Only one data point but I made my first blog inspired by Slashdot. I wrote a CGI script that read flat text file posts to make the front page, then when you cl

Only one data point but I made my first blog inspired by Slashdot. I wrote a CGI script that read flat text file posts to make the front page, then when you clicked a link, another script wrapped the chosen post text file in a basic HTML template (eg added a header and footer, that's it). Making that (and clones customised for friends), got me into web development and ended up in a 20 year career.