| Who am I to determine that Serendipity is absolutely | | | | unique look to your site. |
| best blog software on the planet? Well, I'll admit I've | | | | Adding content is where Serendipity shines. I found |
| only been using blog software for 6 months. I've only | | | | the interface easy and intuitive, especially for media |
| tried Serendipity, Word Press and Nucleus. However, | | | | management. Imagine that you are adding an item |
| I have created over 20 full web sites using software | | | | and you want to add an image. Just click on media, |
| from all areas. I've used Mambo, Joomla, Nucleus, | | | | put in the URL of the item you want to add and |
| Word Press, Serendipity, Java Servlets and JSPs', | | | | serendipity goes out and pulls it down and puts it in |
| plain HTML pages and Serendipity is my favorite. | | | | it's own directory. Then you can choose how you |
| I have worked as a professional programmer for 15 | | | | want it to appear in the text (left, right, on it's own) |
| years and with Java (as a software engineer) for the | | | | and whether or not you want the full image or |
| last 10 years. I've spent most of that time dealing | | | | thumbnail. Excellent! |
| intimately with various web technologies. Certainly I | | | | Defining and using categories is equally easy and you |
| am no blog expert, but I have a bit of experience | | | | can nest categories if you'd like. Each category can |
| with software. Serendipity is good software. | | | | have a description and image. The description displays |
| Serendipity is a blog engine. A blog is simply a series | | | | when the user put's their cursor over the category, I |
| of postings to a web site, sometimes organized and | | | | am not sure when/if the image gets displayed. |
| sometimes random. They are meant to quickly collect | | | | Serendipity has options to use search engine friendly |
| ones thoughts, but more recently entire web sites | | | | URLs, but for some reason I wasn't able to get |
| are being created out of sophisticated blog engines. I | | | | these working properly on GoDaddy. I'm sure there is |
| believe the blog engine and full fledged CMS solutions | | | | an easy fix, I could ask at the Serendipity forum, but |
| are converging. If what you need is a simple menuing | | | | haven't yet. Adding a trailing slash to the rewritten |
| system and a way to get content up on the net, | | | | addresses seems to bring up the page, but my |
| then perhaps a blog engine, specifically Serendipity, is | | | | ".htaccess" knowledge is not good enough to fix it |
| what you want. | | | | myself. The URL rewriting works just fine on |
| Installation of Serendipity was a breeze, both on | | | | HostGator. Remember, using the non friendly URLs |
| GoDaddy and HostGator. The default install went | | | | doesn't mean you won't get indexed, just that it |
| well, with the exception of course that GoDaddy | | | | may take a little longer. Also, the SEO friendly URLs |
| does not put your MySQL database on "localhost", | | | | tend to boost your ranking a little because they have |
| but on another server. Once you know the name of | | | | the subject matter right in the URL. |
| that server it's all good. | | | | What about integrating Ads in Serendipity? |
| Once installed, changing styles is also easy. | | | | Serendipity has a solution for that too. There is a |
| Serendipity comes with a number of built in themes | | | | plug in (comes with Serendipity) called HTML Nugget. |
| templates which are a snap to install. Basically you | | | | It allows you to add arbitrary HTML to one of the |
| just go to Manage Styles in the administration menu | | | | sidebar columns, perfect for those tower Google Ads |
| and choose your new theme. It couldn't be easier. | | | | or links to affiliate programs. It takes me all of 5 |
| Modifying templates is also quite simple. Most users | | | | minutes to set up the ads on one of my sites. |
| simply want to change colors or graphics and this can | | | | Nucleus took me quite a bit longer, I had to manually |
| all be done withing the style.css file for your template. | | | | edit some of their files. Not very friendly. |
| I chose to make a copy of the "competition" | | | | All in all, I like Serendipity, it is right up there with |
| template and modify my copy. All I had to change | | | | Joomla as my favorite piece of open source |
| was the info.txt file and style.css, add my images to | | | | software. The development team has done a |
| the img directory and I was good to go. Of course, it | | | | fantastic job and I look forward to more great |
| is not necessary to do this, just if you want a more | | | | releases from them. |