5 ms·

Again, because I'm boring like that: it's pretty hilarious to me that anyone would choose to make a new blog and not just use WordPress, especially when their s

by dmje 3y ago

Again, because I'm boring like that: it's pretty hilarious to me that anyone would choose to make a new blog and not just use WordPress, especially when their stated aim contains this: "...that makes it as easy as possible to create posts". There are some moments when you shouldn't use WordPress. A blog is not one of those moments. Avoiding the obvious tool for the job is classic developer trendytool syndrome.

skydhash 3y ago
Not really, wordpress is a bit of nightmare to code upon and buying plugins and themes can result in incompatibility issues and vulnerabilities. I think Medium is easier, but it’s a walled platform.
- slothtrop 3y ago
  Substack seems increasingly popular, though not among devs for some reason.
  - FalconSensei 3y ago
    Keep in mind that recently Substack said that they allow Nazis and wouldn't remove them
- dmje 3y ago
  Sorry to be argumentative, but it just isn't. It's PHP, and you probably don't need to code anything at all. You also don't need many plugins. Incompatibility issues and vulnerabilities just aren't a thing - as long as you keep stuff up to date and don't install a thousand dodgy plugins, you'll be fine. And yes, this is what I do: maintaining 50+ sites for clients, so I have been round the block a few times, not just making this up.
  - joshmanders 3y ago
    "This is what I do and I am fine with all the trade-offs so doing it any other way is wrong and a waste of time" - classic developer do-as-i-say-ism.
    - dmje 3y ago
      It’s funny, I see it as entirely the other way round. I see many on HN as being sort of “automatically negative” about Wordpress and php and unable to see that there are actually some times when they’re totally the right tools for the job. I’d be the last person to suggest anyone use Wordpress for everything - yes, I happen to have a niche that is about this tool, and I like it and am passionate about it, and for what we do it’s highly relevant and very much the right tool - but we’re also very pragmatic about decision making. What I see so much in developer land is that certain trends drive strategy. It’s so often not the boring, known, stayed tool which wins the day but the bleeding edge one which actually isn’t as good a fit. As I say in a comment lower down here - the tradeoffs to me here are: no feed, no comments, no categories, no OG tags, no API - all of which are out of the box with Wordpress.
brigadier132 3y ago
Ah, please tell me the easy way to include interactive js demos in wordpress like the blog post author has. It's obvious that the blogpost author wants a level of customization that wordpress can't offer. Also, trying new technologies was literally a goal of the project.
- dmje 3y ago
  I mean, write a simple plugin that enables you to embed these using a shortcode, if there isn't an existing plugin that does it already? WordPress is insanely customisable - it's "just php". And sure, maybe his new skill learning could be coding on WordPress :-)
  - brigadier132 3y ago
    > I mean, write a simple plugin that enables you to embed these using a shortcode Ok, so learn php when they could just use js which they likely already know and likely get paid to know. Wordpress and php are negative value skills, you do not want to advertise that you know those things as a developer because someone might try to hire you for them.
    - dmje 3y ago
      Failing to understand what "Wordpress and php are negative value skills" even means. I'm pretty happy with the work I get paid for ;-)
      - digging 3y ago
        It means I, for example, wish I didn't know how to use WP and PHP so I didn't have to work on them in our legacy apps. Because I don't want to write or read PHP. I'm much happier when I don't have to. Get paid the same either way.
    - joshmanders 3y ago
      > Wordpress and php are negative value skills, you do not want to advertise that you know those things as a developer because someone might try to hire you for them. This was unnecessary.
Retr0id 3y ago
Sometimes the medium is the message. A web developer's blog can be a platform to show off their skills, and the blog itself is one way to do that.
- dmje 3y ago
  Yeh, I get that - but then at the same time we have a web developers blog here with no RSS / feeds as far as I can see, no comments, no API, no OG tags - all the things one would expect from a blog. These seem to me a strange set of things to sacrifice in this context.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
pvg 3y ago
Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dmje 3y ago
  Shallow because...? I was making a point that the best tool for the job can sometimes be the one which is widely used, hugely supported, cheap to host, well understood - it may not be the trendy choice, but "trendy" is not (in my humble opinion) a terribly good criteria for tech stack decisions...
  - pvg 3y ago
    It's not an interesting point, especially if you intend it as a tangential flamewar hook and, as you say yourself, you post it repetitively. The submission is not about 'tech stack decisions', it's somebody showing something they made. You don't have to like it or have much to say about it but a completely generic 'just use something else' is well within the scope of the guideline and a bunch of other ones.
  - dmje 3y ago
    …I’ll just leave this [0] here. A perfect example which just popped up in my feed list of “simple but does this job” tech. No js, no database, a $10 a month vps. [0] https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-tech https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-...
- FalconSensei 3y ago
  Author mentioned that the reason for the new blog is to be easier to create posts. But doesn't mention much of what changed in the workflow. Seems he's using md files. But then what was he using before? If MD->MD, then what changed? Using Obsidian to be easier to edit and sync between devices?
  - pvg 3y ago
    The author is in the thread so if these are your specific questions or critiques, you should direct them there. 'It's hilarious to me they don't use Wordpress' is not a specific question or critique, it's a generic sneery putdown.
nkohari 3y ago
Wordpress is incredibly complex when compared to a static site that can be served ~entirely from a CDN. A database-backed blog has been outmoded now for years. If you don't want a pre-built theme, you don't need the plugin ecosystem, and you don't need/want a WYSIWYG editor, there's no reason to choose Wordpress.
- dmje 3y ago
  Is a blog a blog when it hasn’t got comments, feeds, categories, tags? I’d say not. So: sure, if your cdn and static files can do all of those then yeh. But it can’t.
  - nkohari 3y ago
    Eh, debating what's a "blog" and what's a "personal website" is splitting hairs. Most "blogs" nowadays don't have the features you're talking about, because very few people actually care about them anymore. If you really want comments, you can add them via something like Disqus, but so few people are using RSS today that it's not worth bothering with.
    - dmje 3y ago
      The point I’m making is that we should choose tech that is relevant to the job in hand, not just because it’s the latest cool thing. When I first started doing web stuff, ColdFusion, Perl, Flash and WAP were The Big Things at the time. Not so much now. It may seem like no-one can build anything on the web without having js through and through the stack - but actually you can, and sometimes you should. Even JavaScript will probably one day be relegated to the dustbin of a good idea we all once had… Btw - this might be the wrong forum to diss RSS ;-)

by dmje 3y ago

skydhash 3y ago

Not really, wordpress is a bit of nightmare to code upon and buying plugins and themes can result in incompatibility issues and vulnerabilities. I think Medium is easier, but it’s a walled platform.

slothtrop 3y ago
Substack seems increasingly popular, though not among devs for some reason.
- FalconSensei 3y ago
  Keep in mind that recently Substack said that they allow Nazis and wouldn't remove them
dmje 3y ago
Sorry to be argumentative, but it just isn't. It's PHP, and you probably don't need to code anything at all. You also don't need many plugins. Incompatibility issues and vulnerabilities just aren't a thing - as long as you keep stuff up to date and don't install a thousand dodgy plugins, you'll be fine. And yes, this is what I do: maintaining 50+ sites for clients, so I have been round the block a few times, not just making this up.
- joshmanders 3y ago
  "This is what I do and I am fine with all the trade-offs so doing it any other way is wrong and a waste of time" - classic developer do-as-i-say-ism.
  - dmje 3y ago
    It’s funny, I see it as entirely the other way round. I see many on HN as being sort of “automatically negative” about Wordpress and php and unable to see that there are actually some times when they’re totally the right tools for the job. I’d be the last person to suggest anyone use Wordpress for everything - yes, I happen to have a niche that is about this tool, and I like it and am passionate about it, and for what we do it’s highly relevant and very much the right tool - but we’re also very pragmatic about decision making. What I see so much in developer land is that certain trends drive strategy. It’s so often not the boring, known, stayed tool which wins the day but the bleeding edge one which actually isn’t as good a fit. As I say in a comment lower down here - the tradeoffs to me here are: no feed, no comments, no categories, no OG tags, no API - all of which are out of the box with Wordpress.

brigadier132 3y ago

Ah, please tell me the easy way to include interactive js demos in wordpress like the blog post author has. It's obvious that the blogpost author wants a level of customization that wordpress can't offer. Also, trying new technologies was literally a goal of the project.

dmje 3y ago
I mean, write a simple plugin that enables you to embed these using a shortcode, if there isn't an existing plugin that does it already? WordPress is insanely customisable - it's "just php". And sure, maybe his new skill learning could be coding on WordPress :-)
- brigadier132 3y ago
  > I mean, write a simple plugin that enables you to embed these using a shortcode Ok, so learn php when they could just use js which they likely already know and likely get paid to know. Wordpress and php are negative value skills, you do not want to advertise that you know those things as a developer because someone might try to hire you for them.
  - dmje 3y ago
    Failing to understand what "Wordpress and php are negative value skills" even means. I'm pretty happy with the work I get paid for ;-)
    - digging 3y ago
      It means I, for example, wish I didn't know how to use WP and PHP so I didn't have to work on them in our legacy apps. Because I don't want to write or read PHP. I'm much happier when I don't have to. Get paid the same either way.
  - joshmanders 3y ago
    > Wordpress and php are negative value skills, you do not want to advertise that you know those things as a developer because someone might try to hire you for them. This was unnecessary.

Retr0id 3y ago

Sometimes the medium is the message. A web developer's blog can be a platform to show off their skills, and the blog itself is one way to do that.

dmje 3y ago
Yeh, I get that - but then at the same time we have a web developers blog here with no RSS / feeds as far as I can see, no comments, no API, no OG tags - all the things one would expect from a blog. These seem to me a strange set of things to sacrifice in this context.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

pvg 3y ago

Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

dmje 3y ago
Shallow because...? I was making a point that the best tool for the job can sometimes be the one which is widely used, hugely supported, cheap to host, well understood - it may not be the trendy choice, but "trendy" is not (in my humble opinion) a terribly good criteria for tech stack decisions...
- pvg 3y ago
  It's not an interesting point, especially if you intend it as a tangential flamewar hook and, as you say yourself, you post it repetitively. The submission is not about 'tech stack decisions', it's somebody showing something they made. You don't have to like it or have much to say about it but a completely generic 'just use something else' is well within the scope of the guideline and a bunch of other ones.
- dmje 3y ago
  …I’ll just leave this [0] here. A perfect example which just popped up in my feed list of “simple but does this job” tech. No js, no database, a $10 a month vps. [0] https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-tech https://alexcabal.com/posts/standard-ebooks-and-classic-web-...
FalconSensei 3y ago
Author mentioned that the reason for the new blog is to be easier to create posts. But doesn't mention much of what changed in the workflow. Seems he's using md files. But then what was he using before? If MD->MD, then what changed? Using Obsidian to be easier to edit and sync between devices?
- pvg 3y ago
  The author is in the thread so if these are your specific questions or critiques, you should direct them there. 'It's hilarious to me they don't use Wordpress' is not a specific question or critique, it's a generic sneery putdown.

nkohari 3y ago

Wordpress is incredibly complex when compared to a static site that can be served ~entirely from a CDN. A database-backed blog has been outmoded now for years. If you don't want a pre-built theme, you don't need the plugin ecosystem, and you don't need/want a WYSIWYG editor, there's no reason to choose Wordpress.

dmje 3y ago
Is a blog a blog when it hasn’t got comments, feeds, categories, tags? I’d say not. So: sure, if your cdn and static files can do all of those then yeh. But it can’t.
- nkohari 3y ago
  Eh, debating what's a "blog" and what's a "personal website" is splitting hairs. Most "blogs" nowadays don't have the features you're talking about, because very few people actually care about them anymore. If you really want comments, you can add them via something like Disqus, but so few people are using RSS today that it's not worth bothering with.
  - dmje 3y ago
    The point I’m making is that we should choose tech that is relevant to the job in hand, not just because it’s the latest cool thing. When I first started doing web stuff, ColdFusion, Perl, Flash and WAP were The Big Things at the time. Not so much now. It may seem like no-one can build anything on the web without having js through and through the stack - but actually you can, and sometimes you should. Even JavaScript will probably one day be relegated to the dustbin of a good idea we all once had… Btw - this might be the wrong forum to diss RSS ;-)