Why doesn’t all blog software have an export feature?
From Web Tools Collection:
I am incredibly impressed with the latest Gamma of Wordpress 1.5 in spite of being very biased. I started a new blog today with it and it was a very satisfying experience, much like I had felt the first time I started a blog on b2 (Thanks Michel). I was so impressed, that I would like to share some of my pleasures with my readers.
The poster continues talking about the new features he likes in WordPress. This is the perfect segway to something that irks me.
Blog software that doesn’t have an export feature.
I don’t understand the logic in not giving the user a way to export the data. No, I did not say database dump the data, I said export the data. There are many reasons as to why a user might want to export. In WordPress it can be done, and it’s not difficult to do but the user has to go hunting for a feature that should be there. It’s particularly wrong to not have an export feature if the blogging software has to be purchased. WordPress is free, Expression Engine is not…and there is no export function. You can make a template but if you have a lot of images and links in your posts you’re basically out of luck. I love Expression Engine but I can’t in good faith recommend it without stating the disclaimer: If you put something in you can’t easily get it back out. When I state the disclaimer I have yet for someone to say “Oh, that doesn’t matter.” It always matters.
Imagine if your RSS reader didn’t have an export function….no matter how great it handled your feeds, would you use it?
Personal blogs are documenting history. Corporate blogs are creating contacts, interacting with clients, drawing users to their products and services. The reason why a blog is started doesn’t matter but as more blogs are started the ability to export will be more important.
Found via Blog Herald
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I looked at WordPress, pMachine, MovableType and that is the one reason why I’m leaning towards MovableType because of the export feature. I didn’t realize it was possible to export in WordPress. I suppose I have to research some more. If it can be done easily with WordPress I will do that, but I am not a programmer and I shouldn’t have to be.
I don’t think these programmers realize how attached we become with the content generated over the years. When I asked about it I was told to copy the database to .sql format but what am I supposed to do with it after that? What’s the big deal of having a text file of all my comments, without all the database stuff in it?
Posted on February 7th, 2005 at 8:02 am