Essential Blogging

Alexander Moskalyuk reviews below the new O'Reilly title Essential Blogging, which he points out is available not only for purchase through conventional purchase, but also with O'Reilly's Safari Online subscription, where it's available for a mere 1 point. Read on for his take on how useful Essential Blogging really is.

Essential Blogging
author	Benjamin Trott, Mena G. Trott, Shelley Powers, J. Scott Johnson, Rael Dornfest, Cory Doctorow
pages	264
publisher	O'Reilly
rating	3/10
reviewer	Alexander Moskalyuk
ISBN	0596003889
summary	Introduction to running Weblogs on the Internet

Blog, Blog, Blog.

Recent media infatuation with the blogging effect seems to be overwhelming. It seems that newspaper journalists have just discovered the ability to post and comment messages on the Internet, while most of the computer aficionados and heavy Internet users just shrug their shoulders when told about personal Web journals that link to other articles on the Web.

Blogging Essentials is mostly a generic guide to setting up and running your own Weblog using the software available out there. It doesn't require as much technical knowledge and Unix experience as Running Weblogs with Slash, and doesn't have a nice preface by CmdrTaco, but for a person who is determined to keep a daily journal available on the Internet, it would provide helpful reading material.

What's reviewed

Blogger, Radio Userland and MovableType are the primary products discussed in the book. Each of these packages has two chapters dedicated to it, one for beginners' introduction and one for description of advanced features. The main difference between these three products is in their hosting capabilities - Blogger wants you to keep the journal entries on its Web site and provides Web interface, Radio UserLand keeps the posts on its own server as well, while providing desktop interface, while MovableType assumes the user has a Web server on which to install the blogging software. Both Blogger and Radio UserLand allow for self-hosting, which is also covered in introductory chapters.

Another chapter is dedicated to server-based Blosxom, and in the review of desktop clients such blog utilities as BlogScript, BlogApp, BlogBuddy, W.Bloggar and Slug are covered.

What's good and what's bad

While the depth of covered material is surprisingly large for such a narrow topic, a lot of book pages are spent on displaying screenshots of the blogging software, and showing other people's blogs. The only thought that never left my mind while reading this book was "Who would buy it?" Why would you need 264 pages to explain you how to set up your own journal and run it? People who find satisfaction in running their own customized versions of online journals already know most of the material, and those who don't would probably opt in for easier Web-based interface like LiveJournal.

The book seems to be just a quick walk-through of the manuals, and if you consider that all of the reviewed products have pretty good help and FAQ sections, the need for such book decreases even more. I can hardly name anyone to whom I would recommend this book.

Table of contents can be viewed on publisher's Web site.

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You can purchase Essential Blogging from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Oxymoronic title?

[Ratface]

Isn't "Essential Blogging" an oxymoron? ;-)

Ebay - 2004 ad

[NiftyNews]

From Ebay item description, circa 2004:

"Hey, remember blogging? You know, before it was so overblown by the media that you stabbed your eardrums with an icepick just to keep all of the buzzwords out of your brain? Now you can own a worthless remind of those turbulent times...this book!

86 cents, seller pays shipping."

Upcoming O'Reilly Titles

[bpfinn]

• Essential Trolling
• Essential Flaming
• Essentials of (First) Posting
• HOWTO Look Busy

Methinks...

[Schnapple]

...that this book will wind up in that bin at every bookstore right next to AOL For Dummies, How to run OS/2, and Netscape 4.0 Complete.

Tell me this - does it have chapters on how to propagate your page with pictures of your cat? Or how to flash your tits so that they point to your wishlist?

New book from O'Reilly

[randomErr]

Essential Computing Stuff

Chapter 1: Turn the damn thing on
Chapter 2: Read what is on screen. It will ussually tell you what to do
Chapter 3: It your computer, turn it off if you don't like what it does
Chapter 4: Trouble Shooting: Shoot anything that moves

Look, if your blogging you euther know what your doing or your going to contract with someone who does.

This seems more like a FAQ on SlashCode [slashcode.com] or a give away item at shows then an actual book.

Re:we have concensus

[L. VeGas]

but you're just a prominent moron

You're only half right. I'm not prominent.

On the horizon....

[Geeyzus]

Other Slashdot book reviews on the horizon:

• Windows for Dummies
• Yahoo Messenger Unleashed
• Hop On Pop

Mark

Re:Methinks...

[great throwdini]

Or how to flash your tits so that they point to your wishlist?

In a word: classic.

You, sir, are a poet.

Remember when your older sister...

[clickety6]

...kept a diary and how you had to sneak into her bedroom and search through the drawers to find it. And remember how she freaked out when she caught you and your mates reading about what she'd like to do behind the bike sheds with Bobby Jones.

Nowadays she'd be publishing it all over the web and anybody can read it.

Sure takes the fun out of life!