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The thing with writing is that the smallest distraction can make you not want to write. Like, sure, I could go and set up a blog right now on my domain, but I'd

The thing with writing is that the smallest distraction can make you not want to write. Like, sure, I could go and set up a blog right now on my domain, but I'd have to find a blogging service (GitHub pages? I don't necessarily want to fiddle with markup though), log into my domain, potentially fiddle with HTTPS, and after all that I won't want to write my blog post anymore. And after I've written my blog post, I'm not going to fiddle with setting up my own blog because I don't have anything to write anymore. And next time I have something to write, I'm not going to want to fiddle with setting up a blog.

baby 4y ago
Sure, that’s why I recommend everyone to just use wordpress
- post-it 4y ago
  If I'm going to use a free Wordpress host (probably with ads), why not use Substack?
  - baby 4y ago
    To me the question is why use substack? Wordpress has been around forever, is free, doesn't have ads, and allows you to do customize everything you'd want.
    - post-it 4y ago
      WordPress.com's free plan has ads.
      - baby 4y ago
        Where? Maybe coz I have adblock
johntash 4y ago
It's easier than ever to set up a blog. If you aren't interested in figuring out how to host your own, there are paid solutions like Ghost and Wordpress. You can always use one of those and migrate to a self-hosted one in the future if desired.
- Kye 4y ago
  Ghost is $300/year just to show up and not have extreme limitations on customization. You can't even increase the size of the tiny fonts on the few available themes to something accessible on the base plan. Wordpress.com recently completely revamped its pricing, pissing everyone off, then walked it back. And it's unclear what motivated it, or what's to come. This is the kind of omen that preceded Patreon's fall from obvious choice to reluctant best option of a bunch of bad or incomplete solutions. Automattic's pricing is more reasonable now, but the single $180/year plan they tried and walked back from hangs over it. It tells me they wanted to shift away from casual bloggers (like someone who doesn't want to worry about maintaining a .org install) to people who are willing and able to pay triple digits for all the features for business or personal PR purposes.
  - johntash 4y ago
    Interesting, I didn't realize either option were so expensive now! As an alternative, maybe something like Dreamhost's $10/yr plan and one-click wordpress installer? DigitalOcean also has one-click installers/images available for ghost and wordpress, but would still be at least $5/mo. Both of these options start to go back towards the burden of having to maintain them though. I don't know if it exists, but maybe there's room for something like a desktop version of Ghost that allows you to write posts/etc locally and then publish to a static github-pages (or s3/etc) site.
  - baby 4y ago
    Wordpress has been around for 20 years at this point... this sounds like FUD

baby 4y ago

Sure, that’s why I recommend everyone to just use wordpress

post-it 4y ago
If I'm going to use a free Wordpress host (probably with ads), why not use Substack?
- baby 4y ago
  To me the question is why use substack? Wordpress has been around forever, is free, doesn't have ads, and allows you to do customize everything you'd want.
  - post-it 4y ago
    WordPress.com's free plan has ads.
    - baby 4y ago
      Where? Maybe coz I have adblock

johntash 4y ago

It's easier than ever to set up a blog. If you aren't interested in figuring out how to host your own, there are paid solutions like Ghost and Wordpress. You can always use one of those and migrate to a self-hosted one in the future if desired.

Kye 4y ago
Ghost is $300/year just to show up and not have extreme limitations on customization. You can't even increase the size of the tiny fonts on the few available themes to something accessible on the base plan. Wordpress.com recently completely revamped its pricing, pissing everyone off, then walked it back. And it's unclear what motivated it, or what's to come. This is the kind of omen that preceded Patreon's fall from obvious choice to reluctant best option of a bunch of bad or incomplete solutions. Automattic's pricing is more reasonable now, but the single $180/year plan they tried and walked back from hangs over it. It tells me they wanted to shift away from casual bloggers (like someone who doesn't want to worry about maintaining a .org install) to people who are willing and able to pay triple digits for all the features for business or personal PR purposes.
- johntash 4y ago
  Interesting, I didn't realize either option were so expensive now! As an alternative, maybe something like Dreamhost's $10/yr plan and one-click wordpress installer? DigitalOcean also has one-click installers/images available for ghost and wordpress, but would still be at least $5/mo. Both of these options start to go back towards the burden of having to maintain them though. I don't know if it exists, but maybe there's room for something like a desktop version of Ghost that allows you to write posts/etc locally and then publish to a static github-pages (or s3/etc) site.
- baby 4y ago
  Wordpress has been around for 20 years at this point... this sounds like FUD