It ain't pretty and it is certainly not well coded, but it does what I need it to do: present semantic HTML content that is under my complete control.
Features (can I call them that?)
After quite a bit of trial and error - mainly error - I've been able to build something that:
- creates new records,
- let's me edit existing ones and
- delete ones that I wan't to get rid of.
It doesn't do HTML parsing, there's no WYSIWYG editor and it lacks any image management tools, but it works for me. My HTML stays exactly as I enter it and no inexplicable proprietary tags are inserted without my knowledge or consent.
Benefits
There are a couple...
Control
I can easily add in sharing links that use the exact text that I want. My tweet button contains the fields I need included:
- Post Title,
- Post URL and
- My Twitter handle.
The same goes for the +1 button; it contains just the text and links I need it to.
Flexibility
My CSS is my own. No themes, no customised styles and no hacking away at the secondary layer to make the site look and behave how I want. I can apply what I want, where I want.
If anything changes in how the Twitter or Google APIs work or how Schema.org maintain their tags, I can easily adapt my site to respond. I don't have to wait for a service provider to adapt their systems first before I can make use of a new technology or tweak. It's all up to me...
...and there's the rub
Yup, it's all up to me. Not having to wait for a service provider also means that I'm the one who needs to follow, read up on and understand any new content management developments or blogging on the web. This hasn't been a huge problem so far, but I'm not messing around with blog providers any more, this is my own system and my own problem.
This is going to be interesting...