Blogging: The Hacker Way

#1

Post by bem » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 12:37 AM UTC

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#2

Post by ezyang » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 1:31 AM UTC

My experience trying to convince my friends to start blogging is that the absolute worst thing to happen to a blogger is for them to spend an inordinate amount of time tweaking their blog setup, and not actually writing. So yes, if you blog regularly and are looking to improve your process, this may be useful, but if you're just starting off, just do something that works immediately, and worry about the words, not the code.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#3

Post by 8ig8 » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 1:44 AM UTC

Regarding WordPress, the author says:

> The theme for the blog and two static pages took up 12 files of HTML and PHP layouts. Furthermore I had made several hacks to make things be just the way I wanted.

I know WordPress is an easy target on some fronts, but this point seems like a stretch. Twelve files plus hacks?

I don't know all your site requirements, but 2 to 4 WP theme files would probably work for what I see on your site.

I'd be interested to see what the twelve files included. I'm no expert but maybe I could offer some tips for simplifying things?

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#4

Post by danishkhan » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 1:47 AM UTC

Octopress is a project that uses Jekyll, but adds a lot more features that make it even easier to use as a blogging framework.

http://octopress.org/

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#5

Post by _frog » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 2:47 AM UTC

I started working on my personal site today and I've been using Jekyll for it to take advantage of GitHub pages, it's fantastically useful for someone like me who already keeps all their essays in markdown and knows their way around HTML and CSS. This post is super helpful to me, thanks for showing it to us.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#6

Post by prawn » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 3:22 AM UTC

ezyang wrote: post #2

My experience trying to convince my friends to start blogging is that the absolute worst thing to happen to a blogger is for them to spend an inordinate amount of time tweaking their blog setup, and not actually writing. So yes, if you blog regularly and are looking to improve your process, this may be useful, but if you're just starting off, just do something that works immediately, and worry about the words, not th…

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.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#7

Post by _gd3l » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 3:29 AM UTC

For people commenting on his statements about WordPress: Yes, there are better ways than having 12 files to generate what you need. In fact, you can do it with two: an index.php and a style.css file (technically).

But the point is that if you just want to write on the web and not deal with a bunch of nonsense, learning a whole CMS like WordPress can be a pain. I cringe when people give WP a bad name, as it really is awesome and it's pretty much how I make my living. But you can't deny that if you just want simple posting features, WordPress can be a little unnecessarily large.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#8

Post by injekt » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 4:11 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #6

ezyang wrote: post #2

My experience trying to convince my friends to start blogging is that the absolute worst thing to happen to a blogger is for them to spend an inordinate amount of time tweaking their blog setup, and not actually writing. So yes, if you blog regularly and are looking to improve your process, this may be useful, but if you're just starting off, just do something that works immediately, and worry about the words, not th…

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!"

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#9

Post by jyap » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 4:17 AM UTC

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 push to the server. I couldn't post from my cell phone or iPad. Most of my browsing these days is from my iPad.

I mean blogging from WordPress/Blogger isn’t as clean/elite but at least you can edit through the web as well as optionally via a separate application. So if the barriers to create are too high I may as well be using WordPress/Tumblr/Blogger.

I tested out Cloud9 IDE since it ties in nicely with GitHub repositories and covers the base of being able edit througth the web... But the workflow still didn't work. Everything besides blogging 'got in the way'.

If you want to blog like a hacker, start by writing content that doesn't suck.

If you want to feel elite and 'static HTMLy' about it, then:

  - Set up a simple content creation site that supports your content creation workflow best.
  - Set up your elite Jekyll site.
  - Set up a cronjob and a HTML parser which downloads and reformats your posts from your simple content creation site and feeds them to Jekyll.

Re: Blogging: The Hacker Way

#10

Post by danneu » Sun, Nov 20, 2011, 5:40 AM UTC

_gd3l wrote: post #7

For people commenting on his statements about WordPress: Yes, there are better ways than having 12 files to generate what you need. In fact, you can do it with two: an index.php and a style.css file (technically). But the point is that if you just want to write on the web and not deal with a bunch of nonsense, learning a whole CMS like WordPress can be a pain. I cringe when people give WP a bad name, as it really is…

If I wanted a full feature set with effortless tools that trivialize everything about blogging from scheduling posts to posting from an iPhone, Wordpress is easily my favorite. The level of polish and ease that Wordpress comes with is unparalleled.

For my personal blog though, I enjoy Jekyll (via Octopress) because it's hands-on and an educational experience for someone like me that's trying to become a better developer. I learn a lot just jumping in to the source code and trying to figure things out, and it even inspires small coding projects/ideas.