Info 138: Wordpress features

Here are my new experiences and differences between blogger and wordpress. I'm new to Wordpress and still haven't checked everything. I'm not 100% sure if I should return to blogger. Maybe someone else might be consider moving his/her blog as well

Commenting:

I checked this (being logged out). It's possible to leave a comment anonymously. You don't have to leave either mail, name nor website although displayed. (My own or other) tracebacks also count as comments

Rating:

Rating is done by clicking on Leave a comment. 5 star rating 5= best. There's also a Like This button and share this (facebook and else)

Thumbnails:

There are no thumbnails. Not here on my top posts, not on the blog feed here not on blog feeds on other blogs who has a feed from here. The small thumbnail looking pic is just a tiny pic. I understand that thumbnails are not possible with the free version of wordpress.com. There might be some HTML code but I haven't checked this yet, as this shouldn't work.

Videos:

Vids from my previous blog hadn't been imported. I will try to embed a vid soon. Not sure if this work. I think uploading (hosting) an own vid isn't possible with this free version. At least a link is possible.

Photo album:

There is one single "album" where all pics were stored. It's possible to download them (at least for me). There is no multiple album feature like Picasa. However I think I can categorize my pics. There are also limitations of webspace (enough for me). Not sure for other limitations (amount of pics, possible deletion time after non-access).

pros:

-easy blogging similar to blogger, easy and fast, built-in blog import function  from other blogs, including even all pics, easily copy a post (even from other blogs)

-search function (internal blog search and web (image) search works properly. Instantly. And that's very important for a "database" like this. Blogger still can't find some important posts and Google Image can't find pics

-More than one post inside a feed of a single other blog (I show 3 for my other blog here) in case I create more than one post a day

-Built-in poll function (need to sign up (for free) at a sister website polldaddy

cons:

-some limitations, no thumbnails (see above),

-no external plug-ins possible except for the built-in widgets, also background themes with different behaviour and fixed width. Fonts etc at extra costs

-stats only for alltime hits (however I can see them in my dashboard), same for top posts, top clicks (not featured on blogger) and top rated

-there might be some bugs here as well (I read about problems with commenting and the stats)

-Worpdress might include "some very few" ads. (I won't)

-There is wordpress (software for own domain hosting) and wordpress.com (this blog hosting). Last free and pro version. If you search for solving problems you often find solution for the commercial first one.

conclusion:

It's very bad, that there are no thumbnails. Many readers would prefer that and only click on pics they like. But I'm not sure if this should be the main reason. However it's a niche blog and readers should read all my posts.

I think I will try this for about 2 weeks and decide then. At least I have backed up my blogs and the different stats on both blogs are also interesting.