
Ask HN: What is your blogging platform of choice in 2018? - joshdance
Medium was hot, then not as much. Ghost is doing well. Wordpress is the default.<p>What do you use to setup a blog now a days?
======
askafriend
Twitter/Medium because I'm a normal person looking for the easiest solution
that I know of. I'm not picky and I don't care about principles or owning my
content. I just want to write and then get a link that I can share with
people.

I know this perspective isn't well represented on HN so I figured it'd be
helpful to share.

If I had a more acute reason for starting a blog like personal branding, or
some sort of strategic media objective, I may look more into the implications
of publishing on 3rd party sites, but for the casual use-cases that I
anticipate for myself, that angle doesn't matter for me.

------
pnathan
Code is data is code.

I wrote my surrounding static text as a Common Lisp program; relevant BLOBs
are put into a resources directory. Blog entries are in Markdown, then read
into the program, transformed, and the entire thing spat out as HTML.

It then uploads to S3 and renders out in a domain. I'll be moving to the
Google cloud edition of that sometime in the next 4 months, I figure.

I've dinked with wordpress, blogger, tumblr, livejournal, dreamwidth, and
other platforms, along with 1 or 2 other static site generators, _along_ with
writing my own static site generator. This beats all of them in terms of
maintainability and simplicity.

I'm a no-name software engineer and this is a way to write down things that I
want to share with people. It works _really well_.

For the curious, here's an out of date edition of the site as Lisp:
[https://gist.github.com/pnathan/d57bb0e95fa68552a51755814844...](https://gist.github.com/pnathan/d57bb0e95fa68552a51755814844d50b)

~~~
kqr
I also use Lisp, but slighly differently: I've really come to love how
flexible and powerful Emacs Org is. With all static generation tools
(including those i built myself) I've hit limits. Not with Org, yet.

~~~
pnathan
Yeah, that's another way to do it. The lack of constraints here means that we
can explore the space of solutions very freely. :)

------
jcastro
[https://forestry.io/](https://forestry.io/) \- it's a nice front end for
hugo.

------
mikece
I keep hoping to see a "Show HN" article one of these days featuring an
Electron app that functions as blog editor and publishes static files via
rsync to the server and backs up all blog content via distributed source
control to the source control host of your choice through which other
contributors to the blog can sync.

Am I hoping for too much?

------
hammerha
Hugo + Netlify + Bitbucket.

I only pay for the domain via namesilo.

I used to use Tumblr but moved to the static site generator because \- I
wanted full flexibility \- I didn't use web GUI to write or redesign my blog
\- Tumblr looked outdated at some point - and this could happen to any
platform.

------
jmcharnes
I still love my self-hosted WordPress instance. I wanted, for so long, to not
use WordPress (for stupid reasons).

I keep a minimal set of plugins activated and my blog just works. It allows me
to focus on content instead of trying to do a bunch of "dev work" on it.

------
nickjj
Same as a few years ago, self hosted Jekyll.

Even with over 200 posts and a bunch of pages, it's a fast write -> preview
loop (less than 3 seconds).

~~~
iforgotpassword
I tried to go with Jekyll but didn't even bother setting up a ruby env. So I
went with Hyde. It works OK but I still was rather annoyed that I had to learn
yet another markup/template syntax. Customizing wasn't really straightforward
either, docs were rather lacking on some areas, so it was mostly trial and
error. I'd prefer some static blog generator that's really dumbed down enough
to have a dead simple template system and uses some form of simple markdown,
but my search wasn't successful...

~~~
nickjj
If you run Linux or MacOS you could always run Jekyll in Docker and not worry
about Ruby.

Unfortunately Jekyll with Docker for Windows doesn't work. The file watcher is
completely busted (even with polling). It's strange too because every other
language / framework works fine (Flask, Rails, Phoenix, Node), etc. It's just
Jekyll that's broken.

------
abronan
I have been using Ghost for more than four years now (I tried using Wordpress
before but I was left frustrated). Although I know there are probably
attractive alternatives (Hugo/Netlify), I don't feel the urge to try something
else. I like the Ghost editor and it provides with a nice and focused
experience of writing [1].

I use a very simple, minimalist (albeit, slightly modified) theme called Oscar
[2].

[1] [https://abronan.com/](https://abronan.com/) [2]
[https://github.com/abronan/oscar-ghost](https://github.com/abronan/oscar-
ghost)

------
otterpro
Hugo.

Many years ago, I started with Wordpress (and tried many PHP-based CMS like
Typo3, Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, etc). Many years later, I eventually moved onto
static site generators and discovered the joy and freedom of pure static HTML.
I've been using Jekyll for a while. But I wanted to move away from Ruby so
I've played around with Metalsmith, Hexo, Pelican, Gatsby, etc., but Hugo won
over by a big margin. It has no dependencies, works on all platform, and it
has the fastest build of any static generators.

------
valeg
Plume¹ is my blogging platform of choice... in 2020. Perhaps...

¹ [https://github.com/Plume-org/Plume](https://github.com/Plume-org/Plume)

------
jacquesm
Hugo. Self hosted. There is no way I'm going to hand my content to some third
party to monitor and track the visitors and monetize at their discretion.

------
minzschokolade
Jekyll, nowadays I prefer blog-aware static site generators over dynamic
content CMS.

------
munificent
For my blog [0], I use Jekyll. I'm not super enthusiastic about it, but it
gets the job done. Ideally, I'd use a system that doesn't require as much
futzing around with Bundler and pip (I use pygments for source highlighting,
so Python is in the mix too) every time I touch it. It's kind of slow too.

For my first book [1], which is online too, I hand-rolled a tiny Python script
[2] that converts the Markdown pages to HTML. It uses Python Markdown and
that's about it. SASS for authoring CSS. (Weird observation: that 499-line
Python script is probably the most profitable code I've ever written.)

For my second book [3], I took that script and gave it some more juice since
book #2 has more complex needs around including code snippets [4]. It's still
hand-rolled. In addition to Python Markdown, the other interesting library it
uses is jinja2 for templates. I like it.

I understand the arguments against rolling your own, but a blog generator is
simple enough that the benefits of code reuse are relatively small. Meanwhile,
the convenience of being able to jam little hacks specific to your need is
very real [5].

When I get time to hack on my blog again, there's a good chance I'll ditch
Jekyll and roll my own.

[0]: [http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/](http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/)

[1]:
[http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/](http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/)

[2]: [https://github.com/munificent/game-programming-
patterns/blob...](https://github.com/munificent/game-programming-
patterns/blob/master/script/format.py)

[3]:
[http://www.craftinginterpreters.com/](http://www.craftinginterpreters.com/)

[4]:
[https://github.com/munificent/craftinginterpreters/tree/mast...](https://github.com/munificent/craftinginterpreters/tree/master/util)

[5]:
[https://github.com/munificent/craftinginterpreters/blob/mast...](https://github.com/munificent/craftinginterpreters/blob/master/util/build.py#L34-L37)

------
justboxing
I use a Hugo -- GitHub -- Netlify setup.

Fast, cheap, secure, and fully automated once the hard part (writing) is done.

Works great, and Hugo has incremental builds, so it's blazing fast even for
1000s of blog posts.

I did a somewhat lengthy video on how to get this setup up and running :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSwoCvd4QIc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSwoCvd4QIc)

Also this setup is not as "nerdy" / "geeky" as you might think. I migrated a
team of 3 content writers and editors from Wordpress to Hugo and it was mostly
painless. Just need to find a good Markdown Editor with preview. Hugo also
have live reload, so the content writers can see their posts in a copy of the
live site locally, and are able to fix a lot of typographical and visual
errors before publish.

Still trying to find a way to do scheduled posts.

If you are looking for a publishing house type stuff with a lot of writers,
this may not be the solution.

------
pier25
I used to have a blog, but for the last couple of years I've been using
Medium.

For my use case, an unknown very occasional blogger, it doesn't make sense to
invest in a dedicated website or pay for a service like Ghost. I imagine this
is very different for full time bloggers or more notorious individuals such as
Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror).

------
eb0la
I would like to have something like CityDesk (I paid for that software back
in... Y2K?). I remember someone was able to "hack" it to embed articles inside
excel sheets: he just used an excel sheet as a template (which was zipped XML)
and Citidesk substitued some variables inside the templeate

I miss that piece of software.

------
asplake
Yes, Wordpress is still the default, but after getting hacked despite working
hard to keep it up to date I will no longer host my own. A boring answer and
it's not as customisable as I'd like, but a paid plan on wordpress.com is a
lot less hassle and I don't regret the switch.

~~~
bovermyer
There is definitely something to be said for paying someone to deal with the
server management for you. Opportunity cost, and all that.

------
verdverm
Hugo if you're ok with self hosting

[https://gohugo.io](https://gohugo.io)

~~~
kaushalmodi
You don't even need to self-host. You can host for free.. many options:
Netlify, Gitlab Pages, GitHub Pages, ..

------
sumeetjain
A static-site generator, like eleventy[0], deployed to Netlify[1].

[0] [https://github.com/11ty/eleventy](https://github.com/11ty/eleventy) [1]
[https://www.netlify.com](https://www.netlify.com)

~~~
mxuribe
Never heard of eleventy. I learned something new today, thanks!

------
h0p3
Tiddlywiki on anything which can serve a single html file. It's not just a
blog, but it does that quite well. It's platform agnostic and incredibly
flexible.

I use Resilio Sync and Lighttpd. I edit from any of my devices, and it's
online within a minute.

------
bowlich
Jekyll. Although, I would like to check out some alternative static site
generators as I've never been 100% satisfied with how Jekyll works.

I like having all of my articles as self contained text files that I can run
through pandoc and end up with a nice looking pdf for proofreading. I amuse
myself with the idea that someday I'll write a series of articles good enough
to warrant printing into a book, in which case I'm one step closer down the
typesetting chain.

Also, I can use git for versioning my articles, and just back them up like any
other old file instead of worrying about dumping and importing a database.

------
shopkins
I'm on Write.as and enjoying it a lot [0]. Simple, privacy-focused, and easy
to create multiple blogs.

[0] [https://shopkins.writeas.com](https://shopkins.writeas.com)

~~~
sharemywin
can you use custom domain?

~~~
shopkins
Yep on their cheapest plan, for $10 / year. Also comes with SSL.

------
bovermyer
I design and create content with Hugo, and then Netlify continuously deploys
it to the web.

If Netlify ever dies, it would take me all of 15 minutes to get my site back
online on a VPS somewhere.

------
simonsarris
Twitter to blog thoughts, reach and interact with intellectuals, weirdos, and
other assorted new faces. It is hugely underrated, and much more useful since
the 280 character shift.

Medium to write long pieces. They do a nice job promoting content. They even
narrated (did a voice version of) one of my posts. I don't think as many
people would have read it (or listened) if it was on a regular blog, which
probably would have been hugged to death if it got popular anyway.

------
bfoks
As a creator of the platform[1] to read blogs comfortably I prefer self-hosted
Wordpress.

[1] [https://blogreader.pro](https://blogreader.pro)

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tscs37
I recommend setting up a static blog, hugo/jekyll. Though wordpress and ghost
are pretty decent.

I would advice against medium, it's a terrible experience from mobile and on
PC.

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caiocaiocaio
Earlier this year, I threw together something in Rails with Bulma. It took an
afternoon, except for never-ending css tweaks. Rails is built for that kind of
thing so it wasn't a huge amount of effort.

It's not very socially media aware or SEO-savvy of me, but I'm doing it as a
fun way to build a fun website, which was something people used to use the
internet for.

------
jesalg
Static blog using Jekyll hosted on GitHub Pages

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sus_007
__Pelican __for its superb _Jupyter_ Notebook support, nice set of plugins &
easily configurable nature.

------
genjipress
I built my own WordPress-like item (albeit with static publishing) in Python:
[https://github.com/syegulalp/mercury](https://github.com/syegulalp/mercury)

I haven't been working on it much lately, though, as it reached the point of
my own personal itch being scratched.

------
kaushalmodi
I write my blog posts and miscellaneous coding notes in Org mode, and export
that to Markdown + front-matter for Hugo.

I simply commit the edits in git, push them to Gitlab, and Netlify picks those
up and publishes using Hugo to [https://scripter.co](https://scripter.co).

------
acconrad
I still believe in owning your data.

I host my own blog on Gitlab using Jekyll (though I'm hoping to move to my own
custom solution on the Elixir language later this year).

Medium is still helpful but I'd rather use that for republishing my work
rather than simply letting them own my content outright.

~~~
anothergoogler
You believe in owning your own data but aren't self-hosting?

------
cridenour
I've really liked Wagtail with this repo:
[https://github.com/thelabnyc/wagtail_blog](https://github.com/thelabnyc/wagtail_blog)

Can import Wordpress, easy editing with Wagtail, sane templating from Django.

------
dmavila
After trying both Wordpress and Hugo, I decided to keep it simple and set up
Ghost using Digital Ocean's 1 click install. It has everything I need and I'm
very satisfied with Ghost's editor.

------
city41
I set up my blog using wintersmith and github pages years ago. It still works
well. Being able to write articles in the editor of my choice and having the
full power of git is great.

------
mymmaster
For adding a blog to an existing site on a modern tech stack: ButterCMS
[https://buttercms.com](https://buttercms.com)

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amaccuish
Wordpess as a backend. Cron runs a wget mirror on it to a separate server with
only nginx, no php-fpm.

Looking at potentially replacing this setup with Wordpress on dotnet core.

------
whorleater
[https://github.com/kelvinh/org-page](https://github.com/kelvinh/org-page)

------
egypturnash
Still using the Wordpress site I built like a decade ago. New projects get
sub-sites of the same domain.

------
DpdC
Bludit. Without place to any type of doubts. The simplest and fastest to use
and maintain online.

------
BeetleB
Pelican. I actually author my posts in Org Mode - I have a plugin to handle
org files for Pelican.

------
andrewshadura
Pelican.

------
hectormalot
Hugo on gitlab pages (it even deploys using their CI/CD pipeline)

------
sudders
Self hosted Ghost. Been running smoothly and I'm happy about it.

------
nmpennypacker
Gatsby + Github pages

------
greatamerican
self-hosted jekyll in an s3 bucket. I detailed how I set this up here:
[https://www.josephecombs.com/2018/03/05/how-to-make-an-
AWS-S...](https://www.josephecombs.com/2018/03/05/how-to-make-an-
AWS-S3-static-website-with-ssl)

------
cjbest
The new hot thing is to do a newsletter.

It's the minimal version of a blog, and it's easier to get people to come back
and read when new posts show up in their inbox.

(I am one of the founders of Substack, that lets you do a newsletter + website
for free, and even charge subscriptions for it. There are a couple interesting
writers choosing it including Matt Taibbi who is doing an AMA right now at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17239602](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17239602))

