Not that I need any myself, but I thought this list of free blog hosts could be interesting. Since I’m a user of WordPress, and since I consider it like a pretty good platform, here’s in excerpt a list of hosts that function with the WP system:

http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.blogsome.com/
http://weblogs.us/
http://www.wpblogs.com/
http://www.blogthing.com/
http://globbo.org/
http://www.theblog.cc/
http://learnerblogs.org/
http://uniblogs.org/
http://edublogs.org
http://hrblogs.org/
http://beblogger.com/
http://www.evilsupergenius.net/

Personnally, among all of these, I use WordPress.com, and for one blog only, so I can’t really tell more about the rest. As they’re free, though, nothing prevents anyone from trying them, then switching to another one if it doesn’t strike one’s fancy.

(Via BlackhatSEO and The Blog Herald.)

Y Tags: blog | blogging | free | host | wordpress

I can’t quite remember now on whose blog I had seen this mentioned; I know it can’t have been more than two or perhaps three weeks ago. Anyway, for whoever would need this information: there’s an option, in WordPress 2.0’s beta, that allows you to import posts from Blogger to WordPress. This can be quite useful if you want to move to WP, but cringe at the idea of copying/pasting all your old posts manually. Note that this is what I did, back in February, when I moved by Second Life blog to WordPress… It was terribly boring, I tell you. And I didn’t even have that many posts to start with.

I’ve tested the feature on two old little blogs I had set up a couple years ago for a SWG character that I never got to finish (since I’ve decided to not try the game in the end) and for another MMORPG-related project. The points I’ve been able to note down so far are:

Neil at Citizen of the Month suggests that Thanksgiving should also be First Commenter Day, which, all in all, I find a nice idea. Who would we be, we bloggers, without our readers and commenters, who so kindly let us know what they think of our constant babble and opinions?

Today, it is all about GIVING THANKS.

How can we thank our fellow BLOGGERS? We read each other, we help each other with our designs and templates, and we cry on each other’s shoulder when a “blog crush” goes sour. On Thanskgiving, we should THANK our fellow bloggers.

When I first started blogging, I was like a Pilgrim who just landed on Plymouth Rock. I was isolated and alone. For weeks, I wrote this blog without any direction or confidence in my ability. And then he appeared — like the Native American with his corn — my first commenter!

And my own thanks go to Larys, currently exiled on this small corner of a big isle that is Northern Ireland, and blogging about her experiences there on Many Shades Of Green. She actually has the honor of being the first commenter on both versions of this blog, since at the time, it was still one and only webpage.

(Via The Blog Herald)

Y Tags: blogging | comments | Thank+Your+First+Commenter+Day

A little dose of news regarding the WordPress platform:

1) WordPress.com goes live, at least for the time being. If there’s anyone in this world who hasn’t an account there yet, you can go and sign up without having to receive an invite first. From Matt Mullenweg’s blog:

We’ve decided to open up WordPress.com for signups without invites for a bit. The service has been scaling very well since we got the problems from the move worked out. With that done and WordPress 2.0 in its final stages, there is a lot more time to focus on some cool features and common requests for WP.com now. (The design there has been updated, but is still just a placeholder.)

2) WordPress 2.0 is in its beta stage now. I haven’t tested it myself yet, although I may do that tonight if I happen to take a break from writing after the “good job” I performed yesterday. From what I’ve seen of it so far at Looce Tech News, the administration panel is the same as the WordPress.com’s one, which isn’t as pleasant as the Tiger panel, but is way better than the old WP interface. If you want to test it as well, head to this page to grab the downloadable archive. Beware, this is still a beta, so as usual with any upgrade, back up your database first!

Y Tags: blogging | wordpress

Woe is me, I forgot to post this earlier on on this blog (though I have an excuse, my characters and story do invade my mind every waking hour, these days).

Round 3 of the 9rules Network submissions has started today November 14th, at 12:00 am EST; submissions are open during the following 24 hours (which actualyl means less, given that I’m a bit late in writing this entry). This is for English blogs. If you’re interested in applying, here is what they look for in a site. Pretty much self-explanatroy, I think.

9rules is a good blog network, in my opinion, and different from just any other blog directoy, given that there’s a screening process. In the past few months, I’ve been following several of their member blogs, and so far, they have proved to be interesting as well as nicely designed (of course, I can’t speak for all of them, only the ones I know). Even if not applying, they’re always worth being checked.

Y Tags: 9rules | blog | blogging | network