I’ve been using Radio Userland for my blog for a while. I actually tried it first back in 2000, around when the boy was born… I’m not sure it was even called Radio then. I’ve been publishing this blog for nearly a year, and my year license is about to expire. That event is triggering some thought about what’s next. Do I stick with what’s familiar, or is it time to make the move to something that’s seeing a bit more advancement and is web-based?
I’ve appreciated the desktop backup of the client approach, and I’m very fond of the philosophy of not locking in my data (all XML files). But a web browser is still what I do my editing in, so why not convert to a location-less tool for posting? Radio — both here on my Mac and at work on my Windows PC — has a recurring habit of eating CPU time, even to the point of slowing down my typing (which, in a modern computer, is insane). Also, I’m lazy, but I still want better URL structures, better comments (not pop-up, and not dependent on a central service), and an easier-to-follow community-based support (since the company is small enough that I’ve found support hard to come by).
I’ve also been surprised that when I wrote the company in response to the polite “your license will expire soon” email I received, I never got a response. I have some valid questions, like “What’s the future of Radio?” since it hasn’t seen any improvements that I know of for a couple of years. It’s possible any reply never made it through my spam filter, so I’m not angry, but I am disappointed. And the spam filter isn’t that strong — it let in the original notification, and since I replied to the address, it should have been whitelisted.
Anyway, I’m possibly restless (but also lazy/busy), so ideas about tools you’re happy with are invited… and any links on how to convert Radio files into the suggested tool are also welcome.