Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers

Posted by mydpy on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @08:44PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Hi all,

I am training for a half-triathlon and want to blog my experiences. I'm sure I will incorporate some data analysis along the way, but right now only plan to document training statistics, nutritions, pictures, text content, etc. I don't plan on calling any APIs (for example, if MyFitnessPal has anything) or embedding other site content into my blog (for example, a Facebook like button). I know html, .NET, and some jsp, but I don't have the time right now to build my own.

I've added some that I like the look and feel of:

1. http://spion.github.io/posts/why-i-am-switching-to-promises.html

2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7002073

3. blogger

I think I'd prefer wordpress over blogger, and I like example 1 the most but have never used github for hosting anything like this. Can anyone comment?

( 19 comments | 17 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by joelrunyon on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @12:04AM (#7021799)

Good luck on the half! I started out the same way (started training for an indoor triathlon & wanted to share my experiences).

I think wordpress is used by the wide majority of bloggers. It's pretty customizeable & you can get it setup in 5 minutes flat so you can focus on writing rather than coding. I wrote a brief free guide a while back on starting a blog - you might find it helpful[1]. If you want to make it super-custom dashboard for your training - you might need something else, but WP does the trick for a lot of people.

[1] http://impossiblehq.com/how-to-start-a-blog-guide

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by mydpy on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @06:12AM (#7022849)

Thanks for the feedback. I'll read this tonight!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by paukiatwee on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @10:36PM (#7021515)

Try https://ghost.org/ A publishing platform which is beautifully designed, easy to use, and free for everyone. Ghost provide hosting solution as well.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by brickmort on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @11:35PM (#7021715)

I like ghost so far, but it lacks certain basic website features that have left me itching for them to show up in the upcoming releases, like static webpages and plugin integration. The current version is so limiting for users who dont want to go digging and hacking through the source code for customization.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by mydpy on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @11:06PM (#7021619)

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not paying (it's not really free as far as I can tell).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by wanda on Saturday January 11, 2014 @11:12AM (#7042871)

RH OpenShift will let you host Ghost for free.

https://www.openshift.com/quickstarts/ghost-with-mysql-on-op...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by sergiotapia on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @11:22PM (#7021671)

It's 100% free to download and install on whatever server you want. I would recommend ASmallOrange for 25$/year small hosting, they also offer 1click installer.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by bliti on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @01:27AM (#7022064)

You might look into posthaven. Its a pretty nice blogging platform, and only costs $5 a month.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by mydpy on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @08:51PM (#7021205)

So, the more I look at Github pages the more I like it. I think Jekyll could be really fun but I need to get this up and running, with a day of content tonight. And I need sleep. So... thoughts?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by songgao on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @10:04PM (#7021414)

Jekyll/GitHub Page is really convenient once you get it up running. If this [0] looks acceptable to you, take a look at Octopress [1]. It'll take you 2 or 3 hours I suppose, taking into consideration the time it takes to install a proper ruby environment (for jekyll).

[0] http://blog.song.gao.io/ [1] http://octopress.org/docs/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by mydpy on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @10:39PM (#7021525)

Ok, that sounds like what I might do. I really wanted to get it setup tonight, but it's late already and I have training tomorrow in about 7.5 hours.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by songgao on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @01:20AM (#7022033)

Here's the theme I'm using in case you didn't find the link: http://shashankmehta.in/archive/2012/greyshade.html

Good luck!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by whichdan on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @09:26PM (#7021292)

GitHub pages is great, but you'll probably want some time to play around with Jekyll. You can always use a hosted platform like Wordpress.com and switch off when you have more free time. Consider using Disqus for comments and Google Analytics for tracking if you want to be slightly more platform agnostic.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by mydpy on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @10:41PM (#7021532)

Thanks for the suggestion - in fact, I'll use it! I think I'll setup a wordpress blog tonight and limit myself to about 30 minutes to get content on a vanilla page. Then tomorrow, and in the future as needed, I'll invest the time needed to get a more intensive platform established (like Octopress as mentioned in an earlier comment).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by robotmagician on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @09:38PM (#7021332)

Yup, I enjoy Github Pages a lot - go ahead and download the Jekyll rubygem and muck about with it locally if you want to get grips on it fast.

I have a question - what do you find is the best way of hosting images for a Github Pages blog?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by bcjordan on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @10:24PM (#7021474)

You can just put them in a static images/ folder and use a relative link pointing to '/images/test.jpg'.

In a pinch you can always fall back on http://imgur.com (but they'll delete images that don't get accessed for a long long time).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by digitalzombie on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @10:04PM (#7021412)

Try jekyll with Octopress

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by runjake on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @10:17PM (#7021449)

It might be just me, but the default Octopress is really overused and I have a hard time following articles or getting a feel for the writer.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best blog hosting site for lazy hackers by spo81rty on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @11:31PM (#7021703)

You can get a free blog at Geekswithblogs.net for free. it is for developers only

[ Parent | on HN ]