How hard is to be simple.
One of my new year's resolution was to write: write, write, write. I want to have a public place where I can share the things that I've read or talk about the topics I'm interested. Mostly about computers.
TL;DR: I am using bashblog-ng for this blog.
Requirements
So lets start!. Let's have a blog. Fine. I just have teh following restrictions:
- I want a simple interface
- I want the page to be fast.
- I want to prevent the reader, at least for reading, from most of trackers
- I want to own my own content
Reality
It should exist one simple-lightweight CMS right? Ha!.
I've spent several hours trying to find something that won't use any JavaScript (JS). I mean, any JS. I am Ok with css, but no JS for this blog. I found nothing: NOTHING. I don't have anything against the technology, or some of it's use. I just feel that something is wrong with the push to use it. Again, just my feeling
Latlely, I've been reading Mark Fisher and some related opinions around it. By trying to find and use something simple for this blog, I felt just like one of the critics to the Avatar movie when it comes to Capitalism: is either high-tech-devastating-the-world or loinclothes in the jungle with no possibilities in the middle.
Same here: either you chose an overcomplicated no human-readable JS files, or pure
text <Ha> Hehehe </Ha>.
Solution
The loinclothes.
With my restrictions it is practically impossible to find a 'free' service or something that does not tamper with your content. So let's pay, and then, I can provide a almost free of trackers interface to the readers while owning my content. Good.
So private webhosting and doing everything in text (Mardown).
I've came to know this "bb.sh" bash script from Carles Fenollosa. Which basically takes a simple editor, create an .md or .html and organize everything into a cms-like structure. I began to use a fork, the '-ng' version, from David Satime Wallin for this blog.
Requirements fulfilled: life is good.
Crumble bits of thougths
Don't take me wrong, I'll elaborate on my personal decision to minimize my dependence on JS code for this blog.
If you are web-developer, front-end developer or full-stack developer, I am happy to know that there are professional people looking to improve current code and currrent solutions. I'm happy to see many projects reinventing the wheel (which sometimes is demonized by '10x engineers'). My take: go for it!
Actually, take a look into this post. That made me think. Although I've been a free software advocate for many years, for whatever the reasons I've been inactive in the FOSS community. Time to give back. Time to write!
Tags: technical-opinion, web, blog, foss