Download Squad

While Six Apart offers an impressive service with Vox, their blogging community with a focus on 'neighborhoods', it could be argued that the service's doors are a little too closed. While Vox does unique things offering a streamlined registration system to help curb anonymous comments, one thing they don't have is any kind of API to allow access for things like external blogging clients. Sure, it's possible to email and moblog posts in, but it's hard to beat the power and flexibility that a full-on blogging client provides. A lack of an API also makes it difficult to cross-post from any other blogging system besides Six Apart's commercial TypePad blogging service.

That said, Pete Wood offers a bit of a compromise for WordPress users in the form of his Vox Crossposter plugin. Working with the constraints of having to send posts from WordPress via Vox's email system, this plugin will simply send your post - title, image and content - to your Vox account, though not without a few catches. First, none of your categories or tags come along for the ride. Also, your Vox post will more or less live independently from its sibling on WordPress; if you edit your WordPress post, your Vox one won't be updated (and if you aren't careful, it will be posted again unless you remember to tell the plugin to not crosspost the edit), and vice versa.

Still, Pete has done a good job with what Vox unfortunately gives him to work with. Our only request for now (until Vox gets in gear and cranks out an API) is that the plugin defaults to 'do not crosspost', since most posts probably aren't quite syndication material, and it would avoid those unfortunate double-posts.

Pete offers his Vox Crossposter plugin for WordPress free at his site.