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Why I created Banner Blog

bannerblog.dev

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Re: Why I created Banner Blog

#52

Post by vinberdon »

Developer_Tom wrote: post #6
jay-barronville wrote: post #3

Honest feedback: I’m on mobile and the experience isn’t good. Is that something that’s being addressed?

Yeh, that’s the next thing on the list. Wanted to get something out the door for desktop, then it’s on to mobile. Any things in particular that you’d want fixing?

Friendly reminder that in 2023 ~90% of consumer internet traffic is done on a mobile device. Us power users and people pretending to work in their cubicles use desktops a ton (though both groups also use their smartphones extensively). Best practice is to design for mobile-first, especially if you're trying to optimize for search. Google now indexes with mobile usability priority, too.

ETA: That said, it works pretty well on mobile for me. Not sure if you made any changes in the last 3 hours (:

Re: Why I created Banner Blog

#53

Post by sertbdfgbnfgsd »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #2

> SEO Optimized Out Of The Box To me this is a bug, not a feature. Google is so broken now that I assume any website in their first page of results is likely worthless.

Don't worry, your website won't be on the first page.

You sound like those guys who don't go to the gym because they're afraid of becoming huge and muscular. Don't worry, it won't happen by accident.

Re: Why I created Banner Blog

#54

Post by tqwhite »

I have written blog platforms for myself several times over the years. (I've always compared it to the Great American Novel. Every programmer has to write at least one.) It's a fun thing to do and it sounds like Developer_Tom has a nice perspective on the matter.

I gave up on that seven or eight years ago. I realized that running it was like being my own plumber. Sure, I can do it but aren't there better ways to spend my time? (No criticism intended. I'm old. You're probably not.)

I have only one criticism for Developer_Tom as he takes signups for his "forever" platform: He's not charging for it. Just as with my own efforts, if there's no revenue model, I'm not trusting it with my bon mots.

A half dozen years ago or something, I switched to a blog platform named https://posthaven.com because they said two things that were crucial to me: 1) They offered nothing for free and 2) They considered running this to be a lifetime commitment.

I'm sure both of them have other jobs and projects. It's a simple site, as bannerblog.dev will eventually be, and doesn't take much from them. I'm guessing it's a good money maker. And I love them for that.

Occasionally I see something that has features I like. Eg, Developer_Tom looks like he might offer easier customization. Then I remember that the PostHaven guys made a commitment to me that really requires a commitment from me. I will be giving them five bucks a month for the rest of my life and, if I have any money left, I will arrange for them to get five bucks a month for eternity.

That's the relationship I'm looking for in a blogging platform.

Re: Why I created Banner Blog

#55

Post by indymike »

First, hats off for making banner blog.

I've made three blogging platforms for clients (one old one based on Zope, one based on Django and a static blog generator written in Go). Each time I've built one I'm always reminded of the depth of the rabbit hole, and each blogging platform was built because WordPress was bad at a certain thing, and the customer felt strongly that a plug in wasn't the answer (the first one, WP was young, the second wanted integration and workflow for their publishing business, and the last one was about generating a static blog site for performance).

1. The web really needs better tooling built into the browser for handling HTML input. I shouldn't need a giant ball of JavaScript to have a WYSYWIG HTML editor. It seems that there has always been a need to for editing stylized text, and right now there's not really a standard way to do it. There should be.

2. There's a lot more to a good blog site than just content. Navigation, categories, tags, search all are important for different bloggers. What's a podcast? A blog with video in the feed. What about ways to pay the blogger? Oh, then there's SEO, then there is internationalization, then there's accessibility, then there's syndication out and syndication in. All of it matters to some users and not at all to other users. The rabbit hole is infinitely deep.

3. On the web, output is so easy. Input is a lot more difficult for non-developers. Bringing a blogging platform's writing tools to parity with a 35 year old budget word processor (think Works, not Word) is a pretty expensive proposition. It's remarkable to me how much more capability an old Word Processor has than what we give bloggers.

So, what about WordPress? Well, it is proof that good enough wins, and if you pile enough browser plugins with enough WordPress extensions, it works better than most other ways of doing it.

Re: Why I created Banner Blog

#56

Post by mrweasel »

marvinblum wrote: post #38
mrweasel wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken a look at Hugo multiple times, and... it more complicated than I'd like. For me it really does way to much and customizing themes is way more work than I care for. Maybe it's time to see if I can make SSG ( https://romanzolotarev.com/ssg.html ) run on my Mac again, for some reason it won't render anything.

I've created a hybrid system as I also was frustrated with how complicated Hugo is. Oogway [1] is a static site generator and framework for creating websites using Go templates. Take a look if you like :) [1] https://github.com/emvi/oogway

Looks pretty interesting, I'll give it a try. Thank you.

Re: Why I created Banner Blog

#58

Post by hoosieree »

gsa wrote: post #10
dreamcompiler wrote: post #2

> SEO Optimized Out Of The Box To me this is a bug, not a feature. Google is so broken now that I assume any website in their first page of results is likely worthless.

Chasing Google ranks is an abysmal practice, but a basic level of SEO goes a long way in making content discoverable and accessible. As for the rest of the practices of the SEO industry, I believe in the saying "if you provide good content, you don't need to SEO".

Would you mind elaborating a little on where you draw the line? In my mind "SEO" means adding the correct meta tags to the html, but I suspect that's because I have approximately zero wisdom on the subject.
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