Ideal Blogging App?

Earlier tonight in IRC #BlogShares, I was talking to David Raynes, who wrote the MT BlogShares plugin (and several other MT plugins), and he asked me what features I consider important in an idealized blogging application. I gave him a short list of features, but I’ve been thinking about the question and decided to expand on it here with a list of things that would be included in my “idealized” version of blogging software.

1. Comments
Blogging without comments (ala blogger.com) is akin to blogging alone; you get no feedback, even if you provide your email address online (which people should never do anyway (because of spam) unless they are frequently changing their email address). I blogged like that for almost three years. Most people would have a hard time sticking to it that long without having some form of feedback. Blogging isn’t necessarily about trying to be some sort of online superstar or anything, but it’s nice when people can leave a remark about something you wrote, or expand on something you wondered about, or ask a question about something related to what you wrote. I like the sense of being able to poke my head in on someone else’s blog to add a sentence or two to what they were saying. I also like to let them know that they aren’t alone.

2. TrackBack
TrackBack hasn’t yet become widespread among web loggers, but I think the potential is definitely there. It allows us to have a continuing conversation across blogs and across the web. It brings bloggers closer together and engenders a sense of “community” that many times seems missing unless your blog is at a central host (like TypePad or even LiveJournal), or is one of the frequently read and quoted blogs. TrackBack helps to transform our separateness into togetherness.

3. Post-Date & Pre-Date
I like being able to change the date on my posts, either forward or backwards. There are several reasons for doing so, not the least of which is being able to write things in advance and then publish them later, or go back and add things to a post and republish in the “now.” It’s not a feature I frequently use, but it does come in handy if you need it.

4. Organized Archives
I like being able to have my archives organized by date and by category. For one thing, with a little forethought, you can create an online book by doing this. I have done so with a book of poetry I wrote, and I used MT to post it. I did it by naming the categories first with a number, and then a title. In essence, this divides my “book” into chapters with chapter titles. It worked out very nicely.

5. Integrated Admin Controls
I don’t want to use my FTP application to go and get the css files or templates from the server, alter those, then re-upload them with my FTP app, check the results on my screen, lather rinse repeat… just to get my blog looking the way I want it to. One of the things I love about MT is that the css file and all of the templates are right there in the admin console to be altered and tweaked to my heart’s desire. I don’t need to use any third-party applications in this process. If there is a need for a third-party application *after* the initial installation (with the exception of graphics creation), then there is something wrong with the blogging application.

6. Integrated File Upload
This is another thing I love about MT. I can upload images, sounds, texts, whatever I need to upload right within the admin console. I don’t need to get out my FTP program to do this. I don’t even have to create a file folder before uploading, because MT will create it for me if it doesn’t already exist. The one feature MT is lacking here is a listing of, say, the last twenty files I uploaded and the ability to just pick one of them to be used again. Nucleus has this, and it was a feature I really liked.

7. Admin Console Notepad
I haven’t seen this feature in -any- blogging app I’ve tried so far, (and I’ve tried quite a few), but I think it would be a worthwhile addition. There are times when I alter something in my templates or css and I’d like a central place to leave notes for myself about what I did and when and why. Sure, I could just blog about it, but this isn’t normally something that’s blogworthy to anyone but myself. If I had a notepad in the admin console, I could jot down these things and then have a handy place to go look to see what I did three months ago that solved a particular problem I’d run across… and maybe, just maybe, I could help someone else solve the same problem -if- I had the notes in a convenient place to retrieve them from. I could leave reminders for myself there, too. I could also store older versions of my css files in there, everything in one central place. It wouldn’t need to be anything fancy, something as simple as notepad would work, with files being stored in a folder and links to those files in the console. Voila! They’d be retrievable. And again, no third-party app would be necessary.

8. Integrated Amazon Associate Tags
Ideally, a blogging app should be able to detect when I’ve mentioned a product that Amazon sells, and could place a link tag (with my Associate ID already in it) around the text mentioning that item. Failing that, a simple Amazon tag that I insert around the item’s text should be able to create such a link… without requiring me to install any special plugins or anything else. I already have an Amazon ID and a developer’s key, which could be used to retrieve the proper links, but I’m no programmer. If I could enter that key into the blog’s config file through the Admin console, it should unlock the search and retrieve functions open to me as a holder of the key. In some ways, I look at this similar to Google’s API key, and MT currently allows me to enter that key into the config part of the Admin console… so why can’t we do the same thing with Amazon, only build it right into the app, and make it an optional switch (on/off) for those that aren’t associates?

9. Backups
Let me backup the whole blog from within the Admin console (in addition to doing anything I might to with myphpadmin on my server), and let me restore it in the same way. Most blogging apps do this; some are better at it than others.

10. Skinnable
All blogs should be capable of having multiple “skins” that can be chosen by the reader, along with a default “skin” without having to hack in any special javascripts or php scripts in order to do so. All of the css files necessary for the skins should also be editable from within the admin console. The “switcher” should be a module that can be edited and controlled from the admin console.

11. RSS feeds
Standard equipment. It might be nice to have a sidebar aggregator for a few feeds from my friends’ blogs, too. Doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. Many open source CMS apps already have this.

12. PHP format
I’ve switched a few of my MT installations to output PHP files instead of HTML. It opens up the blog to PHP scripting, which can be quite nice for adding custom scripts or using PHP includes. I’m not a PHP programmer, but even a novice tweaker like me can successfully add things using PHP. It’s a nice feature to have.

13. Centralized Support
If you’re going to make an app, you have to support it. Eventually, you will end up with a core group of dedicated users who will help you provide support to other users, but at first, you have to be there for support. Leaving message boards unanswered for weeks is not going to cut it. Likewise, letting others set the tone in your support forums is also not a good idea. As a user of your software, if I have a finicky problem with your software, I want to let you know about it, and I hope for a reply in a timely manner. If not, I go elsewhere. I don’t want to look for plugins and add-ons for your software at other websites. I don’t want to look for fixes elsewhere either. I want to go to and remember one URL for your product where I will find everything I need. I don’t want to spend my time wandering through a maze of other websites looking for the answer to whatever my problem or need is.

14. To Do List
Something a lot of blog writers seem to add to their blogs, so why isn’t it already built in, and easily updated?

15. Built-In Links System
A lot of people use blogrolling.com, and that’s fine for them… I just don’t like depending on another server being online and performing the task for me. Why can’t my links “roll” be stored in a flatfile db on my own computer and updated with the push of a button to my blog’s sidebar, and why isn’t there a bookmarklet in blogging apps to add links to that list and do that? I got my stumbleupon links pulled into my blog, it should be possible to do a links “roll” the same way, right? If there is an rss component to that, it could also show in the title text when each blog was last updated. If you build it in and make a decent interface for it, people will use it.

16. Events Calendar
I have an archives calendar, but no means of displaying special events on specific days, and no way to add them to my blog’s calendar. It would be nice if the calendar itself could post as entries on my blog the description part of the event on the day it’s taking place. If the event is recurring annually (like a birthday or anniversary), the calendar should allow you to specify this, too. Some CMS apps have full-featured calendars in them, others require a new module or plugin to implement this. If something like this can be implemented with a module or plugin, why can’t it be built into blogging software? As it is, the calendars I’ve seen built into blogs are pretty much useless since we already have other means of displaying archives.

That’s it for now, if I think of anything else, I’ll append this entry.