Updated the link.

I moved for the same reason, and am currently dinking with all the new options with Wordpress. So far, so good.

If you want to link your website, you have to:
1. Create a google account
2. Expand it to blogger profile
3. Add in your blog’s URL
4. Then still subject yourself to the word verification

It’s not userfriendly. Much things have been done in the past six years in the name of security, as a result, flying from a major airport is also a major pain in the arse nowadays. Even the merest hint of less and less credible threats make security controls longer and more drastic. I’m eagerly awaiting the day when a smartass makes up a credible terror warning involving underwear and we’ll all have to fly in the nuddy.
It’s of a similar vein here. Blogger has word verification. Gmail has quite efficient spam filters on its own. Additional barriers to communication become a hindrance to speech.

Regarding the whole blogger profiling thing, yes it’s something I had to resort to. A lot of blogs that I was reading did not have the “Allow Anonymous Posting” feature enabled. Initially I was way too lazy to comment and reply. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of it. Then I remembered Blogger was owned by Google and I had a Google account. 10 precious minutes later, I could now comment and such. Another 5 minutes was spent throwing a quick post and “profile blog” together so that people who clicked my profile could go to my real home.

Still a pain in the ass, however.

No it doesn’t. You can still allow anonymous comments, only need to register and associate your WP/LiveJournal blog address if you want readers of that comment to click to get on your site.

I think it’s a smart and valid move: it doesn’t prevent bloggers from other major blog engines to be “clickable”, while at the same time it no longer allows some of the un-authenticated spam which sometimes escapes the word verifications.

I think it’s a fair compromise. It’s sad that it’s needed, but that’s what one could say about many other things from Anti-virus to Firewalls to even keys and locks: we’d love NOT to have to use them, but if we try, we’re doomed! Unfortunately, many such moves come from that 5% or less of individuals who mis-behave and thus force others to create rules to counter that and protect the others…

Re: that blogger comment issue. Check this post on how it works now but in short, you can still have your WP blog linked when you comment…

@Leiandra, Kestrel: thanks for the kind words. Yes, the move itself is pretty quick. If you’re self-hosting, the biggest part is getting your template up, customizing, arranging the various things and extras you may be using. Importing from blogspot is three clicks and took less than a minute, including legacy comments.

@Someone: If I had noone to be arguing with, I could just as well type into a text editor. Do pester on

@WyldKard: Yes it’s simple but it forces registration with Blogger onto people. I don’t like that, it’s one extra hoop people have to get through.