Need Advice: What Software or Service for My Blog? What Should I use?

So hey, as you might've seen from my shameless text ad, I've recently started a blog, BareNaked Pundits.  Mostly, it's just for fun, but I would like to have the ability to expand it, include other authors, functionality, etc.

And that's where I need advice -- what would people recommend using?   Right now, I'm using Blogger. I like it because it's fairly easy to use, and low hassle.  But there's a few other things I'd like to have that it doesn't provide:

1. Treed comment structure, as opposed to a long list (a la DK).  

2. Ability to have user diaries (again, a la DK)

3. More choice with templates (or at least easy ability to change the look and feel.

4. Most important, easy to maintain, from a tech standpoint.  I'd really like to avoid something that requires me getting into the code on a regular basis.  I'm not code-a-phobic, but I don't want to spend my time there.

FYI, cost is not a big constraint, within reason.  I'd rather pay $20, $30, $50 a month or more for something that is functional and slick than get a half assed one for free.

I've started poking around Soapblox, which the folks at OpenLeft seem to use, and that looks kinda cool.

Basically, in a nuthshell, I'm looking for at least some of the functionality of our beloved DK, to enable better discussion, but certainly not of that scale, of course.

I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of folks here who've gone through a similar search, so any advice would be much appreciated.

•  Tips

  On behalf of anyone who helps, and anyone else who might be wondering the same thing.

  by Hlinko on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:13:35 AM PDT

  •  Also, good sources for this are welcome

    If anyone can suggest a good site that addresses relative benefits and drawbacks of options, that'd be cool.

    by Hlinko on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:14:56 AM PDT

•  hey, i think soapblox is great :)

  but I'm a little biased.

  by pacified on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:19:39 AM PDT

  •  Hah! Got the source :)

    I will say, it does look pretty cool.  My only concern is how much I'll need to dig into the code to keep it updated.

    In an ideal world, I'd love to have an ASP model of this, where the updates happen, and I don't have to deal.

    Kinda like Blogger.  

    Or am I misinterpreting how it's used?  

    by Hlinko on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:39:20 AM PDT

    •  For Your Needs...

      ...Soapblox is probably best. It has a learning place where you can experiment and test:

      http://www.soapblox.net/...

      It's a good, versatile, and evolving. (Plus, the author [hey pacified] is very cool.)

      Scoop is overkill (although my fave). You need to work it. It has many advanced dimensions -- many of which are not implimented at DK.

      by Pluto on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:52:42 AM PDT

      •  Thanks, Pluto

        The more I look at Soapblox, the more impressed I am.   And I know the OpenLeft guys, and imagine they must've really thought through this all.

        I might play around with it a bit...

        by Hlinko on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:56:49 AM PDT

•  Sorry, can't help you.

  I'm on blogger too, but it sort of suits my small needs.  Nice little blog you've got, though.  Bookmarked for future reference.  

  by poe on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:27:06 AM PDT

  •  Hey, thanks for the kinda words

    I need all the bookmarks I can get.

    And yeah, I like Blogger as well.   I have been surprised, however, that they don't have more templates and functionality, given that it's Google.  

    by Hlinko on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:40:21 AM PDT

•  just don't use wordpress

  it sucks.  a lot.

  by thereisnospoon on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:27:54 AM PDT

  •  i use wordpress for everything, sometimes drupal

    I've used drupal, but wordpress has a lot of support in the form of customization, plugins, themese, etc.

    it's ok, i understand it, and it is customizable.

    by ceti on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:35:26 AM PDT

•  What About Scoop?

  DKos uses Scoop. Maybe its templates do what you want. DKos does use a tree comment structure, but that might not be what you actually mean. There might be other options, though.

  Political websites often like to use Drupal, which has a lot of modules for different optional features and styles.

  by DocGonzo on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:35:30 AM PDT

  •  Dumb question on Scoop, but...

    Is there an ASP version of that?   In other words, I really have no desire to start setting up servers, uploading it somewhere, blah, blah, blah... I would much rather tap into a service that already has it installed, and lets me make tweaks.

    Does that make sense?  Not sure I'm explaining myself well.   :)

    by Hlinko on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:42:12 AM PDT

    •  That's what

      Soapblox does.  They install the basic software on their server and give you access.  It's up to you to "skin" it and make it look the way you want.  I suspect that if you want help with that, that can be arranged as well.  Of course, it's based on Scoop.

      I've set up and configured blogs on drupal, Movable Type 3.x and 4.0, and Wordpress.  I think that Drupal is powerful but not necessarily user-friendly.  The documentation support for it is (or was as of 6-9 months ago) less than wonderful.  It may be overkill for what you want to do.  

      There is an ASP that does drupal hosting that may be of interest:  bryght.com.   One of their founding guys wrote a goodly portion of the drupal core.  Their website is well-designed.  Their documentation is good. They offer varying levels of service based on how much or how little you want to do on the technical side.

      Movable Type 4.0 has a new community configuration that allows you to have multiple blogs/diaries associated with the main blog but I have yet to install that.  

      There are MT hosting sites out there as well but I haven't investigated them since I installed it on my own or client's server accounts.

      I think that MT, Drupal and Scoop each have their strong points depending on what you want to do.  And part of that calculation should also be based on the amount of traffic you anticipate receiving.

      by vbdietz on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 02:16:12 PM PDT

    •  Dunno

      I don't know, I just know that DKos uses Scoop, which seems to do practically all you want.

      by DocGonzo on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 05:34:52 PM PDT

•  Have you looked at Haiku?

  I'm thinking of using it for my site, but I haven't researched it much.

  by ksh01 on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 11:47:30 AM PDT