A hearty welcome to the Mountain Xpress readers. I hope our local paper's focus on technology and blogging inspires Ashevillians to look into blogging as a hobby or career.  

You'll notice the screenshot featured in the paper doesn't match what you see here today. (See screetnshot on left) As part of this blog's plan to become a hub for Green Party activity, I switched the CMS from Drupal to Joomla - and in the process switched the color scheme from orange to "spearaminty green." (See image below.)

If that last sentance ost you - "CMS" is an aconym for a "Content Management Sysytem": A type of software most blogs use since they allow dynamic content ... such as user comments, and easily updated webpages.

It's usefull to think of a CMS like a car. Just like different types of vehicles handle different types of terrain - each CMS specializes in certain types of content.

For example, ScrutinyHooligans is a traditional blog - WordPress CMS works great for them. BlogAsheville is a community site whoes webmaster didn't want to invest to heavily in set-up costs - so they use Google's BlogSpot CMS.

Brainshrub.com is evolving into a community forum... and Joomla CMS has tools needed to manage that kind of traffic.

Now, if you want to start blogging don't let all this tech-talk discourage you. Don't even worry about what CMS you should use - just go to BlogSpot.com, get an account, and start writing.

If you live in Asheville, and your willing to buy me a pint, I don't care what your politics are - I'll help you get started. :) 

If you're a lefty-blogger, I strongly recomend visiting Drinking Liberally. Many of Asheville's best writers frequent that group, and they will be happy to teach you about blogging and netiquette.

Again, welcome to Brainshrub.com.