13 / 05 / 02
The thing I find most challenging is “simple”. So far this morning, the best thing I’ve found online is just a blogging platform.
With the advent of Jekyll , a static site generator, many developers are shifting their blogs to GitHub. Writing a blog with Jekyll is relatively simple.
Jekyll at its core is a text transformation engine. The concept behind the system is this: you give it text written in your favorite markup language, be that Markdown, Textile, or just plain HTML, and it churns that through a layout or series of layout files. Throughout that process you can tweak how you want the site URLs to look, what data gets displayed on the layout and more. This is all done through strictly editing files, and the web interface is the final product.
Next, I came across Scriptogr.am , a tool for generating elegant and straightforward static weblogs by reading Markdown files stored in your Dropbox folder.
Put simply, Scriptogr.am is a tool for generating simple, elegant, static weblogs by reading Markdown files stored in your Dropbox folder. Writers are free to write with their preferred editor app, and publishing is as easy as hitting the “Synchronize” button in the Scriptogr.am dashboard.
I also discovered Dropplets , a new platform designed to make blogging simple once again.
There’s no database or confusing admins to worry about. Install in seconds, compose in markdown, then drag and drop to publish.
Lastly, I found Ghost , which is still in development (and will be completed within a few days). I can’t wait to try it.
Ghost is an Open Source application which allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even (gasp) fun to do. It’s simple, elegant, and designed so that you can spend less time messing with making your blog work - and more time blogging.
So, what are your thoughts?