The Glade 4.0

Looking for some advice from the web developer types...

I put "blog" in quotes for a reason. I have a domain (or two) registered at godaddy, and want to host some way to document my instrument building follies. The purpose would be two fold. For me to document each project with notes and such, and to share this with other luthier friends.

Right now I'm doing it the hard way by hosting images and linking them to other message boards and such.

The requirements would be;
1) The ability to post formatted text (by formatted I would like to be able to do bullets, lists, etc...)
2) the ability to post videos. Preferably directly, but re-linking from youtube is an option as long as they can be embedded
3) image hosting, but as an individual static image or an embedded gallery and slideshow. The gallery could be hosted separately (I already have a lot of images on Picasa for example) as long as I can embed it within the topic on the page
4) It must be fast and easy to update. Preferably drag and drop. I hope to update it nearly daily when I'm actively building. If it's a hassle, I won't bother.
5) Lastly I suppose, and this one is obvious, but it needs to have some ability to customize (color scheme, theme, whatever...)

I don't need anything fancy. I'm not planning on hosting crazy flash stuff.. just some static content. And I won't be attempting to make it a revenue generator. No ads, links, etc... and I won't be selling anything, so I don't need eCommerce either...

I have either Linux or Windows hosting available, and the list of 'products' available with the godaddy hosting is way to long to post here. There are probably 20 or more 'blog' type products available. I played around with a few of them a while back, but not knowing where to start made the search rather daunting.

I have no experience doing and I don't really even know where to start looking. I don't mind a minimal monetary investment if I can get the features I want. I don't want something that is going to require a lot of coding or has a steep learning curve (i'd rather spend my time building guitars than coding websites :p). I don't know if it will help, but I have a technet subscription and thus have access to nearly any Microsoft product.

Any help would be appreciated...
Thanks
Any suggestions?

NinjaEdit:
I think this list represents the available applications. Hopefully it doesn't require a login
https://hostingconnection.godaddy.com/H ... cat_id=999

Assuming you haven't already paid for hosting through Godaddy...

Get a cheap hosting plan with Hostgator, tie the domain to it (log in to Godaddy, point domain nameservers to whatever you're assigned after purchasing the hosting), use the Fantastico feature of the Hostgator control panel to install Wordpress software. I would NOT buy hosting through Godaddy, I've had nothing but trouble with it in the past. They're fine for domains, though.

Wordpress is what you want. It's fast, easy to use, has more support than any other content management system and I'd also be willing to set it up for you and help you get started.

If this is for personal use, I can hook you up with some space on the glade server. I have 33 gigabytes left. I can set up a vhost referring your domain to your own webspace. I don't know anything about Wordpress, though.

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I could handle the install np if you guys go that route, too. Would just need you to make me a MySQL database/user and I could go from there.

Hmm, I better check if there's enough bandwidth. 11GB out of 650. I think I can squeeze another service in...

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Thanks Lenas...

I was just looking through some of the gallery pages at wordpress.org.

I assume I will have to use 'plugins' for the galleries and video posting?

One of the complaints I've heard is that it's difficult to keep spammers out. Is there a way to prevent users from posting? I could live without comments and such if necessary.

I'll install the Wordpress applicaiton on the godaddy hosting for now, since it's already paid for. If I have trouble with it I can always move it.

Thanks for the offer for assistance! I may just take you up on it. =)

Mookhow,

It's for personal use, but space isn't really a problem for now... I'm just looking for a suggestions for content generation. Thanks though =)

You can stop 99% of spam with a plugin called Akismet. It comes with Wordpress by default (check the plugin section), but to activate the spam filtering you'll need to register for an API key. Don't worry, it's safe If that's not enough, yes, you can also completely disable commenting under the General -> Discussion settings if that's your preference.

Wordpress in its current state (Version 3.3) does not require any type of plugins for basic image or video functionality. You won't need to add anything unless you wan't some cool effects or customizing. That said, there's a ton of support and hence a ton of plugins for functionality outside of what's available by default.

I don't expect you to have any specific problems with GoDaddy hosting, I'm just being an elitist on that front. I've had some issues, but they're with higher-end stuff.

WP themes can be changed with a single click... Just find out which one you want

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the offer, but I think I want to play around with this at godaddy before I commit to anything long term. I already have hosting paid for and wordpress is a one-click install.

I still may want to try one or two of the other packages too. I already have two domains with hosting at godaddy, so I think I'll just deal with what they have for now.

Thanks though =)

I thought this was an interesting read on blogging platforms. http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/11/1 ... acker.html

Word Press is great. gallery is usually a function of some plugin or another. Word Press has a "paste from word" option in its build in editor, so you can design something in word and keep your formatting. With the proper theming, you can have pretty robust, more website looking "blog"

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Thanks for the tips all. I have a quick site running and have made a few posts.
http://hansenonline.org/luth

I still need to explore more themes and see if I can find some more adventurous plugins.

I have a lot of old content to add. I'll make some separate pages documenting some of my old projects in pictures.