The Andrew Turnbull Family of Fine Websites
A few things to keep in mind with PolkaDot. First off, if you want category icons and comments, email me, because the released version ain't got 'em.
The searching can break a page because it's stupid enough to try and highlight matching terms in a URL. I should just replace it with a Google search and reap those fat ad dollars. (Sexy nuns has made about $15 over the past month or so. I'm rich!)
It doesn't get you away from FTPing stuff. (Which I view as a good thing.) You're still uploading files, only they're mostly plain text.
If you're careful with your posts, I think it's pretty X-HTML compliant.
And court-o-rama required extensive rewriting. Not to the logic. But we used an open source site design and I had to match the tags up.
I guess that helps to better understand the circumstances at hand.
I suppose my idea of an "ideal" blogging system would be one that allows you to frame single posts and chronological series of posts in a common HTML "framework," generates an RSS feed, and otherwise leaves well enough alone. Integrated commenting actually isn't a big issue for me now, at least if Haloscan continues to behave itself...
Things could be worse: you're not using the layout of, say, Vector64 Blog.
I recently noticed that Billy's using Simple PHP Blog, which describes itself flat out as "...a dead-simple blog. One that didn't need a database, used flat text files, and looked nice." With RSS and commenting capabilities, it looks like it may be just what you're looking for.
I'm using Subtext. On old hardware such as mine, it's actually a pretty good choice. An in-memory database is a must when the server uses a 4200rpm hard drive, which would make the use of flat files inefficient. The fact that ASP.NET is dynamically compiled (rather than interpreted, as PHP is) tends to give a speed boost, seeing as the site runs as if it were just another Windows application rather than as a script needing to be processed by the PHP runtime upon every page request.
Commenting by HaloScan
