Because the blogosphere isn't paranoid enough.
Reading through my Neighborhood, I find I'm much more likely to comment on posts than I am, say, using a feed reader. I don't know if it's because the experience is richer -- the comment link is immediately available, the layout is easier on the eyes -- or because (for Friended posts, anyway) I know that Google isn't going to cache some half-assed, off-hand comment from now until the heat-death of the universe.
I wonder if it's going to stay that way when Vox gets feeds I start using the feeds.
You know what I'd like to see? Vox developers telling war
stories. This project has obviously been a huge undertaking, and
to hear the people involved say what went right, what went wrong and
what they'd do differently would not only be entertaining, but hugely
educational. I'm about to start a huge Web project at work (and
it will include all the social/AJAXy hoo-ha that everybody's come to
expect) and I'd like to hear about which roads are dead ends and which
head straight off cliffs.
So I've been playing with Vox for a couple of days now and am very
impressed: there's an enormous, robust feature-set underneath a
comfortable (though sometimes still a little confusing)
interface. I like the social features a lot and the app-like
editing is a huge step forward. The idea that someone else now
has to worry about server uptime and spam prevention is also very
appealing.
But... I've already got a blog. It's got hundreds and hundreds
of posts on it. Do I abandon it and move to Vox? What
happens to my existing archives? Or do I give up on the features
I suddenly like and stay with the old system? Vox doesn't have
plug-ins, but do I really need that flexibility?
I could split my time between the two systems -- one for, say, kid
stories and the other for all the other crap -- but that kind of
distinction should really be handled by categories. Using two
systems works against the centralization that is often the only way to
keep up. If I were just starting out, there'd be no question, but
I'm dragging a decade of history behind me like an anchor.
Where do I go from here?
