I've started working on a more streamlined PHP blogging platform, which I'm creatively dubbing "uvBlog." You might be wondering why I don't just get one of the millions of free, open source blog platforms out there. It's mainly because I'm really, really picky, and frankly it's more fun and instructional to develop my own. Also I don't want to lose any of my content. If I were doing this for someone else, I would probably just grab an open source platform (Serendipity looks like a good place to start).

You might also be wondering why I don't just use Blogger or Wordpress or one of those free blogging platforms. That's easy: Because I don't have access to the database holding my blog content, so I have no way of protecting it from possible data loss.

First I will address the problems with the current platform, "uvPortal."

• The source code for uvPortal has evolved and devolved over years, and it's a mess. It's reached the point where rewriting is easier than refactoring.
• In practice, I've learned that I don't need the features of a portal. It's overkill. I just need a blog with some links on the sides.
• There is no support for static html "permalink" pages, which I think is a major drawback in terms of server resource usage, search page indexing, and thus a major impediment to scaling up to large audiences.
• It's not easy to change the look of the blog, which is not so much of an issue for me personally but is vitally important if I should ever have an occasion to use this code for commercial purposes.

So here are my major goals for "uvBlog," so I'll have a record of it.

• Blog look and feel expressed in the form of interchangeable "skins."
• Static html pages for individual posts and comments.
• Rss comment feeds in addition to entry feeds.
• Revised and streamlined source code structure making better usage of classes.
• Cleaner query parameters for urls.
• Add "attachments" to blog posts such as mp3s, photo galleries, etc.
• Ability to write posts in a simpler, wiki-style format (less dependent on html knowledge).