I used a neat tool to compare the features of b2/cafelog and Movable Type. As someone who currently uses b2, used to use Movable Type, and deals with MT on a daily basis, I don’t think I could say which was “better,” they’re just different. I think MT has a more robust archiving system with nicer URLs, but with b2 I can post to the blog with email, which has got to be one of the coolest features I’ve ever heard of. In terms of hackability, which I mean in the best way, I like how everything is updated live without having to rebuild anything, but of course that has a trade-off in speed. It really comes down to personal preference and experience. If Michel stopped developing b2 tomorrow, I would still use it because it just does everything I want it to do, plus I have a pretty good familiarity with the code, which helps a lot. Of course just knowing about something helps, for instance Kathy just switched to pMachine, which until she talked about it I hadn’t even heard of. I think what we need is a good google fight.
Since I wrote this I began developing my own software, WordPress, which runs this site and what I believe (having surveyed everything out there) to be the best blogging software available.
I love being able to ban IPs (for when all those meanies bother me) and I use Author Archiving. Ironically, there are several items in the b2 column that MT has in the works for the future. They did a survey for the download – and one of the things asked was if users wanted to be able to post via e-mail! (They are looking out for you!)
Luckily I don’t have any meanies here, but if that came a problem I’d probably ban them using Apache, which would take care of everything. But IPs are so flexible that for someone really determined I think it’s only a minor deterrent. But it zaps the lazy meanies quite well :).
In fact, you can make a cached index file if you want. See here for the very simple code: http://tidakada.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=680#2933
The trade-off of this super-basic way to cache b2 is that you couldn’t have real dynamic php on the index anymore.
That’s why I’m currently coding CaféLog with Smarty as a template solution, to get efficient caching 🙂
You’ve decided on the name Cafelog? Cool :). It’s going to use smarty? Even cooler :).
That’s awesome that you wrote WordPress. Great program.