I've been thinking about the obligatory "blog" link that goes on the front page of a new site. I don't know if I should roll my own simple blogging system (my site is RoR) or use some canned engine that has more overhead, but is tested and reliable. What do you guys think? What has worked for you in the past and what are the pros and cons of each?
For this sort of application I always recommend a hosted blogging service (wordpress.com, tumblr.com, blogger.com, etc) so that if something affects your servers, you still have a way to communicate with your clients//community.
Whatever you do, I would suggest putting it on your own site (a sub domain, like blog.yoursite.com) instead of a hosts (like companyblog.blogspot.com). It just feels more professional that way. There's a higher level of quality compared to the generic feel of a hosted blog.
WordPress (and others?) is perfectly good. No point in wasting time reinventing the wheel (unless that's your kind of thing).<p>Throw together a template to match your company website if you want.
This may be off-thread to some but I believe it is very applicable - content not the platform gives the blog value to your customers and customer developers.<p>For a great example, read <a href="http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/</a> (one of my favorite blogs in terms of technical and personal communication)
We made a blogspot blog in about 10 seconds.
<a href="http://tipjoys2cents.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">http://tipjoys2cents.blogspot.com/</a><p>I'm going to roll my own semi-blog that will be a bit different style.<p>With comments by disqus, almost any home brewed site can act like a blog.
I would use blogspot and a custom subdomain. As aaroneous said the blog will keep up if your servers go down, and also you will save headaches and time that you can use on growing your product.<p>The only problem I've with blogger is their template system, I simply don't like it.