This is a good overview!
For the context:
How to Start Your Blog in 2023
Running your own blog in 2023 is still needlessly complicated, especially if you have any kind of taste. Why have one in the first place? This particular blog is more like a series of essays I wanted to get out. I also have another blog which is more like an online journal of my life. I was never able to have an actual journal on paper or use apps like Day One. But when it’s online, and other people can see it, I get an incentive to share more, even though I still mostly write for myself.
Social apps and networks are obviously the easiest options, but they’re geared toward vastly different things, and I just don’t trust their longevity. Having your own platform enables flexibility and portability, so your content can be kept online practically forever.
Mastodon, for example, requires you to set up your own server instance and then deal with the configuration. Twitter (or other centralised service) is a no-brainer to avoid for the long term.
WordPress, it is. Ghost has lost it. It is relying more on the “co-branding” and “newsletters” but their own hosted service is terribly expensive. Other “static-site generators” are only for the people who know what they are doing.
I am not fond of WordPress either – the site is bulky, clunky, and has many restrictions around plugins (if you are on a hosted plan). You need to migrate to a “business-plan”, but two years later, I realised it wasn’t worth the effort. I have the standard template because I use the blog to generate more ideas. Any other readership is a plus, but is not my focus of engagement.
Just start writing first.
RadOncNotes 