New Blog. Same (Power) Tools.

Posted by Clark Venable on 10/16/2004

As I was explaining to a colleague how I write my blog, I realized that I have not explained how this effort works to anyone and some might find it interesting (at the very least, the people who make the tools will).

This web site (or blog) is a Conversant site. That means it's backed up by a content management system per excellence (and I don't use even 5% of that functionality in this weblog--though others do) from Macrobyte Resources. Rather than a dedicated blogging system, Conversant is the super Swiss Army knife of web groupware and the tool I'm using is it's Weblog II tool. I don't write each web page, Conversant does. I don't write all the links, Conversant does. I don't organize things into subject-specific pages, Conversant does. I don't worry about creating a searchable database. Conversant does. Got it?

A brief word about the appearance of this site. I didn't think of it and it's not one of the Conversant built-in templates (though there are many of those, too). It's a theme used with permission drawn by well known weblog designer Bryan Bell called Brushed Adamant. I've simply adapted it to Conversant, so 'thanks' Brian! The only way to describe this is 'generous.'

Posting to this weblog can be accomplished in many ways: WYSIWYG browser-based editor, e-mail (!), and an application that interacts with weblogging software via something called XML-RPC. In my case, I use MarsEdit for OS X from Ranchero Software:

" "MarsEdit is a weblog editor for Mac OS X that makes weblog writing like writing email—with spell-checking, drafts, multiple windows, and even AppleScript support.

It works with various weblog systems: Blosxom, Conversant, Manila, Movable Type, Radio UserLand, TypePad, WordPress, and others.

It’s currently in beta." "

It makes blogging, especially if you have multiple blogs as I do, exceedingly easy.

Ranchero also makes NetNewsWire Pro for OS X, my 'aggregator'. An aggregator goes to a list of sites you specify, requests a special kind of file (an RSS file) that lists any changes made to the site and displays them in a nice interface for the user to browse. It makes it easy to keep track of over 90 sites and what's being posted. Once I identify an item I want to add to my own blog and comment on, it's just one click to get it into MarsEdit. Within NetNewsWire, I've used the smart lists to alert me to posts and news items that relate to categories in this weblog for special attention.

blogshot.jpg

The MacOS X community is still small. The author of NetNewsWire Pro and MarsEdit, Brent Simmons, used to work for UserLand software, the company that created Frontier, the application on which Conversant is built. I've never met Brent face-to-face, but you get a feel for a person through beta testing for them, e-mailing, et-cetera, and he's 'good people,' as we used to say in Montana. Bryan Bell, the graphics designer, has created many themes for Userland and, in fact, drew the icons used in NetNewsWire and MarsEdit. Seth Dillingham of Macrobyte/Converant is a personal friend, a Frontier developer, and a friend of Brent Simmon's. It's really, really neat to use software written by people you feel you know. Almost as neat as using and paying for software written by people you feel you know.

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