JournURL Combines Blogging and Forums

In a comment to my posting "I Wish Blog comments Were Easier to Follow," fellow blogger Amy Bellinger mentioned a free blog-hosting service, JournURL, which offers some pretty cool options that provide rich support for online conversations.

They do this by combining features of blogging tools and online forums. Back in August, JournURL creator Roger Benningfield explained some of how this works. Here's what he said...

In "An Intranet that Actually Works," Roger wrote:

"[Here are] several of the fundamental ideas behind JournURL's approach to blogging and community.

• All the blogs in a given JournURL-powered community are independent sites that look-and-feel unique from the outside, but share a common space on the inside.

• The communal, shared interface looks and feels just like a traditional, web-based message board.

• Comment feeds are available in a number of different forms, allowing users to fine-tune their subscriptions.

• There's no problem generating new discussion threads -- something that plagues conventional forums -- because every blog entry is the beginning of a new conversation. A skilled community leader will always be valuable, but enthusiastic bloggers are much, much easier to find, and can achieve nearly the same results in a JournURL-like environment.

That sounds pretty intriguing -- definitely a strong conversational-media mindset at work there! That's important, because the first and most significant hurdle to embracing conversational media is adopting the right mindset.

I'll have to try JournURL at some point (maybe to create a forum adjunct to this blog). But until I get around to that, I'd like to hear what current JournURL users have to say.

If you run or participate in a JournURL blog/forum, how do you like it? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this tool? Do you feel like it supports online conversations well? Comment below!

Comments

[Roger Benningfield]

Amy: Sorry to take so long to respond... I've been digging myself out of the post-holiday backlog.

I'll try to point a couple folks here, but 'til then, I'll try to answer a few questions for you.

Strength: Flexibility... each community is simultaneously a forum, a multi-user blogging environment, and a shared RSS/Atom aggregator. And a few more things besides. It may sound ridiculous, but I occasionally forget all of the things it can actually do.

Weakness: With that flexibility comes a degree of conceptual complication. The actual workflow is pretty straightforward, but JournURL routinely confuses those who are accustomed to traditional blogging environments.

Strength: Makes "message board people" feel right at home, giving them threaded and linear views of discussions. But also adds blog-friendly additions... every post can send and receive Trackback pings, for example. (Assuming the user has the necessary permissions.)

Weakness: "Communal blogging" isn't for everyone... sharing a space has consequences. For example, let's say you post an entry in a WordPress blog, and I post a comment in reply. An hour later, you decide to pull your post and my comment with it... end of story. But in a JournURL-powered community, my reply to you could be a blog entry of my own... you can't just nuke the thread. In the end, you sacrifice control to gain interaction.

Strength: A fairly complete template scripting language, and a "theme" system that allows users to pick template sets from a list and install them automatically. (Themes can also be backed up and customized by those with the correct permissions.)

Weakness: This isn't a VC-funded enterprise, so you won't find a bunch of fancy, high-end template designs to choose from.

Strength: A dedicated developer who has been working on the service for five years now, with no intention of getting rich of selling out, and an enthusiasm for helping folks understand how his baby works.

Weakness: No paid support staff, woefully incomplete documentation, and a general lack of polish in some areas due to the priorities of a one-man team.

"I'll have to try JournURL at some point (maybe to create a forum adjunct to this blog)."

Drop me a line whenever you're in the mood.