I first published my own private web page with updates in the summer of 1994 — before Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, OmniWeb, iCab, Internet Explorer, or even Netscape Navigator. (Anyone remember NCSA Mosaic‽) For most of that time, I’ve coded my own HTML, cropped my own JPGs, made my own thumbnails, checked my own code. I started using CSS when only about 4% of all browsers supported it (I admit, it’s arcane and inconsistently implemented — but it’s sure better than the earlier alternatives!).
More recently, I’ve tried to save time and effort by letting others do the grunt work. Beginning a few years ago, my “blog” has been hosted on my own WordPress installation; then on Posterous. Both have been good, but neither has been flexible enough for everything I want to do.
As of today, though, I’m “live” with open-source Drupal. Specifically, I’m using Drupal Gardens, which I’m hoping will be the best combination of open source and letting others do the heavy lifting.
I’ve brought most of my personal and family entries over to this site; I’ll also be splitting out professional entries into another site (with a little cross-posting).
And — what I’m probably most excited about — I’m planning a third site called “Ancestral Journals,” wherein I will construct historic weblog entries based on my forebears’ letters, photos, &c. I’ve laid most of the groundwork, and hope to publish an entry each time I run across an interesting genealogical tidbit.
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