Ask HN: Free/open semi-private blog?

As part of the whole "moving away from Facebook" category, what is a good answer for the desire to post regular updates or articles to something that only your chosen friends can see?

A database-driven blog with membership accounts is one answer, but you don't necessarily want to force your friends to actually log in and create accounts just for your own blog.

An email list is another option but you'd rather then be able to come to you to read and catch up on their schedule.

Security through obscurity is another option, just setting up a free blog somewhere with no advertising, and mailing the link around, but clearly non-ideal.

So I guess the question is for something federated, open, but where the friend connection is two-way (like facebook) rather than one-way (like twitter), and more long-form than twitter.