Static Site Generators
I previously wrote a blog post about how I’ve got my current setup with dreamwidth. I liked DW’s tag structure, but I hated how SSGs made you write posts in Markdown.
After getting over that hurdle (I still find it kind of annoying), the next biggest problem was finding a blog theme that I liked. I’ve checked out a bunch of themes from Hugo, Jekyll, Hexo, etc. but I couldn’t really find anything that was simple AND attractive, until now.
I found this absolutely gorgeous Fuwari theme from Saicaca.
Waiting for api.github.com...
My New Blog
After cloning the github repo, I found that editing the config file isn’t too hard. Most of the code is readable, and everything is preloaded. I’m already pretty happy with how everything looks, so I’ve decided to finally commit to this blog instead of forwarding http://blog.pomnavi.net to my dreamwidth archive.
I still don’t like having to write in markdown, but at least the blog is nice to look at now. All my posts will still be archived on DW because I don’t trust myself not to screw something up, like the test run I had with 11ty and Hugo.
I hate the experience I had with SSGs so far (especially with trying to hook-up a 3rd party CMS), but I’m going to try straight markdown for now. If I need rich text conversions, I’ll probably look up another tool online.
This has been a really annoying saga, but I’m gonna keep sticking with this until it breaks.
Comments
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@hako_aiko I can't lie it was really helpful to see how other bloggers setup their blog haha.
Ironically, after trying out 11ty and Hugo, Astro ended up working for me because I had less things I needed to fix/customize with this theme, and what I did need to change was simple enough.
The building process for SSGs IS a pain in the ass, but using Github + Netlify means I just need to add markdown posts in the correct folder with the correct frontmatter, and Netlify will build it for me once I commit.
Which means I don't actually need to locally maintain any packages or dependecies, which is awesome. Since I know I would 100% screw it up lol.
@navi Woah! I’m just driving by quickly on a break from work but I love how the comments look in the site!! It’s so cool!
@citro thank you! I literally just got it fixed and working haha.
I'm using this nifty javascript here: https://github.com/dpecos/mastodon-comments
You just need to add a reference to the toot id in your post, so it will work on any static blog
@navi Finally found a post about how you made your blog, yas! The design is so pretty!
@arimamary Thanks! I'm glad it's lasted this long and I haven't managed to break it yet lol
@navi Ngl I love blog about blogging, it's so meta and especially nice for fellow bloggers lol
I salute you for suffering with Astro 🫡
That is indeed a very nice theme!!
It's funny how I'm used (and like) to write in Markdown since I keep a journal and notes in Obsidian. So I should be okay with SSGs, but...SSGs is nice in theory but sucks in practice imo, it's such a pain in the ass and a huge turn-off for me. I tried it a few times and none sticks 😩 I still want to try, though...somedayTM