I discovered something rather cool this weekend. While browsing through a copy of the June 2006 Linux Format in Barnes & Noble, I found a reference to LnBlog! In fact, LnBlog was featured on the first page of their "Hot Picks" section. I had no idea it was going to be listed, so this was a pleasant surprise for me.
Their write-up provided a pretty good summary and was generally positive. It was a little out of date, in that it covered LnBlog 0.6.4, but that's unavoidable, as they always write these things way ahead of time. The only real criticism the author had was that there is a lack of end-user documentation. I'm working on fixing that, but it's slow going. Now, if there were 36 hours in a day, then it might be another story.
As a point of interest, I was so pleased by this that I actually shelled out the $16 or whatever it was to buy a copy of the magazine. When I showed the column on LnBlog to my wife Sarah, it took several minutes to convince her that I actually wrote the software. (She's obviously not very interested in software.) The thing that convinced her was that the screenshot with the column used the skepticats theme, which includes a picture of our cat Loki in the banner. When she asked, "How did they get a picture of Loki?" and I explained that I put it in that theme because I wrote the program, it finally started to sink in. After that, she thought it was really cool.
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I just saw the issue of "Linux Format" that reviewed LnBlog, and that is what led me to your web site. I had not heard of the package previously. Congratulations on hitting the international press.
Please extend my congratulations to your wife for having the wisdom to marry someone who can write code like LnBlog.
Nice feat! High time this package got noticed more widely :)
Thank you both for the support! Since about version 0.6, I've been feeling like LnBlog was good enough that it should have more users than it actually does. I'm hoping this will help get the word out a little more.
And Jonathan, my wife's official position is that *I* should be congratulated for marrying *her*. I find it hard (and unwise ;) to argue with that.
Just curious: Did downloads increase considerably? I'm planning on propagating and lobbying LnBlog later this year for some projects, but did the Linux Format article help?
M.
I wish I could say I saw a huge traffic spike, but sadly that's not the case. I am seeing between 50% and 100% more downloads with the 0.7.x series than with the 0.6.x series, but two times crap is still crap. If you figure 10% of those download represent people using it on a regular basis, I can count the users on my fingers. Sigh....
Well, I think I'll add a dozen or so people to your user base by the end of October if I'm worth the money I get for what I do for a living ;) I'll have a long break (compensating overtime - it's about time I went...) over the summer, but after that, I'll lead a project where people need to be able to publish their work online right away - and I'll use LnBlog for that (I'll try various blogs on a single installation first; if all goes well, they'll want their own installation, I'm convinced - and it'll work out if I can provide for that... which is what I'm paid for). The only "issue" might be that they opt for another product - but I don't think so, having tried a couple... Those people don't like dealing with technical aspects, and administering LnBlog is really easy in comparison to others...
However, I'll have to dig into user management for small workgroups in order to do that - you're bound to hear from me about that (if only to tell you I'm satisfied).
M.
Thanks, I really appreciate all your support. I do this primarily for my own edification (otherwise I would have quit long ago), but it really does make a difference when other people recognize what I've done and like it. Thank you!
Let me know if you have any ideas on user management. My plans for version 0.8.0 are to expand support for groups and make them actually useful. I'm thinking of doing this using ACLs (Access Control Lists) on blogs, entries, and articles. I was also thinking of trying to incorporate the concept of user levels into this, but I'm not sure how that will work out. I'm also planning to try to clean up the themes and put together a very simple theme editor for colors, fonts, and small things like that. Obviously it will be a while before that release comes out.
I think another good thing to prioritize would be a migration tool. Probably a Wordpress to LnBlog data converter to start. I'm wondering if I could get some more users if it were easier to go back and forth between LnBlog and other blogging tools. After all, many people have a significant amount of work invested in their blogs and don't really want to start over. If that problem went away, maybe they'd be more willing to switch.
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