Blogging: The Hacker Way • Hacker News Board

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#11

Post by danneu » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 5:43 AM UTC

jyap wrote: post #9

I had this grand idea of re-working my personal web site and having it be redirected to a GitHub hosted instance. All very clean/elite and all. And I did set it up and made 3 posts... But then I stumbled onto or more so realized that I had a road block. Namely that of practicality. I mean it meant that I needed to be on the command line to actually post and I needed to run Git commands to add files/posts and then pus…

I wouldn't be surprised if there already was a tool that deploys your posts to your Jekyll blog. If not, then it'd be a fun little project.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#12

Post by asto » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 6:30 AM UTC

I use Wordpress with almost no modifications made. I haven't even changed the default header image that comes with Wordpress. The way I saw it when I made the blog, the content's more important than making things look pretty. I'll do up the theme later when I have a decent reader-base.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#13

Post by spooneybarger » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 6:33 AM UTC

asto wrote: post #12

I use Wordpress with almost no modifications made. I haven't even changed the default header image that comes with Wordpress. The way I saw it when I made the blog, the content's more important than making things look pretty. I'll do up the theme later when I have a decent reader-base.

I tend to be an outlier but sites with the default WP don't stick with me mentally unless they have amazing content whereas ones with their own look and feel can get by with good content and I will remember them.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#14

Post by numbdemon » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 6:46 AM UTC

http://octopress.org/ this one is better

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#15

Post by prawn » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 8:26 AM UTC

injekt wrote: post #8

prawn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone should create a blogging platform where the features are unlocked with each post you make. After your first post, you can name your blog. After your second, add an about page. Your third, comments or a blogroll. Fourth, analytics, etc.

Whilst that might be an interesting idea, it would probably drive people away from focusing on great content. "Ooo I want comments and I'm only two blog posts away!"

My suggestion was only partly serious, but IMO, focusing on great content is probably one reason many blogs are abandoned - people worrying that an entry won't cut it. That doesn't meant everyone should post junk, but sometimes you can write something short and punchy rather than an epic essay.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#16

Post by po » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 9:01 AM UTC

If you want a similar solution but are more comfortable in python then also check out hyde: http://ringce.com/hyde

It's very similar in spirit but uses python and the corresponding tools to get the job done.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#17

Post by josscrowcroft » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 9:41 AM UTC

That is a really, really nice looking blog. I love the clean simple approach.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#18

Post by helipad » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 10:06 AM UTC

I can recommend StaceyApp: http://staceyapp.com/

The filesystem is built of just folders and text files, and it creates a blog automatically. Very minimal and doesn't require any kind of admin backend.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#19

Post by jokull » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 12:35 PM UTC

jyap wrote: post #9

I had this grand idea of re-working my personal web site and having it be redirected to a GitHub hosted instance. All very clean/elite and all. And I did set it up and made 3 posts... But then I stumbled onto or more so realized that I had a road block. Namely that of practicality. I mean it meant that I needed to be on the command line to actually post and I needed to run Git commands to add files/posts and then pus…

Someone should set up a jekyll hosting service that watches a DropBox share folder for posts.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#20

Post by petercooper » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 1:34 PM UTC

prawn wrote: post #15

injekt wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst that might be an interesting idea, it would probably drive people away from focusing on great content. "Ooo I want comments and I'm only two blog posts away!"

My suggestion was only partly serious, but IMO, focusing on great content is probably one reason many blogs are abandoned - people worrying that an entry won't cut it. That doesn't meant everyone should post junk, but sometimes you can write something short and punchy rather than an epic essay.

Agreed. My most successful blogs over the years started initially with pretty low quality, high throughput "just stuff I want to post" stuff. Then eventually they became higher quality (and more difficult to post to). It seems like a good process, rather than just expecting to write high quality stuff out of the gate.