I also wrote my own static blog generator. It's available as either a Perl or a Python program [0]. I use it to write a static microblog [1].
Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
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Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#72Tiddlywiki! Currently I'm working on having Tiddlywiki in a serverless env: Lambda + DynamDB + API Gateway.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is exactly my point. With Ghost, I would have to resort to a third party service to have something so essential as a commenting system for a blog. Comments are a part of your blog's content and it is necessary to have your own control over it, as these third party providers can shut down or just ban your site for any reason(take Google Plus comments for instance which many blogs were using as a commenting platfo…
Aren't comments a response to your blog content and not part of the content itself? Having the option to use a multitude of commenting services seems like lots of control surely? If you look at the various options being suggested in the comments here you'll see many of them don't come with comments out of the box. Jekyll, Gatsby, Hugo, 11ty all require you to use a third party service or roll your own.
I strongly believe that they are a part of the content, just not in the traditional sense. Many times I find more substance in the comments than in the main content. Sure it's great to have more control over which commenting system to choose, but would adding a native commenting diminish that control? Certainly not right? (If you check out ghost's forums, you will find many people asking for a native commenting system)
Yes none of those static site generators support commenting, making them not very suitable for blogging(they dont even support searches). That is why I am not a proponent of static generators as a blogging platform.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#74To avoid updates and viruses, go with a static site. There are a ton of good static site generators out there. My blog[0] runs on Jekyll[1]. Hugo[2] is a popular option. I've fiddled with Gatsby[3] and heard good things. Eleventy[4] looks as close to Jekyll-but-in-JavaScript as I've seen. Since you want to be able to customize it, I'd probably take the static site generator's language into account. Do you like... Rub…
Do people write their own static site generators because they're bored, or because templating is always annoying and it's more fun to write your own than learn a new system? None of them do anything novel, or particularly better than all the others. They just have some quirk that makes people choose them. "This one is a static binary!" "This one uses a specific programming language!" "This one uses a unique templatin…
> Do people write their own static site generators because they're bored, or because templating is always annoying and it's more fun to write your own than learn a new system?
In my case [0] because I wanted to generate the site from a single Markdown file. I wrote a Perl program to accomplish this. Then I got bored and wrote a Python version as well. And it works, I have kept up posting to my blog [1] for 150+ days since it went live.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#75jekyll, ghost, and wordpress are the easiest to setup and customize
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#76While it doesn't seem very popular in Hacker News, I think WordPress [1] is an excellent platform for a blog. The community is terrific, there is a tremendous amount of documentation out there, and it is entirely customisable. If you go with the managed hosting route, most companies handle security and updates for you, so you can focus on writing and leave everything technical to someone else. I am working on one mys…
I think Wordpress is fine if you keep it maintained. I've just seen a ton of sites end up with malware, gaping security holes, etc. because the site owner didn't vet the plugins they were installing.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#77If you like writing Python code, I recommend https://github.com/sunainapai/makesite (makesite.py). As the README says, it is a simple, lightweight, and magic-free static blog generator. The entire static blog generator code is in a single file named makesite.py. Add your content to the `content` directory. Then run `python3 makesite.py` to generate the static blog. It writes the generated blog to the `_site` director…
I have a soft spot for python modules that fit in a single file like this, like bottle.py as well. Gives you so much freedom to just drop a file in a folder and call it a day, instead of having to worry about what can sometimes be complex dependency management.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#78I use both, WordPress and Hugo.
I use WordPress for personal blog, which consist mostly of links, highlights from books, photography, and stream of concise writing.
And I use Hugo for my professional website with a few blog posts but it is mostly focused on resume.
WordPress makes it super easy to share content via its app or bookmarklet on computer. Writing experience on WordPress editor is okay. I get average of 100 visitors per month but don't get any comments. I leave comments turned on because if I want to add a note when using someone else's machine, I can. Otherwise, I would turn off commenting and reduce one risk vector.
For Hugo, I use dedicated writing app, iaWriter[0]. It is definitely better experience of writing. My Hugo blog also has a private area where I write my fiction projects or write private notes. Of course, Hugo has no comments or search. Not really important for me. You can easily modify Hugo template to your liking but stuff like scheduled posts, automatic sharing on social networks, related posts, etc is not easily doable.
Based on the fact that you want to focus on writing, I would suggest Hugo with a good writing app. Of course, you can write blog posts in any editor and copy paste into WordPress or wherever.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#79If you like writing Python code, I recommend https://github.com/sunainapai/makesite (makesite.py). As the README says, it is a simple, lightweight, and magic-free static blog generator. The entire static blog generator code is in a single file named makesite.py. Add your content to the `content` directory. Then run `python3 makesite.py` to generate the static blog. It writes the generated blog to the `_site` director…
FYI: That's a disclosure, not a disclaimer. A disclaimer would be something like "This project has been written by my wife, so I don't take any responsibility for its quality", which is clearly not your intention.
Thanks for correcting me. Indeed, I meant it as a disclosure, not a disclaimer. I was aware of the difference between the two words but I made a thinking error while writing my comment.
Re: Ask HN: Best Blogging Platform
#80I personally started with a hand-rolled static html site and some content. When I decided to self-host, I got a super cheap VPS and just ran the site off of Node.js with an nginx reverse proxy.
After around 10 blog posts, I just wrote my own static site generator: https://smalldata.tech/blog/2018/08/16/building-a-simple-sta...
Most importantly, what works for me is just writing in HTML. It is more expressive than markdown and the browser preview _just works_ (including displaying images and/or running inlined js if certain posts require it)!