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Comment by ghc | Hacker News Reader

Pelican, Specter, Silvrback...I'm starting to get really confused. Is building your own blogging engine the new rite of passage for the web age, supplanting the practice of building your own text editor?

Is it okay if I keep writing post in HTML, rather than REST? Or am I missing out on some awesome set of features? I'd love to know if anyone actually converted to one of these platforms and found themselves writing more. I definitely have some trouble finishing the posts that I start, but I get the distinct impression that using one of these would be akin to getting a gym membership: if I'm not finishing blog posts now I won't magically start finishing blog posts just because of this new tool.

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Oh look another great free tool and another senseless comment that tries to knock it for no reason. You're just writing over-generalized nonsense for the sake of it, most of which doesn't even make sense...

> Is it okay if I keep writing post in HTML, rather than REST?

What?

I presume https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restructured_text

Writing a blog engine has been the "hello world" for new languages / web frameworks for a while.

I switched to a static site generator from Posterous when it was acquired (and ultimately shut down), and I definitely do find myself writing more posts on the blog. Writing a post is as easy as creating a new markdown file, writing in it, then `middleman build`, `git commit -a` and `git push` (which I could definitely automate further).

Of course, I probably consider this workflow easier because as a developer I'm already perfectly comfortable with git, and with working with source files. I can just open a terminal and type `vim /path/to/blog/new-post.markdown` and start writing. I find Wordpress slow, fiddly and limiting by contrast.

I'm not uncomfortable making the extended inference that most who prefer markdown for posting are at least very computer-literate and quite possibly software developers. I tried to sell my wife (a writer) on markdown and she didn't get it at all.

Well, it's up to you to use your own gym membership. If you sign up and don't use your membership, that is ultimately your problem. These new blogging platforms are like different gyms you can sign up for. Whether you exercise or not, at least do it at a gym you like.

I think it's nice to see a variety of self-made blogging platforms come around. Not only do we bloggers get our pick of the litter but it shows how some languages/frameworks work in creating something conventional like a blog. I agree that is seems to have become some sort of rite of passage.

I realise you're being snarky, but of course it is. Do what makes you happy. For an increasing (but numerically very small) amount of people, building their own service is what makes them happy.

In terms of awesome features - well yes. There are tons and tons and tons that are available from pages dynamically generated by a server-side program that would be a real pain to produce on manually updating HTML pages.

I think it's the new todo list.

Actually, the todo list is the new blogging engine. Writing a blogging engine as a way to learn a new language has been around since at least the early days of Rails. I remember doing that tutorial back in ~2004.

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