WordPress 3.0

YOU Gonna Get the LOOK!

You can change the look of your blog with over 60 attractive themes ranging from professional to fun to crazy, and you can switch themes instantly with just a click of a button. Each theme allows you to customize your sidebar using widgets, and several themes let you upload your own photo or image for the header bar. Themes are added regularly based on user requests.

YOU Gonna Get the STATS!

One of the most popular features is stats system. It's designed to give you up-to-the-minute stats on how many people are visiting your blog, where they're coming from, which posts are most popular, and which search engine terms are sending people to your blog.

YOU Gonna Get the great WRITING TOOLS!

It's easy to create great posts with WordPress.com. Uploading photos is easy, as is using services like Flickr or Photobucket. You can embed videos from YouTube or Google. And WordPress knows how frustrating it is to lose hours of work, so when you're writing they continuously save your post, just in case (of fire or emergency).

YOU Gonna Get TAGS!

When you write a post and add relevant tags, WordPress automatically add them to the global tag system and tag surfer, driving new traffic as other people interested in the same topics as you will find your post and leave comments on your blog. You'll be at the top of WordPress Blogs of the Day in no time.

YOU Gonna Get a killer Anti-SPAM Technology!

WordPress.com uses Akismet, the world's best comment and trackback spam technology. It blocks spammers from leaving comments on your blog. WordPress shuts down spam blogs that try to sneak onto WordPress.com.

YOU Gonna Get HELP when you need it!

If you have questions about using or extending WordPress blog, they've got some of the most responsive support around. They've got friendly fellow users in the forums and on our support team who will help you out. There is a feedback form on every page, a contact form, and the forums are active 24 hours a day.

YOU can MOVE Your Content From Other Blogs!

If you already have a blog and would like to move it over to WordPress.com, you can import your content from Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, TypePad, or an existing WordPress blog.

You Can Write in More Than 50 Lanuages!

So far, WordPress has been able to offer native versions of WordPress.com in over 50 languages. Not just our WordPress home page - they're doing Blogs of the Day, forums, and even tags in whatever language you prefer. If you're a polyglot, you can help with the community translation process. Why not?

You Gonna Be a Member of the Global CommUnity!

WordPress.com is a community and conversations continue from one blog post to another and through the comments. WordPress tag surfer feature makes it easy for you to find like minded bloggers interested in the same topics as you and connect with them.

You Can Have Multiple Blogs!

You can have as many blogs as you want! You're only limited by your imagination. You can have group blogs with multiple authors who are allowed to post or contribute. This is great for topic blogs for things like books or politics, or just a blog for you and your friends in one place.

You Can Have a PRIVATE BLOG!

WordPress.com allows you to have a completely public blog, a blog which is public but not included in search engines or our public listings, or a private blog which only members can access. If you want a public blog, but only occasionally post something private, WordPress have a per-post password option, too!

You Can Add Sidebar Widgets! (Flickr, Delicious & More)

You can add "widgets" to your sidebar and rearrange them without touching any HTML code or messing up your blog. Just drag and drop the sidebar widgets around, and instantly you can have fun stuff in your sidebar. WordPress is adding new widgets all the time based on your feedback and requests.

You Can Create Your Own Free Web Sites!

WordPress.com has a feature called "pages" which allows you to easily create web pages. For example, you could add an "about me" page with your biography, and a link to that page would be automatically added to your sidebar. You can even create an entire web site using pages on WordPress.com, with a custom home page and your blog as one of the sub-pages.

Sign Up For A Blogg Today!

"I don't love blogging, but I think it's important. I don't think it's important because of the family updates though that is what a portion of you are seeking. I think it's important because:

1) It teaches me more about technology and using it rightly and for my King. While this might not be the high end, staying in the loop about how it works will help as I discover what technology can do to further Christ's Kingdom. Ours is a world quickly becoming dependent upon the internet. This is good in a way because it is taking us back to a word-oriented society, which reminds me of a book I'm supposed to be reading soon (sorry TS).

2) It teaches me to think. I have a journal that has remained nearly blank for a long time. Journaling/blogging is a way of processing thoughts and putting them into real words. Sifting, sorting and organizing words into concise sentences is a habit of a healthy mind. The act of reguritating thoughts into palpable and coherent sentences is a healthy process. Teachers never learn more about their subject than when they teach it. It's one thing to receive information, but to give information is a whole separate level.

3) It holds me accountable. I added the "What I'm Reading" tab for me not for you. Not reading is a sign of stagnation. God gave me the ability to read and the ability to process what I read, I should use His gifts%u2026not let them sit idle. Having those books sitting there in list form is a great motivation to me.

4) It keeps me sharp. When I am looking for blogging material as I go about my day, it helps me to consider what I see past just the surface event. There needs to be digging. There needs to be an expanding. This is the same reason why I "play" Fantasy Baseball. I don't love baseball and am not up on many of today's players, but FB is a way for me to do a lot of logical processes and critical thinking as I examine, evaluate, build, and formulate in an enjoyable, free, manner.

5) It is a history of me. We today are horrible historians. We have a vision of the here and now and have no regard for the bibilcal multi-generational approach. I want my sons to know who I am. They can learn by me talking with them, and they can learn by reading who I am. The things that I post, the topics that I address, the books that I read will help them in this. This would be especially effective motivation to make my postings more well-rounded.
As I intend to perish before I could ever speak all the things I want them to know, herein is a separate record of me. How enjoyable and profitable it would be to pore over the journals of the previous generations to learn their names and histories and thinkings.

6) It is an encouragement. All of the previous (except #3) could be true if I just typed this into a wordprocessor and left it on my own harddrive for my boys to find someday, but the act of sharing these things has been an encouragement to many. I say this because you have told me so. Some of the regular readers tell me you are regular readers. Some of you thank me for ideas for rearing children and appreciate references to current events. Though I post sporadically, you tell me you like the well-roundedness of the postings though it's been top-heavy with family doings for the time we were in SC. Between this and my previous blog on Blogger there have been over 1,500 hits in 60 days.

One thing I would ask is that you please 1) continue to give input. Feel free to leave comments to my postings and 2) Consider blogging yourself at least consider it. The personal advantages are many.

Yesterday, I found this quotation on SharperIron.
It speaks to some of these things. The author doesn't publish his name so I won't ask him if I can credit him, but I will link you to the full text of his "In Praise of Blogging." I won't necessarily commend you away from this posting or commend the whole posting to you, but here's the gist to which I want to point.

"Blogging is an opportunity to think. As one of my favorite writers said, "language is the technology of thought". I further believe thinking and writing are not coincidental acts, they are the same act. To blog is to think in public, sometimes in a more gratifying way because you have readers, sometimes in a more embarrassing way because you have contradictors. But I believe thinking is important enough to risk it.

Blogging might not make you a great thinker, but then reading the Bible won't make you a great Christian either. Both are a move in the right direction.

Posting regularly to a blog changes how you live."

July 20, 2006 by Ryan

http://tobeapilgrim.wordpress.com/2006/07/20/why-i-blog/