For some time, I’ve been debating how much I really like vox and if I should start blogging elsewhere. I loved vox when I first started and I love my vox neighbors and the community on here, but the limitations are starting to annoy me. For example, the formatting is strange sometimes and it takes a lot of trial and error to get the spacing right. And I feel like I don’t have a lot of control over the design. But the biggest thing is that people who don’t have vox accounts can’t comment. I’ve heard from several people that they would like to be able to comment but don’t want to join vox.
I chose vox originally because I knew a lot of people who were using it and I loved it for a long time. But now I know a lot of people outside of it, too. I’ve even gone so far as to get a wordpress blog but I haven’t posted any content to it because I’m reluctant to leave all of you fellow-voxers.
Anyone have any thoughts?
my books. my life. 
Please stay. 🙂
(C'mon people–joining Vox is both free and simple. If you really wanted to comment, you wouldn't mind. 😉 )
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I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on why you like vox best since you said you've tried blogger and wordpress.
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I like the feeling of community (which I didn't really get in either of the other two places). And the neighborhood feature. I left Blogger before they did the blogroll thing. Does WordPress have a similar one? I didn't stay there long enough to really find out.
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Ok – home from the movies and can comment here now. :)I have been moving (by hand – it's taking forever) my entire Vox over to WordPress. I'm not very far yet. I hope to finish by the end of this year, and then move over there. I will probably still cross post over on Vox for a while, or at least post with the link to WordPress. Also – I have set up a Facebook Fan Page for my blog (currently links to Vox, will change once I move to WordPress). This way I can post links to all my posts and people can follow me on Facebook if they'd like to stay updated when I post. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Books-the-Universe-Everything/153284911617I literally just set the facebook page up this week, so not much is there yet. :)So anyway, here are my two biggest problems with Vox:1. The commenting. Vox users have been asking for years for Vox to open up commenting, and they have not. People do not like to register for a site to leave a comment. Comments are one of the most rewarding parts of blogging, and I hate that it's limited here by Vox. 2. I use Google Reader all the time. I read over 100 blogs on a regular basis. I tend to read blogs that make their ENTIRE posts viewable in Google Reader. I dislike that Vox only does previews in the RSS. I imagine that limits the number of people who would actually read my blog via Google Reader. I'll skim almost anything that comes in full via my feed reader, but it takes a lot to get me to click through to view a full post, when I can't really see much about what's there. So those are the two main things. The formatting doesn't really bother me too much. I do love the community, and I will continue to read my neighbors as long as they are there. However – I do feel like there are fewer and fewer of them here. And one last lingering reason for the switch – Vox doesn't seem as stable of a platform. I worry that they will shut down and I will lose 3+ years of posts. Sorry for going on so long – this is something I've been thinking about for a long time. I've been working on moving to WordPress for several months now. Here's the link if you're interested – it's a work in progress. Haven't stylized anything yet. :)http://booksuniverseeverything.wordpress.com/
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I should also say this: one thing I will miss about Vox is the ability to respond directly to people's comments, and have it email them. I realize that's a benefit of registering to leave comments. But all in all I think having more comments and being able to better host book giveaways will be better. Also, I'll be honest, I feel pressure to respond to everyone's comments here, and sometimes that stresses me out.
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Hi Michelle! Hope you don't leave Vox! Please, please, please, please stay 🙂 I have a selfish reason too for saying that, because I am planning to move to Vox 🙂 (Actually Emily has delivered a 'shocking' news with her comment that she is planning to move out…) It will be tough for me if I move to Vox, and my neighbours are leaving it one by one 🙂
On the difference between Vox and WordPress, I have the following comments (I had given these in one of Dominique's posts too). My experience in Vox is that of a reader and my experience in WordPress is that of a blogger, and so you should read my comments with that in mind. For example, I am not aware of one of the things that Emily has mentioned – that Vox does only previews in RSS. So, here goes :
(1) I think Vox's UI is better than WordPress. In terms of presenting information about bloggers and giving a feeling of community and also in getting a blog started. Also the way information is organized in Vox is better (user's profile, photos, music, blog etc.)
(2) WordPress has the feature where one can comment on a post without having an account in WordPress. That is one flexibility in WordPress, which is not there in Vox. However, on the positive side, I opened an account with Vox, because I wanted to comment on a blog post. Once I logged in, I discovered the awesome 'neighbour' feature 🙂 It opened a whole new literary community to me. So, there is a silver lining to this 🙂
(3) The neighbour feature in Vox is awesome! It is not there in WordPress (or any other blogging platform that I know of). I like the way we can add people to our neighbourhood, in Vox, based on our interests, and keep track of their posts. From what I know, people use tools like the RSS feed or the Google reader, to keep track of what is happening in WordPress and other blogs. Vox's neighbour feature is more cool and more elegant and awesome! (all the adjectives are tumbling out :))
(4) I also like the feature in Vox, where we can reply to a particular comment. This is not there in WordPress (or in other blogs that I know of). It is really cool!
(5) I am not sure about how the widget features differ in Vox and WordPress. I am also not sure how much of flexibilty one has in tinkering a template and making it do what one wants. I would guess that the flexibility would be similar in Vox and WordPress, but it is just a guess.
What do you think?
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So you are moving all of your posts over? I'm deciding whether I wanted to do that or not. Right now I just have a link back to here. I have the opposite of you – I have the style set up but no content yet. Here's my link http://mybooksmylife.wordpress.comNot sure what I think of everyone on facebook reading my posts. I kind of like that you have to care enough to find it. Although I apparently don't feel that way with twitter – weird.I don't use google reader for vox so I didn't even know you only got a preview. I hardly ever read the blogs that just give a preview. I do use google reader for all of my non-vox reading.
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Vishy – Mostly your comments sum up the thing that I love about vox – the sense of community. While I have met some interesting people on vox, most of my neighborhood is made up of people I already knew from the Rory's Book Club boards – we all went to vox. But now it seems like people aren't updating as much and I'm actually interesting in updating more. I feel like I could be exposed to even more people if I went elsewhere. If I do move over, I will still be reading all of my vox friends' blogs and commenting on them as usual.
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Another question – are you skipping any entries when you move them over? I feel like I would end up purging and editing. Especially the more personal entries.
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I hope you stay! But just so I have something to read from my neighborhood from time to time…I thought there was a way to post your other blogs on here.. but I think it only works for livejournal… which is kind of lame :p.
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One more thing (sorry). I also like that I can have the content that was on my google pages as a separate blog page. I don't like the switch to google sites and I like having it right there. I thought I would point that out since you use the google pages, too.
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Well you can always read my new blog. 🙂 I'll either cross post for awhile (manually – you can only link with certain platforms like livejournal) or at least provide links to the new posts.
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I'm moving everything over because I like the idea of having the full
history there. I'm really going to use the "Categories" a lot, as well
as the tags. I like that you'll be able to click on the categories in
the sidebar and see all my posts with that label.
I have been very tempted to skip posts when moving them over. 🙂 Some
of them are embarrassing! But I want the full history, and also moving
all of them makes it easier to keep track and make sure I didn't miss
one. (I compare the number of posts for each month, since on WordPress
I'm setting the timestamp to the exact time and day I posted it on
Vox.) I'm not sure if I'll get to something private that I marked as
neighborhood only and want to skip that. The only Neighborhood only
post I can remember from vox is the one when I announced I was leaving
my old job, but I don't care if that's public now.
I love the different tabs on WordPress too! I'm looking forward to
setting up several of of them – one of my Polysyllabic Spree, and other
for more book lists or challenges.
I love the community here, but I agree with you that I also feel like
it's limiting me so that I can't connect as well with non-vox bloggers.
There's such an amazing Book Blogging community out there, and I feel
comments and the RSS feed settings really limit how much I'm able to
connect. I'm like you – I hardly read any blogs that don't show the
full post in Reader.
For the Facebook Part – the lovely thing about having it on its own
Facebook Page (rather than posting links from my profile) is that none
of my facebook friends will know about the page, unless I tell them. (I
mean, they could search for it, but that's not likely.) Instead, I can
post the link to the Page here, and on Twitter, and people can become a
fan and follow for updates. I'm hoping that, plus Twitter, plus cross
posting on my Vox for a while, helps my Vox neighbors stay up to date
on my posts. And I will definitely keep reading my Vox neighbor page
and commenting.
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