I'm not a serious blogger but like to create posts about once a month. I hate vanilla wordpress, but its feature set and ui is much better than anything I could write on my own. I wrote a basic blog app using django, but I hate having to support it. Have others struggled with this choice, what did you decide?
Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
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Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#2I'd stick with Wordpress. Find a template you like, it'll be worth the $40-60 to not have to constantly support a custom app for something like blogging.
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#3Avoid the headache of upgrading software when you really want to focus on writing. There are more blogging platforms besides wordpress. https://ghost.org/ or http://squarespace.com/home/overview/ come to mind.
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#4I am less technically proficient than a lot of people here. I know a little HTML and CSS and I used to hand-code my own sites. I moved them to Word Press to try to stop spending all my time on coding and, instead, focus more on content creation and general development. I was very frustrated with Word Press because of the amount of time I spent a) updating the backend and b) looking for a better template that I liked more than whatever I had settled for initially.
I ultimately moved everything to BlogSpot. I am much happier and I spend much more time on actual development of content and layout and so on.
/Unpopular Google loyalist pov
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#5Wordpress.
It is extremely customisable. There are tens of thousands of themes and many themes can be heavily customised within their own right.
Even assuming you wrote your own blogging platform you still have to write a lot of the useful Wordpress addons like WP Super Cache, Google XML Sitemaps, and so on.
I'd honest think it would be a better use of your time to write your own Wordpress theme end to end, than to write your own blogging platform, at least the theme you could likely sell (as opposed to your own, unsupported, blogging solution).
I'm no Wordpress fan boy, but it "just works" out of the box, and the only real downside I can name is I wish it didn't have so many security issues (and "apply this now!" critical patches).
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#6Wordpress has way to many security problems, especially if you use plugins, as that I would want to administer it myself. Especially since wordpress is so popular and you can assume that vulnerabilities are actively exploited very quickly.
A static site generator, something hosted or even a more modern, less popular platform takes away a lot of that pressure.
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#7If you enjoy coding and are willing to spend hours at a time upgrading and maintaining your own blogging platform go for it. If you want to just post content then go with a blogging platform, but before you settle on one try a few of them out!
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#8Avoid the headache of upgrading software when you really want to focus on writing. There are more blogging platforms besides wordpress. https://ghost.org/ or http://squarespace.com/home/overview/ come to mind.
Thumbs up for Ghost. Switched to Ghost a few months ago and absolutely love it.
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#9Wordpress has way to many security problems, especially if you use plugins, as that I would want to administer it myself. Especially since wordpress is so popular and you can assume that vulnerabilities are actively exploited very quickly. A static site generator, something hosted or even a more modern, less popular platform takes away a lot of that pressure.
This isn't really true.
Automattic, the company behind WordPress, has a good security team and an active bug bounty program. They respond to reported vulnerabilities, especially serious ones, extremely swiftly. Furthermore, a good hosting service will eliminate almost all the security issues Automattic doesn't catch.
If you get a good host (e.g. WPEngine) you can automate backups and security updates, and the host will constantly monitor your account for suspicious activity and known-vulnerable plugins. It will even notify you if you install an unsafe plugin and automatically uninstall it.
I run my own information security blog on WordPress. I have comments disabled, I'm careful about what plugins I install (because let's be honest, there aren't many you really need) and WPEngine constantly scans my entire installation for suspicious activity or evidence of an intrusion. Aside from a 0day, there isn't much an attacker can do to compromise me.
Looking past alleged security issues, WordPress is a very established, robust and mature CMS for people who want stability and customization for their blog platform. I highly recommend it.
Re: Blog: roll my own or just use Wordpress?
#10For something that gets updated once a month, I'd go with a static site generator. I like https://middlemanapp.com/. If that seems like too much work, you should just write on Medium.
Having used WordPress heavily in the past, I wouldn't go near it for my own site. It's a great option if you need a CMS for non-technical contributors, but I find I can get things done much faster writing in my editor of choice. As others have mentioned, security is something you need to stay on top of...