Never Obey is a startup from two people passionate about making the web a better place. So far we’re best known for our work on Mundane Productions and other projects but we have a lot of other interesting things in the pipeline as well. We are strong believers in Open Source and the vast majority of our work is available for free.
We’re a bit of an underdog, as there are much larger hosted blogging services such as Blogger or Typepad that have been out for years. We think we have something unique to bring to the table.
NeverObey.net is under very active development, and we roll out updates almost every day. New features and services are driven by you so please use our feedback form to let us know what you want.
We know there are a lot of places you could put your blog, and we’d be extra honored if you consider us. If you’re a current user and you dig what we’re doing, the best way you can help us out is to help a friend get set up as well. It also gives you more buddies for your friends list.
The Features You’ll Love
Here’s some pretty cool stuff that just might make you want to use NeverObey.net.
When you’re ready, we’d love to have you sign up for a free account!
Takes seconds, costs nada
You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an email address. You’ll get your own NeverObey address (like neverobey.net/your name), a selection of great free and customizable designs for your blog (we call them themes), 20 megabytes of file storage and all the other great features listed here. You can blog as much as you want for free, your blog can be public to the world or private for just your friends.
Dozens of gorgeous themes
You can change the look of your blog with over 10 attractive themes ranging from professional to fun to crazy, and you can switch themes instantly with just a click of a button. Each theme allows you to customize your sidebar using widgets, and several themes let you upload your own photo or image for the header bar. We add themes regularly based on user requests.
A great tool for writing
It’s easy to create great posts with NeverObey.net. Uploading photos is easy, as is using services like Flickr or Photobucket. And we know how frustrating it is to lose hours of work, so when you’re writing we continuously save your post, just in case.
Let’s get those 15 minutes
When you write a post and add relevant tags, it will drive new traffic as other people interested in the same topics as you will find your post and leave comments on your blog. You’ll be at the top of our Blogs of the Day in no time.
We kill spam dead
NeverObey uses Akismet, the world’s best comment and trackback spam technology. It blocks spammers from leaving comments on your blog. We also shut down spam blogs that try to sneak onto NeverObey (so your blog won’t be in the same community as some Viagra-touting site).
Pick up where you left off
If you already have a blog and would like to move it over to NeverObey.net, you can import your content from Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, TypePad, or an existing WordPress blog.
Multiple blogs and multiple authors
You can have as many blogs as you want! You’re only limited by your imagination. You can have group blogs with multiple authors who are allowed to post or contribute. This is great for topic blogs for things like books or politics, or just a blog for you and your friends in one place.
Privacy options, including members-only blogs
NeverObey.net allows you to have a completely public blog, a blog which is public but not included in search engines or our public listings, or a private blog which only members can access. If you want a public blog, but only occasionally post something private, we have a per-post password option, too!
Sidebar widgets
You can add “widgets” to your sidebar and rearrange them without touching any HTML code or messing up your blog. Just drag and drop the sidebar widgets around, and instantly you can have fun stuff in your sidebar. We’re adding new widgets all the time based on your feedback and requests.
Not just a blog
NeverObey.net has a feature called “pages” which allows you to easily create web pages. For example, you could add an “about me” page with your biography, and a link to that page would be automatically added to your sidebar. You can even create an entire web site using pages on NeverObey.net, with a custom home page and your blog as one of the sub-pages.
Private messaging
NeverObey private messaging works like internal site email. Members can message people on their friends list as well as forward and reply to received messages. Each member has their own individual Inbox, Sentbox, and Drafts folder. They will be notified of new messages by a new message count as well as email notifications if enabled.
Friends
Members of NeverObey can be connected together by one member adding another as a “friend” and then the other member accepting the friendship request. Each member has a visible list of their friends on the site. Friends lists are browsable and members can click on each friend to see more information – or add them as their own friend.
Activity stream
Activity streams aggregate all of your activity across NeverObey.net. All of your friends activity is also recorded so you can check what others are doing on the site. Wire posts, blogs posts, new friendships and blog comments are among the most popular activities recorded.
Forums
Members can post and reply to topics. We’ve got friendly fellow users in the forums and our support team who will help you out.
No lock-in
You can leave NeverObey.net any time you want and your content isn’t locked in. We provide a complete XML export of all your posts and comments.