wordpress com vs org

Back during some argument we were having about social media, someone lumped Word Press in with Blogger and similar mass hosting sites. This just seemed ignorant but it turns out (d'oh) that there is a WordPress.com which does hosting. Many blogs on the internet, however (including this one) use software provided by WordPress.org, which is not a host. According to WordPress.com's "about" page, the dotcom version was launched by some of the folks involved with WordPress who thought they'd confuse everyone by keeping that name (actually they didn't say that last part).

The point being, someone using Word Press software is quite likely a self-hosting "indie" who is responsible for his/her own domain and basic admin tasks such as keeping the site free of malware. It's not the same as working in what Dave Winer called the "corporate blog silos," where a balance must be maintained between complying with the silo's rules and being freed of administrative headaches. This is no diss against people who work in a mass-hosting environment (well, maybe a little, depending on which one) but an attempt to clarify this blog's niche in the new media ecosystem.

Snobbery is what indie bloggers have etc