Personal Blog - Part 2

In continuing my search for a new home for my personal blog, i still have not found exactly what i'm looking for. Perhaps if i could pinpoint what it is that i'm looking for, it would make the task easier.

I did see that Google/Blogger has a new version in beta. I will likely look into it further, however walking through their brief overview, it still seems like the same Blogger which i am trying to get away from.

I want something with a web2.0 look and feel, that can be customized to some degree, while maintaining it's dignity as a whole and unified site (my and all other blogs) unlike myspace. At the same time, it must be easy to use and fast and easy to create and manage the customizations. It would be nice if their were social aspects like linkedin or vox, without the heavy advertising or locked in themes of vox.

Anyhow, the search continues...

Personal Blog - Part 1

I looked into using VOX, and although I am not currently planning to use VOX for my personal blog, I am continuing to look for an alternative. Ideally, I would like tagging support and the ability to customize it somewhat to add links to external web2.0 sites but I want a cohesive and organized site (i refuse to become a member of the waste that is myspace).

I could always host my own personal blog and use an open source CMS, however i was hoping to include my personal blog as part of a community, instead of isolating it to myself.

but on the other side, by joining my personal blog to a community of bloggers on an existing site, i do not want to feel that my posts are no longer mine. By that i mean, if i decide to move elsewhere, i want to be able to export my posts in a standard xml format that i can take with me. i don't want to feel locked into a particular server forever, much like i do with my blogger account now, that just makes me hesitant to keep toiling away to add content.