A wasted chorus of Kumbaya

I have to say, reading through yesterday's comments I was impressed by the incredible unity of opinion.  I mean seriously... in the history of the Jewish people there has probably never been another instance of so many Jews being of exactly one mind on any subject.

So I get the point... you all think I should switch to WordPress.

I hate to rain on anyone's folk festival, but here's my list of problems with that suggestion:

1.  WordPress doesn't allow advertising.  Now, I'm not supporting my family with this site like some of the mega-bloggers.  But the advertising I get does bring in enough cash that I can make regular donations to a few important causes close to my heart (mostly related to making the lives of IDF soldiers a tiny bit more comfortable) without having to constantly beg you all for money.  This is a a big deal... and a deal breaker as far as WordPress is concerned.

2.  Somebody already grabbed the treppenwitz user name over at WordPress.  They aren't using the name (and haven't been for several years), but WordPress has a policy of not allowing the recycling of user names, even after they have been relinquished.  The best they could suggest is that I contact the person who registered the user name and ask them to transfer it to me.  But since they won't reveal who the person is, and the page holder (www.treppenwitz.wordpress.com) doesn't have a way to leave comments or send emails to the siteowner, that is a non-starter.

3.  While WordPress may be easy to use, it is not designed for extensive customization.  They don't allow the importation of themes and their format options are dramatically limited.  I haven't changed my basic layout in almost six years so I'm not looking for the ability to reinvent the wheel every two weeks.  But I would like the ability to make the look and feel of the WordPress incarnation of treppenwitz aesthetically similar to that of its Typepad incarnation.

4.  If I migrate treppenwitz to a new platform I want live customer service... not this 'submit a help ticket and we might get back to you with an unhelpful, canned response sometime this week' crap.  I want real, live breathing people at the other end of the phone when my site goes down... and I certainly wouldn't attempt to move the whole thing to a new platform without someone on the other side helping me with the transition.  I already know that to try it on my own would result in at least a week of my site being 404. 

So I hate to rain on such a sunny, 'we are the world', kumbaya moment where all the stars aligned and everyone miraculously seemed to finally agree on something.  But that solution just doesn't work for me.