xian ([info]bodega) wrote,
@ 2002-07-26 09:21:00
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LJ versus Radio Userland in 50 Words
LJ and Radio both provide community features (comments, views of system users). LiveJournal hosts content remotely. With Radio, your database resides locally, but posts are hosted remotely. Radio offers categories (unlike LiveJournal). Both enable RSS feeds. Radio comes with an RSS aggregator and a mirroring tool using the Blogger API.

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[info]shacker
2002-07-26 11:37 am UTC (link)
Damn, it's starting to sound like RU is worth the money! I'm going to have to take it for a test drive one day soon. I would imagine the automatic number assignment is only for use on Salon - you wouldn't have that when using it on your own host. I really like that RU has its own aggregator.

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On the other hand...
[info]bodega
2002-07-26 01:42 pm UTC (link)
I'm not sure you can host your RU blog on your own server, or if it is possible, you would then no longer show up as part of a community. For example, by using the Salon system, I have a built-in potential audience of Salon readers and Salon bloggers. Now judicious use of RSS feeds and encouraging people to subscribe to you would weave you in even if you were hosted at a community of one, but I have to tell you that checking for recent updates and viewing the rank of my blog among Salon blogs is part of the fun. Scott Rosenberg's hostly blog linked to mine in a round up today and I'm currently number 6 for the day (with one of the lower numbers being Scott's own cornerstone blog and another one that mentions pornography). It's heady stuff.

I still haven't given up on Movabletype, which has a new TrackBack feature to facilitate two-way links between blogs, regardless of how their processed and hosted. With the Blogger API mirroring (and the ability to update an RU blog using any Blogger API client), I do see a little convergence coming along. I'd love to use a single back end and categories to feed content to various front ends. Whether I end up doing this with RU or MT is an open question. I love LiveJournal, but it is starting to feel a bit like an island. Oh, well. Lots to think about. Thanks for posing the original question. I have to follow up with some other head-to-head comparisons over the next few days.

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Re: On the other hand...
[info]shacker
2002-07-26 02:24 pm UTC (link)
I think the majority of userland blogs are non-community, hosted on individual sites. But the community and server-connected aspects add tons to the experience, as LJ teaches us.

Another problem with LJ is that it's viewed sometimes as a place for high schoolers. A huge cross-section here is very young, and that affects its credibility vis a vis other blogging systems.

Great discussion. Thanks for digging in on it.

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