Mindy K.

FMyLife.com is a hilarious website, as is MyLifeIsAverage. They also seem to be simple to make, if you know what you're doing with respect to web sites. I've had an idea for a while for a fmylife type community to supplement my blog. Unfortunately, I don't, so I've had to keep my idea for a short-story site like FMyLife on hold. I tried posting requests on free-lance web development boards, but didn't want to spend so much right away.

Anekdotz appears to be my answer, as it's free to install. I had to sign up for a google account (also free) and register for Google App Engine (a web host run by google). For App Engine I needed to verify my account via SMS. It took about a minute, and was simple enough.

The overall process of launching an app using Anekdotz takes about 5-10 minutes including registering for App Engine etc. I haven't had the chance to design the site to my specifications, but there seem to be plenty of options available in the "Admin Console" of my site to create the perfect design and match my blog.

You can also edit the functionality of the app, for example switch between different modes for archiving stories and different modes for moderation. Overall it's a pretty complete package as far as the different options for how you want your site to work.

I think it's a great service, and I hope that everyone who is interested in launching such a site checks this out before spending money on a "script" or getting someone to design them a site from scratch.