Unlike closed blogging platforms, open source blog software gives programmers a chance to make custom themes and plug-ins, and gives users a chance to experience these new creations without waiting for an official release. When a blogger is trying to choose open source blog software, there are several features to look for that will catapult a certain platform to the top. Blogging is a social activity, so the blogging platform should be able to integrate with social networking websites. Having an open source code that is easy to read and work with will help programmers build new features and templates without having to work with a confusing structure. A large community also is a necessity, because this allows users and programmers alike to use other people’s creations.
Blogging, unlike business websites, is social in nature and the posts are meant to be read. Some people may try to make money through blogging but, at its heart, blogging is about being published online and having other people share in the blogger’s experience. To this end, social networking and other social features must be added into the open source blog software. There are many popular social networking websites, so the blogging platform does not have to create a whole social environment. It just has to include the ability to integrate with these social websites.
All blogs are made of code, and each type of open source blog software is created with a different coding schema. Some programming schemas are easy to understand, while others will leave programmers scratching their head, trying to figure out how to manipulate and use the code. Programmers will benefit most from a simple code structure, because they can get to work making new features, instead of sitting around trying to figure out the structure. Users also will benefit from simple code, because a simple code means that importing features made by programmers will be much easier.
When a blog platform is made open source, it generally attracts a large crowd of users and programmers that, perhaps inadvertently, make the blogging platform better by perfecting and building new features. Having a large community means more programmers will be working on new features. For this reason, the blog software itself will be able to perform more functions from the number of programmer-built plug-ins and themes, and users can take advantage of this. Finding a large following is essential to finding the best open source blog software, because this will give users a large variety of tools to make their perfect blog.