Rouse e by post, i.e. why I am here at Posterous?
Posterous is getting more and more attention lately. It’s not that surprising. Why? This might be the best blogging platform in the near future. Remember my words. So what about the present time? No need to worry, because Posterous is already a top-notch product. That’s why I’ve chosen it for my techblog. Details? Sure, have a look at some.
Nowadays blogging via email is nothing special. There are some plug-ins for common blog software, there is tumblr beside Posterous and possibly some other services capable of email-driven communication but unknown to me. Who was the first with the great idea of posting using emails? I have no clue, but it doesn’t matter. Important thing is that Posterous focuses “on the best email experience” and the team behind it thinks, just like me, “email is the best way to publish online”. It’s not an add-on, it’s the main feature. I like mail much better than any IMs/chats/microblogs, because usually it ends with well-rounded text, at least often better than by using other ways of writing. Quality is an important part of the communication and I hate when it is forgotten or silently ignored.
I really dislike HTML formatted emails and I am not the only one with such attitude. Lack of proper formatting in plain-text was big problem of Posterous. It has been resolved with introducing markdown support, so one obstacle less. Another one was lack of static pages, but it is also a past already – thanks to unveiling the pages (with recent improvements). Techblog usually requires some syntax highlighting. Posterous chose CodeRay and it is not the best possible choice, but still a good one. It is wisely integrated into markdown syntax. There is also automatic embedding of GitHub Gist – just use the URL of snippet. Nice, isn’t it?
Users have here a lot more useful features. Scheduling posts for the future, private posts, custom domain name support, easy video sharing, posting an image gallery by emailing a zip file, control over download links, commenting via email and bunch of other options related to working with other sites. If you have a blog already and want to migrate, then visit switch page. Importing from many blog and posting services is supported to smooth your transition.
There are still some small potatoes though. Markdown has syntax for embedding images in-place:
Posterous should support using images attached to emails by placing their names in link-to-image part. Allowing defining how big the thumbnail should be used (e.g. by adding 4th parameter: thumbnail-width) and preventing resizing by default if image is put alone in its own paragraph also would be very useful. I think it should not require ((nogallery)), because not all images are always intended to be used inline. They could be used to create usual gallery at the end if there is no ((nogallery)) in mail subject or just be placed one after the other at the end if ((nogallery)) is present.
Another thing is the commenting system. It is not the most important feature and Posterous crew is all the time concerned about overall system, so current engine is not polished as it could be. Supporting use of dedicated solution, IntenseDebate to be precise, would be another big improvement. At the same time it would allow the team moving to polishing other elements of this great blogging service. Simple win-win, right?
I sent these (and one more) proposals to help@posterous.com and received information that some of my suggestions will be passed to the team.
We’re looking into improving the commenting system and working on polishing things up. Look for a few updates soon! To stay up to date on our happenings, check out the official Posterous blog at http://blog.posterous.com.
I will, definitely! And you? In the meantime:
Rouse electrons by post with bloody brilliant Posterous!
