Slightly OT: in search of a new blogging platform

[Alex Hall]

Hi all,
I'm posting this in a couple places, so you may see it twice.

I'm frustrated with Wordpress. Their mobile app is great, but their website is 
annoying with VO on the Mac. They claim to support Markdown, but don't return 
MD text when you go to edit, and suddenly my blog stopped interpreting MD for 
some reason. They also mess with the characters I use, replacing a double dash 
with an em dash and an apostrophe with a single quote. I'm in search of a new 
blogging platform, and here are the things I need, and don't need but would 
like, it to support.

* Markdown support, and this is a must. I need to be able to post with 
Markdown, and, when I edit, to be editing in Markdown. That is, I don't want to 
post initially with Markdown, then get HTML when I go to edit. I know HTML, but 
I hate working in it, especially on iOS.
* Free. I don't post often, so if there's a post or traffic limit for free 
accounts, that's probably fine.
* Apps: I need it to be compatible with Mars Edit, unless the web interface is 
truly amazing, and I'd love an iOS app. Wordpress has such an app, and while I 
don't post with it, I love it for getting notified of new comments and taking 
action on them from the app.
* I don't need, but would like, a good comments system. Readers should be able 
to post with just a name or email address, not need to make an account or solve 
a captcha. Anti-spam for comments is a must, since Wordpress tells me it's 
blocked over two thousand spam comments on my two blog accounts to date.
* Auto-posting new blog posts to my Twitter account would be great, but isn't 
required.
* A way for people to follow me by RSS is highly desired.
* The ability to include pictures is good. I haven't yet, but I'd like to. 
Ideally, there would be a way to know where the image would be, how big it will 
end up, and if text will wrap around it. Basically, an accessible way to know 
roughly how the embedded image will look. Not what the image contains, but how 
it impacts the layout of the rest of the post.

So, any ideas? I've heard that Tumblr would be a good choice, but that was from 
a sighted person. I've also been told of Dreamwidth, a site I'd never heard of 
but that one of my Twitter followers really enjoys. I'm not looking for 
community *on the blog site*, as my community comes from comments and Twitter 
more than any website. I do, though, need what I choose to meet the above 
requirements. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

--
Have a great day,
Alex Hall
mehg...@icloud.com

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Re: Slightly OT: in search of a new blogging platform

[May]

I'm assuming you're talking about wordpress.com and not .org? I don't have 
these problems.

Wordpress.org you can get lots of the things you are looking for except for you 
would have to pay for your own domain name.

May and LD Luna Moon!
www.canadianlynx.ca

> On Mar 7, 2015, at 5:02 PM, Alex Hall  wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> I'm posting this in a couple places, so you may see it twice.
> 
> I'm frustrated with Wordpress. Their mobile app is great, but their website 
> is annoying with VO on the Mac. They claim to support Markdown, but don't 
> return MD text when you go to edit, and suddenly my blog stopped interpreting 
> MD for some reason. They also mess with the characters I use, replacing a 
> double dash with an em dash and an apostrophe with a single quote. I'm in 
> search of a new blogging platform, and here are the things I need, and don't 
> need but would like, it to support.
> 
> * Markdown support, and this is a must. I need to be able to post with 
> Markdown, and, when I edit, to be editing in Markdown. That is, I don't want 
> to post initially with Markdown, then get HTML when I go to edit. I know 
> HTML, but I hate working in it, especially on iOS.
> * Free. I don't post often, so if there's a post or traffic limit for free 
> accounts, that's probably fine.
> * Apps: I need it to be compatible with Mars Edit, unless the web interface 
> is truly amazing, and I'd love an iOS app. Wordpress has such an app, and 
> while I don't post with it, I love it for getting notified of new comments 
> and taking action on them from the app.
> * I don't need, but would like, a good comments system. Readers should be 
> able to post with just a name or email address, not need to make an account 
> or solve a captcha. Anti-spam for comments is a must, since Wordpress tells 
> me it's blocked over two thousand spam comments on my two blog accounts to 
> date.
> * Auto-posting new blog posts to my Twitter account would be great, but isn't 
> required.
> * A way for people to follow me by RSS is highly desired.
> * The ability to include pictures is good. I haven't yet, but I'd like to. 
> Ideally, there would be a way to know where the image would be, how big it 
> will end up, and if text will wrap around it. Basically, an accessible way to 
> know roughly how the embedded image will look. Not what the image contains, 
> but how it impacts the layout of the rest of the post.
> 
> So, any ideas? I've heard that Tumblr would be a good choice, but that was 
> from a sighted person. I've also been told of Dreamwidth, a site I'd never 
> heard of but that one of my Twitter followers really enjoys. I'm not looking 
> for community *on the blog site*, as my community comes from comments and 
> Twitter more than any website. I do, though, need what I choose to meet the 
> above requirements. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
> 
> --
> Have a great day,
> Alex Hall
> mehg...@icloud.com
> 
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
> "MacVisionaries" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

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Re: Slightly OT: in search of a new blogging platform

[Alex Hall]

Yes, sorry, I meant wordpress.com. I have two free blogs hosted there.
> On Mar 7, 2015, at 5:20 PM, May  wrote:
> 
> I'm assuming you're talking about wordpress.com and not .org? I don't have 
> these problems.
> 
> Wordpress.org you can get lots of the things you are looking for except for 
> you would have to pay for your own domain name.
> 
> May and LD Luna Moon!
> www.canadianlynx.ca
> 
>> On Mar 7, 2015, at 5:02 PM, Alex Hall  wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> I'm posting this in a couple places, so you may see it twice.
>> 
>> I'm frustrated with Wordpress. Their mobile app is great, but their website 
>> is annoying with VO on the Mac. They claim to support Markdown, but don't 
>> return MD text when you go to edit, and suddenly my blog stopped 
>> interpreting MD for some reason. They also mess with the characters I use, 
>> replacing a double dash with an em dash and an apostrophe with a single 
>> quote. I'm in search of a new blogging platform, and here are the things I 
>> need, and don't need but would like, it to support.
>> 
>> * Markdown support, and this is a must. I need to be able to post with 
>> Markdown, and, when I edit, to be editing in Markdown. That is, I don't want 
>> to post initially with Markdown, then get HTML when I go to edit. I know 
>> HTML, but I hate working in it, especially on iOS.
>> * Free. I don't post often, so if there's a post or traffic limit for free 
>> accounts, that's probably fine.
>> * Apps: I need it to be compatible with Mars Edit, unless the web interface 
>> is truly amazing, and I'd love an iOS app. Wordpress has such an app, and 
>> while I don't post with it, I love it for getting notified of new comments 
>> and taking action on them from the app.
>> * I don't need, but would like, a good comments system. Readers should be 
>> able to post with just a name or email address, not need to make an account 
>> or solve a captcha. Anti-spam for comments is a must, since Wordpress tells 
>> me it's blocked over two thousand spam comments on my two blog accounts to 
>> date.
>> * Auto-posting new blog posts to my Twitter account would be great, but 
>> isn't required.
>> * A way for people to follow me by RSS is highly desired.
>> * The ability to include pictures is good. I haven't yet, but I'd like to. 
>> Ideally, there would be a way to know where the image would be, how big it 
>> will end up, and if text will wrap around it. Basically, an accessible way 
>> to know roughly how the embedded image will look. Not what the image 
>> contains, but how it impacts the layout of the rest of the post.
>> 
>> So, any ideas? I've heard that Tumblr would be a good choice, but that was 
>> from a sighted person. I've also been told of Dreamwidth, a site I'd never 
>> heard of but that one of my Twitter followers really enjoys. I'm not looking 
>> for community *on the blog site*, as my community comes from comments and 
>> Twitter more than any website. I do, though, need what I choose to meet the 
>> above requirements. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
>> 
>> --
>> Have a great day,
>> Alex Hall
>> mehg...@icloud.com
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>> "MacVisionaries" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
> "MacVisionaries" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


--
Have a great day,
Alex Hall
mehg...@icloud.com

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Re: Slightly OT: in search of a new blogging platform

[Tim Kilburn]

Alex,

Sorry, can only address the double-dash substitution.  I’m not sure that this 
is actually a Word Press issue in that the MacOS does that sort of substitution 
by default and I found it extremely frustrating in Terminal until I figured out 
what was going on.  You can turn off this substitution behaviour globally in 
System Preferences, Keyboard under the Text tab.  Uncheck the box for Smart 
Quotes and Dashes.  You can also leave that feature enabled and alternatively 
disable it for individual apps by going under the Edit menu, Substitutions and 
unchecking the Smart Dashes item.  The only thing here is, that I don’t think 
you can individually set that in Safari, so, the global setting may need to be 
applied.

HTH.

Later...

Tim Kilburn
Fort McMurray, AB Canada

On Mar 7, 2015, at 15:31, Alex Hall  wrote:

Yes, sorry, I meant wordpress.com . I have two free 
blogs hosted there.
> On Mar 7, 2015, at 5:20 PM, May  > wrote:
> 
> I'm assuming you're talking about wordpress.com  and 
> not .org? I don't have these problems.
> 
> Wordpress.org  you can get lots of the things you are 
> looking for except for you would have to pay for your own domain name.
> 
> May and LD Luna Moon!
> www.canadianlynx.ca 
> 
>> On Mar 7, 2015, at 5:02 PM, Alex Hall  wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> I'm posting this in a couple places, so you may see it twice.
>> 
>> I'm frustrated with Wordpress. Their mobile app is great, but their website 
>> is annoying with VO on the Mac. They claim to support Markdown, but don't 
>> return MD text when you go to edit, and suddenly my blog stopped 
>> interpreting MD for some reason. They also mess with the characters I use, 
>> replacing a double dash with an em dash and an apostrophe with a single 
>> quote. I'm in search of a new blogging platform, and here are the things I 
>> need, and don't need but would like, it to support.
>> 
>> * Markdown support, and this is a must. I need to be able to post with 
>> Markdown, and, when I edit, to be editing in Markdown. That is, I don't want 
>> to post initially with Markdown, then get HTML when I go to edit. I know 
>> HTML, but I hate working in it, especially on iOS.
>> * Free. I don't post often, so if there's a post or traffic limit for free 
>> accounts, that's probably fine.
>> * Apps: I need it to be compatible with Mars Edit, unless the web interface 
>> is truly amazing, and I'd love an iOS app. Wordpress has such an app, and 
>> while I don't post with it, I love it for getting notified of new comments 
>> and taking action on them from the app.
>> * I don't need, but would like, a good comments system. Readers should be 
>> able to post with just a name or email address, not need to make an account 
>> or solve a captcha. Anti-spam for comments is a must, since Wordpress tells 
>> me it's blocked over two thousand spam comments on my two blog accounts to 
>> date.
>> * Auto-posting new blog posts to my Twitter account would be great, but 
>> isn't required.
>> * A way for people to follow me by RSS is highly desired.
>> * The ability to include pictures is good. I haven't yet, but I'd like to. 
>> Ideally, there would be a way to know where the image would be, how big it 
>> will end up, and if text will wrap around it. Basically, an accessible way 
>> to know roughly how the embedded image will look. Not what the image 
>> contains, but how it impacts the layout of the rest of the post.
>> 
>> So, any ideas? I've heard that Tumblr would be a good choice, but that was 
>> from a sighted person. I've also been told of Dreamwidth, a site I'd never 
>> heard of but that one of my Twitter followers really enjoys. I'm not looking 
>> for community *on the blog site*, as my community comes from comments and 
>> Twitter more than any website. I do, though, need what I choose to meet the 
>> above requirements. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
>> 
>> --
>> Have a great day,
>> Alex Hall
>> mehg...@icloud.com
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>> "MacVisionaries" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
> "MacVisionaries" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.


-

Re: Slightly OT: in search of a new blogging platform

[Alex Hall]

Thanks, I've done that, years ago in fact. Like you, I was running into 
problems where punctuation matters (AppleScript and Xcode in my case). In fact, 
it struck me that the substitution I'd long since disabled on the Mac, and that 
I'm certain isn't happening in Mars Edit while I compose these posts, *is* 
happening once the blog goes live. Since it appears on the blog, but not in my 
draft, I have to conclude that it's the fault of Wordpress itself. Normally 
this would be a minor annoyance, but a post I've been trying to get to the site 
actually discusses hyphens and dashes, so I really need things to stay exactly 
as I write them. BTW, as a total side note, if anyone needs to write the em 
dash but has substitutions disabled, use option-hyphen.
> On Mar 7, 2015, at 7:11 PM, Tim Kilburn  wrote:
> 
> Alex,
> 
> Sorry, can only address the double-dash substitution.  I’m not sure that this 
> is actually a Word Press issue in that the MacOS does that sort of 
> substitution by default and I found it extremely frustrating in Terminal 
> until I figured out what was going on.  You can turn off this substitution 
> behaviour globally in System Preferences, Keyboard under the Text tab.  
> Uncheck the box for Smart Quotes and Dashes.  You can also leave that feature 
> enabled and alternatively disable it for individual apps by going under the 
> Edit menu, Substitutions and unchecking the Smart Dashes item.  The only 
> thing here is, that I don’t think you can individually set that in Safari, 
> so, the global setting may need to be applied.
> 
> HTH.
> 
> Later...
> 
> Tim Kilburn
> Fort McMurray, AB Canada
> 
> On Mar 7, 2015, at 15:31, Alex Hall  > wrote:
> 
> Yes, sorry, I meant wordpress.com . I have two free 
> blogs hosted there.
>> On Mar 7, 2015, at 5:20 PM, May > > wrote:
>> 
>> I'm assuming you're talking about wordpress.com  and 
>> not .org? I don't have these problems.
>> 
>> Wordpress.org  you can get lots of the things you are 
>> looking for except for you would have to pay for your own domain name.
>> 
>> May and LD Luna Moon!
>> www.canadianlynx.ca 
>> 
>>> On Mar 7, 2015, at 5:02 PM, Alex Hall >> > wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi all,
>>> I'm posting this in a couple places, so you may see it twice.
>>> 
>>> I'm frustrated with Wordpress. Their mobile app is great, but their website 
>>> is annoying with VO on the Mac. They claim to support Markdown, but don't 
>>> return MD text when you go to edit, and suddenly my blog stopped 
>>> interpreting MD for some reason. They also mess with the characters I use, 
>>> replacing a double dash with an em dash and an apostrophe with a single 
>>> quote. I'm in search of a new blogging platform, and here are the things I 
>>> need, and don't need but would like, it to support.
>>> 
>>> * Markdown support, and this is a must. I need to be able to post with 
>>> Markdown, and, when I edit, to be editing in Markdown. That is, I don't 
>>> want to post initially with Markdown, then get HTML when I go to edit. I 
>>> know HTML, but I hate working in it, especially on iOS.
>>> * Free. I don't post often, so if there's a post or traffic limit for free 
>>> accounts, that's probably fine.
>>> * Apps: I need it to be compatible with Mars Edit, unless the web interface 
>>> is truly amazing, and I'd love an iOS app. Wordpress has such an app, and 
>>> while I don't post with it, I love it for getting notified of new comments 
>>> and taking action on them from the app.
>>> * I don't need, but would like, a good comments system. Readers should be 
>>> able to post with just a name or email address, not need to make an account 
>>> or solve a captcha. Anti-spam for comments is a must, since Wordpress tells 
>>> me it's blocked over two thousand spam comments on my two blog accounts to 
>>> date.
>>> * Auto-posting new blog posts to my Twitter account would be great, but 
>>> isn't required.
>>> * A way for people to follow me by RSS is highly desired.
>>> * The ability to include pictures is good. I haven't yet, but I'd like to. 
>>> Ideally, there would be a way to know where the image would be, how big it 
>>> will end up, and if text will wrap around it. Basically, an accessible way 
>>> to know roughly how the embedded image will look. Not what the image 
>>> contains, but how it impacts the layout of the rest of the post.
>>> 
>>> So, any ideas? I've heard that Tumblr would be a good choice, but that was 
>>> from a sighted person. I've also been told of Dreamwidth, a site I'd never 
>>> heard of but that one of my Twitter followers really enjoys. I'm not 
>>> looking for community *on the blog site*, as my community comes from 
>>> comments and Twitter more than any website. I do, though, need what I 
>>> choose to meet the above requirements. Any suggestions are appreciated. 
>>> Tha