Tek Review

August 15, 2007 — 06:37 PM PDT — by Jordan Chark — Share This

Many bloggers, when first setting things up, are faced with one of the most critical decisions any blogger can make, that is, which CMS to use? There are many out there, all with their respective pros and cons. In this post, I’ll be looking at several key aspects pertaining to two of today’s premier content management systems: Wordpress 2.2, and the new Movable Type 4, which launched today.

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Installation

Wordpress is famous for its “5 minute installation”, and once you’ve done it, anything slower will start feeling painful. All that’s needed is having an SQL database set up, unzipping of the Wordpress zip (less than 1MB), editing the wp-config file, uploading it all to your server and running the install.php (ed. note: takes a lot longer than 5 mins on first try).

One of the first things I noticed in regards Movable Type is its relatively massive file size, 4MB - Wordpress is only a quarter of the size. Relative to the file-size, it took a couple minutes to upload to the server. As for the actual installation, while it did go perfectly smoothly, there was a slight bit more technical knowledge needed.

Winner: Wordpress.

Interface

In Wordpress, the initial window you’re presented with is called the “Dashboard”. This provides you with plenty of useful information at-a-glance. Your last 5 posts, comments, blog stats, recent Technorati links, and Akismet spam count are all displayed there. The lower part of that screen also displays posts from the Wordpress development blog, as well as “other Wordpress news” and your recent drafts.

After you’ve looked through your Dashboard, you can click on any one of the tabs at the top: Write, Manage, Comments, Blogroll, Presentation, Plugins, Users, and Options. Each one of these pages is similarly laid out, coherent, consistent, and intuitive all the way around.

Now, on to Movable Type. Much like Wordpress, you’re initially presented with a screen, also dubbed the “Dashboard”. Here, you’re presented with a more contextually oriented menu system in the top bar, which contains 5 main groups: Create, Edit, Organize, Design, and Config. This all integrates very smoothly and is a pleasure to use.

However, I must say that drop down contextual menus can be inefficient obstacles at times, such as when you want to click the home icon, but you’ve already unwillingly extended the blog menu.

All in all, both Wordpress and Movable Type were built with the end-user in mind and thus are continually improving their interfaces. Both are similarly equipped with intuitive admin areas, and neither have much of a learning curve. However, Wordpress comes out on top with its relatively quicker access to vital information and lack of annoying contextual menus.

Winner: Wordpress.

Customization

The Wordpress community is both large and talented. Themes and plugins are easily located on their respective directory pages on the Wordpress site. The variety and quality in both categories is difficult to surpass. Even if you’re not content with something you find, enterprising web developers and newbies alike can easily create themes and plugins with the easy to use and well implemented Codex. It does, however, require a little technical knowledge to work confidently with themes and plugins.

On the opposite side of the fence, Movable Type is a comparably customizable system. Its community has also been proactive in the creation of plugins and themes can easily be found in their respective directories. If you wish to create your own customization tools, like Wordpress, Six Apart’s done a great job of documenting all of the Developer info, so take a look if you’re into that stuff.

Winner: Tie.

Affordability and Accessibility

Wordpress has always taken pride in its open-source architecture which not only provides for more active, critical development and better documentation, but also affordability. Wordpress only offers a free version, which is bundled with support from their great, knowledgeable community by means of their forums, IRC and other venues. While Movable Type hasn’t been open source in the past, this June they announced MTOS (The Movable Type Open Source Project), providing an open source version of the Movable Type platform as a core for all other products. The project is set to launch in the 3rd quarter of this year, and will rely upon Movable Type’s already large development community. In terms of pricing, they offer their personal edition for free, and they offer enterprise, education, nonprofit and hosted solutions for a substantial cost. All of their paid packages also come with commercial support, which is great for organizations that don’t want to take on the role of tech expert when something goes wrong.

Winner: Wordpress.

Stability

The stability of Movable Type and Wordpress is quite debatable, and through my use of both platforms, I’m convinced that they’re both quite equal. After all, the main issues most people will encounter are those server-related, it’s very rarely the CMS.

Winner: Tie.

Additional Features

There are a few things in Wordpress that I’d like to see in MT in the near future: combining trackbacks and comments, RSS for comments, and permalinks for comments, for example.

However, I also have a couple points to the contrary: Page generation for every request can get a bit slow and Kubrick (Wordpress’s default theme) has many problems, from images to CSS. In addition, Movable Type 4 introduces some features which take it beyond the call of duty. These include: OpenID, Admin XML Feeds, cross-blog aggregation, and more. Virtually anything can be done with Wordpress plugins, of course, but with Movable type it’s all built in.

Winner: Movable Type.

The Final Decision

After tallying it all up, Wordpress comes out on top beating Movable Type in many areas.

Overall, Movable Type is a well put-together offering by SixApart definitely warranting a try: we’d say it’s actually superior for no-nonsense business people who want a professional solution fast. However, Wordpress is the stronger offering for the general user with great features and an unsurpassed community.

In a few months, as Movable Type heads towards greater openness, we think the gap will be closed. MT will certainly be worth another look around that time. And frankly, if you plan to spend many years with your blog platform of choice, why not try out both and see which one you prefer?

Let us know your thoughts on how these platforms stack up.

Labels: MovableType, WordPress

Top ten ways to make your forum community stand out
By: Matt Price

1. Research and discover your forum’s niche.
2. Target a specific member base and user groups.
3. Create or obtain a unique vBulletin theme.
4. Make a good first impression.
5. Link-build with similar content related forums.
6. Optimize your forum pages to be search engine friendly.
7. Add incentives for your members.
8. Create room for personalization and customization.
9. Promote it to anyone and everyone. Word of mouth is huge.
10. Start slow and work your way up. Don’t get in to deep.

1. Research and discover your niche.

Everybody has a certain passion and advanced knowledge in one category on the web or another. Search deep inside yourself to figure out what you think would succeed as a popular forum. However, your first thought is usually just like everyone else’s. Try to avoid the “John Doe” ideas that everyone and anyone has already thought of. Chances are there are a couple hundreds of forums on that topic already and it will be extremely difficult to compete with the previously established forums.

Aim your sights on a much smaller or hidden niche that has not yet been discovered or developed. (i.e. “vBulletin hacks”, rather than “Web design”) Targeting a more specific topic allows room for search engine placement potential and an easily target-able member base.

Once you find that industry niche, go at it 100%. I see hundreds of new forums fail and give up in the first few months because the owner doesn’t dedicate enough time to it. Put in the work and be patient, you will get results.

2. Target a specific member base and user groups.

Take the time to research other forums or websites that you think your potential members would hang out. A key to finding the perfect source is to search Google, MSN, Yahoo, and other search engines for the keywords you plan on targeting. These same relevant internet websites and forums provide the best source for advertisements and partnerships.

Since the big guy (Google) looks for relevant content between links you will be noticed faster. For example, don’t advertise a sports forum on a printer repair website. However, Google does seem to be caring less and less for relevancy and more for real content text links.

3. Create or obtain a unique vBulletin theme.

Every forum owner should have a goal that his/her site can stand out from the rest of the forums in his/her niche. One step to accomplishing your own identity and recognizable skin is through downloading pre-made vBulletin skins (for example: vBulletin Skins, vBulletin Themes, vBulletin Styles, and vBulletin templates) and other resources. Having your own identity is a great way to make your members feel like they are apart of more than something than just another forum.

Creating an atmosphere where your members feel at home may be the most important secret to keeping your members active and your forum growing.

4. Make a good first impression.

Everyone knows the first impression could be the make or break it on keeping a member at first glance. Like I just talked about, custom and pre-made skins are just one way to making that first impression better. On top of downloading pre-made skins, forum owners can establish easy navigation, interesting content, and try to portray an active community. Keeping that first members impression positive could make the difference of a popular forum or a suffering one.

Do NOT try to trick your members by changing the refresh rate on the active member list. Most forum junkies nowadays know about this trick and will look down upon the forum. You definitely do not want to jeopardize your reputation over a few extra members. If your site is new, I suggest throwing a forum contest for the best poster. Not only will it increase activeness, but it will gain trust in your site.


5. Link-build with similar content related forums.

Anyone in the SEO world will tell you that link building is the key ingredient to search engine optimization, and they are correct. Building back links pointing toward your website or forum is essential for search engines to not only find your site, but rank it well.

This goes for all websites, not just forums. I have found that one way text links hold much more PR juice than a reciprocal link. There are more resources for site owners than just paying off other popular sites for one-way links. You can create articles and submit them to sites for free for quick and good publicity.

6. Optimize your forum pages to be search engine friendly.

However, vBulletin and other forum software’s make this a bit more difficult than a regular website. There are sites that have already come out with products to help all of the forum owners out there with SEO, such as vBulletin SEO Forums. These sites do most of the simple things for you, and are worth the small investment.

Like I said before, I highly recommend finding related material on similar content websites and forums. Not only will the search engines appreciate it, but you will receive more targeted traffic than on a non-topic website.

7. Add incentives for your members.

We all know that forums can die down and lose interest during the year. Member incentives are very important for keeping your member base interested and active. Some incentives that you can do with your members are:
- Throw a forum-wide contest.
- Offer rewards for posters that accomplish a certain amount of posts.
- Establish a point/rating system.

8. Create room for personalization and customization.

I personally believe that all members should have their own chance to play with the styles that an admin has on their forum. Having a wide variety of styles has its’ perks and its downfalls. Some of the good things about offering a wide variety of vBulletin skins are that members get their own choice. Some members may want a graphically enhanced design while others are just looking for a quick loading skin. The biggest downfall I notice when administrators do this is the lack of identity that is established. One style on a forum is much more easily recognizable and brand able than a bunch of random skins thrown together.

There are plenty of skins you can download no matter what forum software you use. Free ones or paid ones alike, they will allow your forum to stand out from the rest of the competition and give your members something to remember.

9. Promote it to anyone and everyone. Word of mouth is huge.

Tell everyone about your new forum. Who knows! Somebody you tell may know tons of people in that niche that have been waiting for such a site to come out. I suggest joining relative-content forums and becoming an active member with a signature link. I do not suggest spamming other forums just to get your link out there because you will give off the completely wrong impression.

Word of mouth advertising is by far the best way of advertising. It is free and beneficial. It is hard to get people to talk about your new site so I would suggest doing something new, something fresh. Create something that will make people buzz.

10. Start slow and work your way up. Don’t get in to deep.

Everyone has heard of the statement, “Slow and steady wins the race.” With forum ownership, this statement couldn’t be truer. I suggest starting with a site you can handle and building it up slowly. At the same time, you need to take the initiative and take risks. Spend some cash on targeted advertising and try to sponsor sites relative to yours.

Please don’t dump tons of cash into your forum thinking it will grow right away and lose your entire investment. Make long term goals and stick to them. Spread out the advertising and promotion tactics so that you don’t leave all your eggs in one basket.

We all want a big forum that’s activeness is outstanding and the member base is continuously growing. Follow the simple steps I listed here and you should be on a great start to becoming a vBulletin administrator and entrepreneur.

Google Operating System


Google Pack, the collection of applications recommended by Google, includes a new software: StarOffice, an office suite developed by Sun. In 2000 Sun released StarOffice's source code, which became the foundation of OpenOffice.org, an open source project sponsored by Sun.


StarOffice 8 is a full-featured office suite that contains a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, applications for presentations, databases, math formulas and drawing. It has support for most Microsoft Office formats (except for the formats introduced in Office 2007), but it can also export documents as PDF out of the box. The software normally costs $70, but it's available for free in Google Pack. It's worth noting that StarOffice has a huge installer (more than 140 MB), so you should download it only if you have a fast Internet connection.

It will be interesting to see why Google didn't choose to include OpenOffice.org, the primary difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org being that StarOffice includes some proprietary components like clip-art graphics, fonts, templates and tools for Microsoft Office migration.

The next step would probably be the addition of a plug-in that lets you synchronize local documents with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, so you can have the best of the both worlds: edit complicated documents offline, collaborate and store files securely online. For now, StarOffice is integrated with Google Search and Google Desktop.

Labels: Google

August 14, 2007 — 03:22 PM PDT — by Kristen Nicole

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Scanner

WikiScanner is a relatively new site that will track the edits made on Wikipedia.

The purpose of this service is to see who’s behind edits made, and how these actions generally lend themselves towards the self-interested corporations hoping to promote and protect brand identities. Created by CalTech student Virgil Griffith, WikiScanner searches the entirety of the XML-based records in Wikipedia and cross-references them with public and private IP and domain information to see who is behind the edits made on the online encyclopedia. With WikiScanner, there are a few levels on which you can search for info, including organization name, exact Wikipedia URL, or IP address, among others.

In what could be considered a sociology experiment, Griffith found that a good portion of edits for company entries are being made by the companies themselves. This isn’t surprising at all–it’s something that’s been speculated upon, and tested on a smaller scale. The team behind Wikipedia is also aware of it, and has been working to deal with issues such as this. Wikipedia’s policies have changed since it’s onset, and the user-generated system has been improved as a result. There is also a new edit-marking system that’s currently being tested on Wikia for possible use on Wikipedia in the future, making it even easier to track changes made to entries.

Another way to peek under the hood of other websites is the recently launched BuiltWith.

[via Wired]

Link to T

Labels: Wikipedia

solokay

This Germany based VoIP provider PeterZahlt is giving away free calls from any Germany phone number to landlines and mobiles in Several countries. This is good news to our readers that are based in Germany as they could use this service to make unlimited no. of calls to lot of countries. Also people who are not resident in germany but have a germany call-in number can enjoy the free calls.

PeterZahlt is a web activated telephony service like jajah. It lets you use the web to initiate a call between two telephone numbers. Like most web activated telephony service it is very easy to use, all you have to do is go to peterzahlt.de (the site is in german but the GUI is easily understandable even if you cant read german), enter your telephone number, enter other party's number and click call (kostenlos telefonieren), your phone will ring and you will be connected to the person you want to call.

PeterZahlt is a advertisement based Free Calling service in germany and let you call the following countries for free : Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, USA and Canada (Landline Only), Australia, Singapore, Greece , Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, San Marino and the Vatican.

Calls with PeterZahlt are limited to 30 mins each call but you can make unlimited number of calls to the same destination. To try out peterzahlt visit their website at www.peterzahlt.

Labels: VOIP

voipguide


I was checking back on my Free Calling VOIP Providers database build over time and found this interesting VOIP provider in Germany. This is a great news for all our german readers. VOIP Guide will also look into a hack to make it work for other nations.

PeterZahlt which means "Let peter Pay" is a advertisement based Free Calling service in germany. PeterZahlt offers free Phone to Phone calls from Germany to over 25 countries namely Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, USA and Canada (Landline Only). They recently added Australia, Singapore, Greece , Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, San Marino and the Vatican.

This service Only works for Germany, however we will try to find a hack soon :-)

PeterZahlt offers free 30 mins each call. You can call the same destination again. You dont need to worry about using headphones. Lets see how you can call with PeterZahlt,

1) Go to PeterZahlt (Note: The site is in German)
2) Enter your number
3) Enter other party's number
4) Click Call (kostenlos telefonieren)
5) They will first call back on your number and then connect the other Party!

Talk for FREE for 30 mins. When the calls is cut, you can redial using the above steps.

As i said earlier, We are working on a hack to receive PeterZahlt calls in other countries and will post a solution soon.

Labels: VOIP