Review of PythonBlogs.com
zeth | 03 June, 2008 03:41
Someone has started a bloghost called "PythonBlogs", despite the fact that the front page had at least 16 grammatical errors, I decided to carry on; after all, people in glass houses should not throw stones.
My first "blog" was started in 2000 and used blogger. My next blog then started using blogger then moved to Wordpress then to Pyblosxom and then to Django.
So I am all for free, no frills hosts. Being able to set up a site without having to worry about hosting or spending any money is great. You can give writing a go and if you do not like it then you have not lost anything.
However, I am not sure about the implementation here. The target audience (Python users) are going to be pretty exacting, while this blog platform seems a bit too no-frills, or at least the frills are in the wrong places.
Would it have been that much work to knock up an equivalent blog host in Django? This blog platform is powered by PHP, which could be fine but seems a bit odd for a blog host called "PythonBlogs".
It does not seem to have source code highlighting, which would seem pretty essential for a Python blog. this person's post would have really benefited from source code highlighting like my post here. Running a blob of text through Pygments is not rocket science.
It also would have been good to have the option of RestructuredText markup rather than only a Javascript edit panel that inserts HTML. The edit panel has 34 buttons, but is missing the one thing that a Javascript panel is good for, a spell checker.
While I dislike the admin site, the outputted site is clean and valid XHTML. When setting up the blog, it allows you to pick a theme, but then that is it. You cannot appear to edit the theme or upload your own. As they say where I come from, "it is a good thing you like potatoes".
More potatoes in that while the underlying blog patform appears to support internationalisation, the only loaded option was "English/American".
I use a the Epiphany/Webkit browser, which uses the same backend as Safari and Konqueror but on GNOME Linux, the Javascript buttons and editing panel did not work on this browser, even though other Javascript sites work (e.g. Google Mail).
It took me two or three long minutes to find the publish button. It turned out it was called "Blog This", a bad choice of name as in other blog platforms this phrase has another meaning (start a post about whatever webpage is in your browser).
So while it is early days for PythonBlogs.com, I personally would not have opened to the public in such a state.
Once someone has started blogging here on this software, I seriously doubt you will be able to migrate them to a new platform without at least screwing up their markup, if not requiring them to completely start again.
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Andrew West | 03/06/2008, 06:07
You're right, this is a young site.
While I applaud their ideal there implementation does leave a lot to be desired.
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admin | 03/06/2008, 21:11
Grammar: Thanks for pointing out grammar errors. I've fixed the front page!
Python syntax: Now Python source highlighting is available!
Spell check: Now browsers' spell check is allowed (was turned off before) and since most browsers do spell check JS spell check becomes redundant.
Modifying templates: so far is disabled due to security concerns.
Javascript editor: works in most browsers EE 5.5-7, FF 1.5-3 (windows, linux, MacOS), Safari 3 (windows, MacOS), Opera 9 (windows, MacOS, linux). It does not work only on browsers with non-compatible JS implementation.
Final comment:
This platform is known to work well for large multi user/multi blog websites and that determined the choice.
Re: Review of PythonBlogs.com
Zeth | 04/06/2008, 10:53
Well done to you Mr Admin. Firstly, thanks for fixing the text on the front page.
Secondly, Python source highlighting has increased the relevance of this site by 200%. I will give it a go.
Thirdly, browser spell check will be quite good enough cheers.
Well, as I said PHP is fine, just seems a little strange to have a site about Python in PHP; it is all open source so whatever floats your boat.
Re: Review of PythonBlogs.com
Jason | 22/12/2009, 00:30
Spelling and grammer are not my strong sutes. And since I sterted blogging a few months a go I have found my southern unceation of words henders my spelling. I am not quick to poke fun at folks because of there short commings. As long as an effort is made to create meaningful work.
Re: Review of PythonBlogs.com
torrent search engine | 22/12/2009, 00:36
We had a candidate for governor whose platform was, “I have good news for good teachers and bad news for bad teachers.” We invited him to speak to our high school. His refusal letter contained at least 13 grammatical errors in the three paragraphs.
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Grammar
zeth | 03/06/2008, 06:00
I pointed out in my the post, the PythonBlogs.com front page currently has a number of grammatical mistakes. The author may not be a native speaker, so I will outline the mistakes here, in the hope they may be corrected.
1. Misuse of exclamation mark (several times):
None of the sentences below warrant an exclamation mark:
"Welcome to PythonBlogs.com!"
"Welcome, zeth!"
"Digg, reddit, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon!"
2. List items still require punctuation marks of some kind. Whether you use the traditional semi-colons, or a more informal comma or full-stop is up to you.
3. The tag line is "The first in the history dedicated Python blogging platform".
Firstly, the article here is redundant. You can use generic 'history' to refer to all known human history, e.g. "the first in history", or you can use the article when you refer to a specific history, e.g. "the first in the history of the Python community.
Secondly, the sentence is further malformed by the misuse of "first". You can write "a first in history", but far better is "the first dedicated Python blogging platform in the history of the Python community".
Thirdly, this is not a grammatical issue but I am not convinced that the sentence is true, I vaguely remember others. Also the sentence would benefit from an explanation of why Python users might want a dedicated blogging platform.
4. The mission statement on the right-hand side is no better:
"PythonBlogs's mission is to provide Python blogger community with a high quality, centralized, free blogging environment"
Firstly, misuse of the genitive, the second 's' is redundant, choose between "PythonBlogs'" or "PythonBlog's".
Secondly, the article is missing, the text should read "[the] Python blogger community". The same applies to "Target your blog to [the] Python community".
Thirdly, when writing for an international audience, please use International English rather than American English, "centralized" is American, "centralised" is International English.
4. "Questions, suggestion or support requests?".
If you start in the plural, you have to stick with it, 'suggestion' should read 'suggestions', however, it would be better to write in full sentences: "If you have a question, suggestion or support request, please feel free to contact us".
5. "Use a powerfull, yet simple blogger interface"
Powerful has only one 'l'. If you put a comma after 'powerful', then you need another one after 'yet simple'.