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WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

writefreely.org

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Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#11

Post by troymc »

xd1936 wrote: post #4

From what I understand, Mastodon is to Twitter as WriteFreely is to WordPress.com/Medium/Blogger/etc. Fediverse-aware, open-source, with a flagship SaaS hosted instance available at https://write.as . If microblogging hadn't fried my brain and I was interested in spinning up a longform blog, this is the software I would choose.

WordPress.com is also based on open-source software (WordPress) and can connect to the Fediverse via Activitypub [1]. Similar to WriteFreely, there's even a WordPress.com desktop app [2]. That said, I understand the allure of a simple, minimal, distraction-free writing and reading experience.

[1] https://wordpress.com/support/enter-the-fediverse/

[2] https://apps.wordpress.com/desktop/

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#12

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

Veen wrote: post #5
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain how they still survive and are the only viable option for anyone in the day and age where $5 VPSes are a thing.

Tens of millions of people want to host a WordPress site and very few of them want to deal with setting up a database, editing config files, securing a server. Most of them have no idea what that stuff means.

Then they want a Wordpress, and not this.

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#14

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

nucleardog wrote: post #6
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain how they still survive and are the only viable option for anyone in the day and age where $5 VPSes are a thing.

Shared PHP hosting is a managed service, a VPS is not. Not everyone has the skill set to bridge the gap, and it’s not really economical to hire to fill the gap to support a single site (but it is to support hundreds of sites in a shared hosting environment).

> Shared PHP hosting is a managed service, a VPS is not. Not everyone has the skill set to bridge the gap

It has always been very peculiar. You either had very stripped off permissions of what you could do: FTP comes to mind first, and then you still need to understand how Unix permissions work, and then you wish you had SSH; or you get SSH with some stripped off permissions, and then you do need to have the skills to use the Unix system inside; or you find that the underlying PHP/webserver has 6-month-old zero days and someone keeps owning all tenants all the time, but the sysadmins are prima donnas on power trip who know better.

And you are still in a firmly DIY area most of the time, with enough footgun to do you harm.

Oh, and if you want a custom domain, welcome to the special hell.

Maybe I had bad experiences 15 years ago, but in my opinion, they should be called "mismanaged services".

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#15

Post by vouaobrasil »

velcrovan wrote: post #7
vouaobrasil wrote: post #2

Looks interesting but it won't work on many shared servers on which the only option is PHP/SQL due to it being written in Go.

Genuine question, is shared hosting still the go-to option for many HN readers when setting up a personal site?

It is for me...cheap and it works for basic things.

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#16

Post by vouaobrasil »

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #3
vouaobrasil wrote: post #2

Looks interesting but it won't work on many shared servers on which the only option is PHP/SQL due to it being written in Go.

Explain how they still survive and are the only viable option for anyone in the day and age where $5 VPSes are a thing.

Plenty of people just want something point and click like cPanel with one click wordpress installs, email filtering options, etc.

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#17

Post by marpstar »

velcrovan wrote: post #7
vouaobrasil wrote: post #2

Looks interesting but it won't work on many shared servers on which the only option is PHP/SQL due to it being written in Go.

Genuine question, is shared hosting still the go-to option for many HN readers when setting up a personal site?

To an extent, yes. In my case, I've done a lot of WordPress consulting over the past 10 years and I'm grandfathered into a very inexpensive shared hosting plan from Site5 that gives me WHM access and the ability to create as many sites as I want.

Works fine for static sites. Works fine for anything PHP. PHP versions are kept up to date.

But the cost of an additional site is effectively cost-free, so I'm hosting several small sites for small organizations and individuals.

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#18

Post by jnsplm »

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #3
vouaobrasil wrote: post #2

Looks interesting but it won't work on many shared servers on which the only option is PHP/SQL due to it being written in Go.

Explain how they still survive and are the only viable option for anyone in the day and age where $5 VPSes are a thing.

I happily pay some money for not maintaining another server/service in my private time. 10€/month for a managed server with ssh, Postgres, MySQL, mail, and backups is worth it for me: https://uberspace.de/en/ (not affiliated, just a happy customer)

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#19

Post by doublepg23 »

troymc wrote: post #11
xd1936 wrote: post #4

From what I understand, Mastodon is to Twitter as WriteFreely is to WordPress.com/Medium/Blogger/etc. Fediverse-aware, open-source, with a flagship SaaS hosted instance available at https://write.as . If microblogging hadn't fried my brain and I was interested in spinning up a longform blog, this is the software I would choose.

WordPress.com is also based on open-source software (WordPress) and can connect to the Fediverse via Activitypub [1]. Similar to WriteFreely, there's even a WordPress.com desktop app [2]. That said, I understand the allure of a simple, minimal, distraction-free writing and reading experience. [1] https://wordpress.com/support/enter-the-fediverse/ [2] https://apps.wordpress.com/desktop/

I think a lot of people may prefer WriteFreely’s Go stack vs. WordPresses PHP - for right or wrong reasons.

Re: WriteFreely: An open source platform for building a writing space on the web

#20

Post by zamubafoo »

I use this in my homelab for drafting long form thoughts. It's nice since it feels more ephemeral than making a page in a wiki or making a page that gets rendered and hosted statically.

I used to run Ghost for this, but at some point the pervasive push to use Ghost's paid features for an internally hosted blog irked me enough to rip it out.

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