#71

Being a long-time blogger myself, this discussion has me giggling. I’ve been using WP since 2005, and sometimes I think about using a lighter platform, but the static CMS you’re posting are a bit on the nerdy side. Do you know if there is something similar, but simpler, that I could use and update from an iPhone?

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#72

As a non-coder with simple needs in a website, Squarespace has been great for me. Lots of templates to start from, (relatively) simple object blocks to build pages and options for different types of image galleries, audio clips, etc.

Here’s my site as an example that anyone can do it! :smile:

Matthewgavette.com

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#73

^^

I’m going to check this out, thanks. Most of this thread is over my pay grade.

I’m in the same boat, the desire to write about my public land activism experiences, post pics of destroyed habitat, and post Freedom of Information Act files but have no knowledge of writing script.

Might I inquire as to cost for yearly domain registration and hosting?

Btw, what is the camera that you are holding in the about page? Looks vintage.

#74

$144 for hosting.
Domain pricing varies by top-level domain.

I recommend Squarespace to all non-technical editors in need of a low-cost website/blog. It “just works”, and provides a more modern look and feel than wordpress.com, in my opinion.

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#76

A thing about static website generators – most of them don’t have a proper way to handle comments (that was the case at least when I last took a closer look at them a few years back). I’m very suspicious of Disqus and the like – kind of beats the purpose of having your own website.

So, if you need a proper comments engine, a vanilla Wordpress installation is still pretty good. Cheap hosting, no major security issues – it updates itself automatically. If you add a lot of plugins, you need to update manually, or go with a hosting service like wpengine.com that screens for plugin vulnerabilities, but that’s more expensive.

Does anybody have recommendations for a static website generator with a self-hosted comments solution baked in?

#78

I turned off comments a long while ago. Partly, it was just a spam vector; partly, it added not a lot. Also: I remember pre-commenting engines, and back then, you’d write a post on your own site about a thing. So I resolved to do that instead. I’ve found well-run forums a much better space for discussion of, literally, anything…

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#79

+1 to just pushing static sites to a CDN like Netlify. Point a custom domain at them, push flat site content to them, and you have a website with no hosting of your own. There are limitations - the difficulty of pulling old versions, publish roll-out time - but they’re marginal for so many things.

I’ve been porting a few sites recently to Hugo. I have enjoyed it; it is almost the opposite of an SSG like Gatsby, in that, because it’s a precompile Go binary, there’s no plugin structure (which can be a pain) and no arbitrary code execution (which isn’t); instead, you Just Write Templates. As somebody who likes templating languages, and has done deep dark things with them in the past, I’m fine with this. I like it not because I like Go specifically, but because it’s a cross-platform binary, rather than a ton of node_modules. Also, given nobody’s really solved incremental build, the promise of a platform that is fast - like, bullet-fast - means rebuilding the whole site isn’t a chore. It can be eccentric in places, but I’ve enjoyed it.

Also, I am sold on ‘directories of plain text’, and like that they support ‘custom content types’ trivially.

However; I am still not sure any SSG is an easy out-of-the-box experience for a beginner; hosted Wordpress is probably still the best startpoint!

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#80

Agree, in its current form SSGs are not beginner friendly. I made a prototype last year of a GUI desktop app which watches, generates, serves and uploads static web sites with an integrated Netlify integration. I want to add a customizable assets pipeline (mp3 conversion etc) to tailor it for media (podcast) use. In the meantime a year passed by without any work on it, but the idea is still alive and I have the feeling its becoming more and more relevant.

#81

I’ve made a book out of comments in my blog once. It even showed up in the Top 10 bestselling books in Italy, in 2007 :smiley:

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#82

This anecdote is so 2007 ^^

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#83

Thanks to @jasonw22 for the extra info!

It belongs to a friend, and this was several years ago, but I believe it’s a Voigtlander Bessa 6×9. Even in a state of semi-repair it took some very lovely pictures.

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#84

I like namecheap. I don’t have a massively glowing review but it is a lot better than godaddy which makes it good enough for me.

#85

I made books of my Pinboard/Delicious bookmarks… every year until 2014. Should probably bang out a few more.

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#86

I can vouch for Ghost as relatively elegant and straightforward. But straightforward may not be enough, depending on goals.

Aside: I’ve been doing web development since 1997, and I’d submit this entire thread as a searing testament to how fundamentally broken the web is.

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#87

Having also started in the 90’s, I tend to think that this is a testament to how humans can over complicate anything. It all went downhill, in terms of openness and accessibility, once we started treating the browser as a runtime environment rather than a hypertext browser.

IMO, you don’t need a static site generator to have a static website. All you need is a text editor, even the one that comes with your operating systems, and a basic HTML and CSS tutorial. You can make all the static pages you want and link them together.

The logical next step might be using a basic template engine or includes to make a shared header…

That’s it! No command line generators, markdown, github repos, node.js servers, etc… all you need is a basic server (Dreamhost) and a text editor.

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#88

Much truth there, @emenel.

Meanwhile, it’s 2019 and there’s still no way (other than stupid hacks) to justify a column of numbers on the decimal point. You know, basic communication sh*t.

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#90

I understand the aversion to comments, however, as I understand it, blogging implies a site that allows for some kind of interaction, be it comments or some kind of inter-website notifications such as trackbacks or webmentions.

As @emenel put it, there’s hardly any need for generators or databases if you only want to publish web pages with no interaction.

I wonder if it would make sense to have a Discourse installation purely to host discussion for a bunch of blogs? A bit like what boingboing.net does (WP+plugin+Discourse), but for multiple blogs?

I realize I’m somewhat derailing this thread, I’ll shut up now! =)

#91

The blogging era passed for a variety of reasons, and that “interaction” of which you speak is one reason why. Blogs were a vast archipelago of islands, with weak connective tissue (blogrolls). The aggregation and superior interaction of social media took over. We’re (hopefully) past peak social media now, but this weakness of blogs has not really been solved. Some blogs continue to thrive on the sheer strength of the personality behind them (and a lot of momentum).

I recently deleted a blog I operated for business purposes and set up a Discourse community, instead. I don’t think this is a good approach for most people, but I can report that it has been done.

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#92

Weak connective tissue aside, I’d argue that this is also one of the big strengths of blogs. A place made up of many independent realities is a place open to diversity. This got a bit lost with the gradual take-over of corporate social media platforms.
I’d also seems that issues never get fixed in the internet. They just get replace by new things with new issues.

EDIT: but is a strong connective tissue really so important?

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#93

Generators are not that complex, and a reason to use one is to create date based navigation (and/or tagging or categorization) and an rss feed, with less effort.

Also helps with separation of concerns, which comes in handy if you want to do drastic redesigns, etc, but that’s certainly a more niche concern.

No. I agree this contributes to the autonomy and diversity of writers on the web. The HREF is the only connective tissue we need. The indieweb folks get this and have written quite a bit about it.

1 Like