The Richter Scale^®

I’ve been struggling for months with trying to get a blog set up on my own server, using Movable Type. The stuggle was not that the software was difficult to use, but that configuring it was not exactly fun, the user interface was archaic, and I really want to be able to compose blog entries in e-mail and send those in. While I know Movable Type can do all that, it was uphill all the way for me.

Enter ExpressionEngine…

I asked a fellow patent practioner about his use of Movable Type for his blog when he mentioned that he was getting his new site designed and set up using ExpressionEngine from pMachine.

I went and checked out the software, downloaded a trial, installed it on one of my servers, installed the required Zend Optimizer as well, and was ready to go. Six hours later I committed and plunked down my $199.95 for a commerical license.

ExpressionEngine “out of the box” may work for some people, but I wanted a number of non-default settings, including implementing the software on multiple sites - this one, and as a complete face lift for my aging and ugly Richter Scale Article web site - the new version, still a work in process, looks a lot like my blog site, but with many subtle differences.

ExpressionEngine is meant to be highly configurable, and even for a software jockey like myself, it was a challenge, but as I overcame one issue after another (learning lots of useful information along the way) I finally ended up with sites that I am really happy with. And I see enormous potential for this software. It provides excellent blogging support as well as good general site publishing capabilities.

Now I just have to keep writing entries for this blog and finishes porting my articles to the new interface over on the Article site…

ExpressionEngine gets a 7.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale