 21, 2007

I think no one should be permitted to drive a car unless they can do their own engine work. If you're not technically sophisticated enough to handle that, you shouldn't be driving.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:30 PM on April 21, 2007

MetaFiltr: a nw wb 2.0 thing with a nam missing an e.
posted by ericb at 12:38 PM on April 21, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I think a better analogy in this case, SCDB, would be: one should not be permitted to drive if they can't find the ignition. I mean, look at blogger, how much simpler can it get?
posted by synaesthetichaze at 1:03 PM on April 21, 2007

On the other hand, this tool is inherently different from blogger, so maybe my point doesn't stand. It's really not for journal-style blogging.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 1:04 PM on April 21, 2007

Yeah - what SCDB said...the analogy for me is quite apt: I don't know the proverbial "jack" about cars -- I just put gas in, start it up, and go. Don't know about no tranny, no gears, no carburetor, etc. Same with blogging -- it's great that so many of the unwashed masses are able to do it.

Although I do admit to a bit of snobbery when confronted with good blogs that are hosted on Blogspot.
posted by davidmsc at 1:07 PM on April 21, 2007

Oh - and Tumblr - signed up a few weeks ago, as I do with most new blog services - this one is quick, simple, and fun. Good on 'em.
posted by davidmsc at 1:08 PM on April 21, 2007

srboisvert: we're too late - someone already grabbed punchr.com!
posted by davidmsc at 1:11 PM on April 21, 2007

wankr
posted by muckster at 1:43 PM on April 21, 2007

Am I alone in thinking that a "tumblog" would be more appropriate than "tumbleblog"?

Of course, it may lead to gastric-based musing, but still.
posted by Lionel d'Lion at 1:48 PM on April 21, 2007

To me, the secret sauce is in the combination of smart bookmarklets and automatic posting of stuff via your other sites' feeds.

It's very fun to use.
posted by merlinmann at 2:06 PM on April 21, 2007

I think no one should be permitted to drive a car unless they can do their own engine work. If you're not technically sophisticated enough to handle that, you shouldn't be driving.

Doesn't sound that unreasonable at all. Just as potential bloggers should understand the basics of making a web page drivers should understand the basics of maintaining their vehicle.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:20 PM on April 21, 2007

I love tumblr. But you know, it's been out a while now. I guess metafilter left the cutting edge a while ago.
posted by justgary at 2:20 PM on April 21, 2007

automatic posting of stuff via your other sites' feeds.

Plenty of other sites do that, so as you say, it's the easy ability to add new content with the bookmarklets (the best I've seen) added that is the killer feature.
posted by justgary at 2:23 PM on April 21, 2007

I guess metafilter left the cutting edge a while ago.

Get posting and take us back there.
posted by scarabic at 2:30 PM on April 21, 2007

Predictable webN.0 snark aside, I kinda like this. Not because I'm technically deficient, but because I usually can't be arsed to come up with actual copy.

And I'm kinda failing to understand how current blog software forces you to write long entries; I mean if we go back to where weblogs started, it wasn't about 15-paragraph long theses, it was a way of posting quick snips and links to the web. I ain't ever seen a paragraph on, say, Robot Wisdom. This isn't revolutionary, it's blogging gone full circle - people have remembered what it was all about.

The future, I think, lies in aggregating this kind of stuff.

I agree - and SuprGlu was looking like the way to do it, until they quit development to work on other, presumably more profitable Web2.Oh stuff.
posted by Jimbob at 2:39 PM on April 21, 2007

I am so jaded I've gotten jaded about being jaded and have started liking things again.
posted by srboisvert at 3:26 PM on April 21, 2007 [6 favorites has favorites]

Should I use tumblr while playing the Stones' "Tumblin' Dice" on my ipodr, or Culture Club's "I'll Tumble 4 U"?
posted by wendell at 4:32 PM on April 21, 2007

Bruce Wayne: What's that?
Lucius Fox: The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that.
posted by quin at 4:55 PM on April 21, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

In an attempt to be marginally useful amid all the snarking, I offer the Tumblelist, found via the brief Wikipedia article.
posted by pax digita at 7:01 PM on April 21, 2007

Oh, and to beat some random wanker to it:

Metafilter: marginally useful amid all the snarking
posted by pax digita at 7:07 PM on April 21, 2007

I think no one should be permitted to drive a car unless they can do their own engine work. If you're not technically sophisticated enough to handle that, you shouldn't be driving.

This is about the interweb, not cars.
posted by 29 at 8:17 PM on April 21, 2007

I think no one should be permitted to drive a car unless they can do their own engine work. If you're not technically sophisticated enough to handle that, you shouldn't be driving.

I don't see any problem with this statement. I'm sure it would make cycling much more pleasant.

Or maybe not.

On one hand, there would hardly be any cars on the road.

On the other hand, all of the cars actually on the road would be 1,500 hp fire-breathing dual-engined monsters armed to the teeth with a fantastic array of defensive and offensive weapons.
posted by loquacious at 8:40 PM on April 21, 2007

Loq just exactly described what I'm going for with my Mustang restoration. Though I'm only going to push for 1,200 hp. Gas mileage doncha know?

I'm also planning on building it to be TEMPEST hardened against a nuclear/ EMP attack. Because you never know.

See you on the motorways!
posted by quin at 9:37 PM on April 21, 2007

I think it says a lot about our expectations of computers when people who can't even use Blogger are regarded as the equivalent of competent drivers. Seriously, having the ability to point, click, and type does not make you the equivalent of a competent driver. It makes you the equivalent of a 15 year old who hasn't had drivers' ed but understands the connection between the pedals/steering wheel and the operation of a car.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:03 PM on April 21, 2007

I think the car analogy is stretching things a little too far - in the wrong hands a car is a lethal weapon. Not knowing how to adapt your template isn't likely to harm others, is it?

You might as well say that you shouldn't be allowed to eat something you can't prepare, live in a house you couldn't build or use fuel you haven't refined yourself.
posted by Lionel d'Lion at 1:42 AM on April 22, 2007

How can you equate the basic necessities of life to creating a website? Just because it's the information age and all that doesn't mean you'll suffer if you can't ramble on about your boring life or link to another blog's more worthy content.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:23 AM on April 22, 2007

Tangetially, MeTa

And this thing about being for the "technically challenged": So Blogger.com was too challenging?
posted by Robert Angelo at 9:05 AM on April 22, 2007

I think no one should be permitted to drive a car unless they can do their own engine work. If you're not technically sophisticated enough to handle that, you shouldn't be driving.

Any car that breaks down should not be permitted to run until it gets fixed.
posted by Brian B. at 9:40 AM on April 22, 2007

This post is why I didn't make this post. I use tumblr - it fits in with what I always wanted my headlessness site to be. One thing that has had enough emphasis is how it lets you plug in an RSS feed you like. I feed it my del.icio.us links and flickr photos that I tag with top, my metafilter posts, my tunes I post to MeFi music. It's more powerful than you think, and a great way of bringing rich media to linklog style weblogs.
posted by nthdegx at 1:25 PM on April 22, 2007

I think no one should be permitted to drive a car unless they can do their own engine work. If you're not technically sophisticated enough to handle that, you shouldn't be driving.

And people shouldn't be allowed to write unless they know how to make their own paper and ink. Written words are dangerous, hurtful things, folks, that can start wars, so it's vital that only those technically sophisticated enough to understand about pulping and drying and tannic acid should be permitted to risk the awful consequences.

And while we're at it. No one should be allowed to talk unless they have at least an MSc in human biology.

In other words, the two are such fundementally different things that attempting to corrolate them in such a way is ludicrous.
posted by Sparx at 2:35 PM on April 22, 2007

Some of the blogs this thing produces are quite ugly/unreadable. Too much huge text/tiny text, and the letters are too damn close together.
posted by reklaw at 4:36 AM on April 23, 2007

Agreed, reklaw - but the CSS is editable, and some of the blogs this thing produces are quite attractive and accessible. So it aggregates your RSS feeds and encourages you to tinker with the source. It's pared down, yes, but I wouldn't say it was geared to beginners - livejournal and vox are really better services for them, I think. I really like it. A lot of people seem to be dismissing it or misrepresenting it after a brief look. The are quite a few old blogging hands using tumblr.
posted by nthdegx at 10:55 AM on April 23, 2007

I think Tumblr is really well done, myself - nice balance between effortless use and opportunities to do a bit of tweaking for those that want to. (Though it is bloody annoying that they launched it after I spent a load of time cluelessly faffing about trying to make a Wordpress template work in a suitably tumblish fashion.)
posted by jack_mo at 5:34 AM on April 26, 2007