Best blogging platform for Rubyists?

Ruby
1

I admit it: I have a hard time blogging. I’ve been trying to start
again.

In the old days, I started with a “custom” solution of my own. Later, I
used Typo.
I played with Wordpress awhile, and maybe one or two others.

Here are some of my contraints:

  1. Obviously if it’s in Ruby, that’s a plus. I get to hack the code.
  2. If it at least can handle plugins in Ruby, that’s nice, too.
  3. I want comments, so no static solution.
  4. I want to host it all myself, so no 3rd-party hosting.
  5. Likewise no 3rd-party tools such as Disqus.
  6. Call me crazy, but markdown doesn’t thrill me. I’d like options.
  7. Obviously geek-friendly features are a plus – easy code fragment
    insertion, syntax highlighting, maybe integration with git/gist,
    etc.
  8. Ease of use is very nice, but power and flexibility are more
    important.
  9. If I can work at the command line and publish easily, that’s a plus
    (though I don’t like Octopress because of Disqus).

So – recommendations welcome! :slight_smile: Reply here and/or email me.

As I write this, I am considering in the back of my mind creating my own
blogging platform for the Nth time, for some large value of N.

Feel free either to volunteer to help me write it, or slap me until I
get
over the urge. :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Hal F.

2

Shameless plug … I really like what codinghorror did. Blog is in
Ghost, which is pretty cutting edge and probably one of the best
actively developed platforms around. Comments are powered by Discourse
which eviscerates the spam problem and makes it way easier to engage.

You can read about it

For my blog I went with a more ghetto solution and its all on
Discourse

Only thing that is not an exact fit is Markdown. Both Discourse and
Ghost are big Markdown proponents.

Having ran a blog through multiple text rendering engines (weird
wysiwig, textile, Markdown) I would strongly recommend you reconsider
Markdown. It allows you to easily carry your content in an editable
way forward through multiple engines.

3

Hello,

On 6 Oct 2014, at 00:21, Hal F. [email protected] wrote:

  1. I want to host it all myself, so no 3rd-party hosting.
    As I write this, I am considering in the back of my mind creating my own
    blogging platform for the Nth time, for some large value of N.

Feel free either to volunteer to help me write it, or slap me until I get
over the urge. :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Hal F.

I use octopress[1] which seems to be maturing. It is ruby based so
youll be able to hack it. Its a platform based on Jekyll but with many
interesting additions.

regards

[1] http://octopress.org/

Panagiotis (atmosx) Atmatzidis

email: [email protected]
URL: http://www.convalesco.org
GnuPG ID: 0x1A7BFEC5
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 1A7BFEC5

“As you set out for Ithaca, hope the voyage is a long one, full of
adventure, full of discovery […]” - C. P. Cavafy

4

FWIW, ever since I purposely stopped thinking about hacking my blog
system
years ago, my blog output has been much higher. The problem used to be
that
thinking about writing a blog post would inevitably send me on a mental
yak-shaving expedition as I thought about how to improve my blogging
technology. I have little desire to hack on PHP, so using Wordpress
saves
me from this temptation.

YMMV.

5

Avdi G. [email protected] wrote:

FWIW, ever since I purposely stopped thinking about hacking my blog system
years ago, my blog output has been much higher. The problem used to be that
thinking about writing a blog post would inevitably send me on a mental
yak-shaving expedition as I thought about how to improve my blogging
technology. I have little desire to hack on PHP, so using Wordpress saves
me from this temptation.

Heh, that feels like my hacking on C Ruby nowadays.
I hardly ever write anything in Ruby anymore :x

6

Hal F. [email protected] wrote:

I admit it: I have a hard time blogging. I’ve been trying to start again.

Heh, I find it far easier to reply to people than start my own
topics. So I don’t blog, but rather spend my time on mailing lists :slight_smile:

For some Ruby projects (e.g. unicorn)[1], I’ve worked on making the
mailing list web archives more blog-like. However, my initial focus was
never a web UI, but a neutral git-based repository format (mechanism)
which allows export to mbox/Maildir/IMAP:

http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/ssoma_repository.txt

The rest of public-inbox is a highly-opinionated policy on top of
ssoma (anti-spam, HTML removal, web UI): http://public-inbox.org/README

Here are some of my contraints:

  1. Obviously if it’s in Ruby, that’s a plus. I get to hack the code.

ssoma and public-inbox are Perl[2], so close enough, I hope :slight_smile:
In any case, the repository format (not the code) is the crux and
could be re-implemented in anything. A Ruby implementation would
be great!

  1. If it at least can handle plugins in Ruby, that’s nice, too.
  2. I want comments, so no static solution.
  3. I want to host it all myself, so no 3rd-party hosting.
  4. Likewise no 3rd-party tools such as Disqus.

Right, as implemented today, blog comments seem to be an afterthought.
On a mailing list, there’s no distinction :slight_smile:
Furthermore, email has many great anti-spam solutions.

  1. Call me crazy, but markdown doesn’t thrill me. I’d like options.
  2. Obviously geek-friendly features are a plus – easy code fragment
    insertion, syntax highlighting, maybe integration with git/gist, etc.

I prefer pre-formatted plain-text all the way as it’s the lowest common
denominator. Reading mail in a good mail client allows me to configure
highlighting, spawn any editor/pager, or even shell out to things like
“git am” to apply patches

Allowing formatting/hrefs would make it too easy a target for phishers
and spammers (because posters have no special privileges over each
other).

  1. Ease of use is very nice, but power and flexibility are more important.

Right, which is why I focus on the data format, first.

I’ve kept everything in ssoma + public-inbox installable and usable
without requiring dependencies outside of Debian stable (currently
wheezy). However, I am a reasonably experienced mail server admin.

  1. If I can work at the command line and publish easily, that’s a plus
    (though I don’t like Octopress because of Disqus).

All posts are sent via email to a public-inbox address.
No registration, no mailing list subscription required, anybody can
post.
I also just enabled the submission port (587) to help folks behind
firewalls.

Training spam is integrated via inotify on my server[3]: Saving any
spam messages from my inbox to my spam folder automatically deletes it
from the git tree (it remains in git history), so it will no longer
appear in the web UI.

I also targeted the public-inbox web UI for lynx and w3m users :slight_smile:

So – recommendations welcome! :slight_smile: Reply here and/or email me.

As I write this, I am considering in the back of my mind creating my own
blogging platform for the Nth time, for some large value of N.

Feel free either to volunteer to help me write it, or slap me until I get
over the urge. :slight_smile:

I’d be absolutely thrilled to have alternative Ruby UIs available based
on the ssoma repository format. I’ll be glad to help out if it doesn’t
require user login/registration or a GUI to contribute, just email :slight_smile:

[1] unicorn Ruby/Rack server user+dev discussion/patches/pulls/bugs/help - the primary unicorn WWW URL
for mail archives, subject to much bikeshedding :slight_smile:
[email protected]

I also started http://80x24.org/misc/ for miscellaneous topics.
which anybody can send plain-text posts to: [email protected]
I decided the patch spew in misc probably deserved a better
home, so I moved it to http://80x24.org/spew/ ([email protected])

[2] Why I chose Perl for public-inbox + ssoma in 2013:
I’ve been using Perl for all my mail needs since before I knew about
Ruby, so I have much experience with those libs. I’ve also been
contributing Perl code to git using email since 2005, so git, email,
Perl were all natural fits for me. …And I consider code secondary
to data.

[3] http://public-inbox.org/dc-dlvr-spam-flow.txt

[4] unicorn Ruby/Rack server user+dev discussion/patches/pulls/bugs/help

7

On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 11:21 PM, Hal F. [email protected]
wrote:

  1. I want comments, so no static solution.
  2. I want to host it all myself, so no 3rd-party hosting.
  3. Likewise no 3rd-party tools such as Disqus.
  4. Call me crazy, but markdown doesn’t thrill me. I’d like options.
  5. Obviously geek-friendly features are a plus – easy code fragment
    insertion, syntax highlighting, maybe integration with git/gist, etc.
  6. Ease of use is very nice, but power and flexibility are more important.
  7. If I can work at the command line and publish easily, that’s a plus
    (though I don’t like Octopress because of Disqus).

Wow! That’s an impressive list. I would be too lazy and just resort to
blogger or some other hosted platform. :wink:

So – recommendations welcome! :slight_smile: Reply here and/or email me.

As I write this, I am considering in the back of my mind creating my own
blogging platform for the Nth time, for some large value of N.

Now that made me wonder whether you really want to blog (write text)
or are looking for an “excuse” to hack (write code). :slight_smile:

Kind regards

robert

8

I’d have to side with Avdi that it’s way too tempting to hack the
platform,
and your output goes out the window with it. It’s doubly as bad if
you’re
design minded and try and make the whole thing custom. Never
underestimate
the value of ‘it just works.’ I use Octopress myself, though I’ve heard
good things on Ghost.

On a side note, it’s nice to see you back around Hal. Your book got me
started on Ruby several years ago back in High School.

9

Hi Hal,

nice hearing from you again :).

Nesta is an interesting in-between: it uses flat files for blogging (not
just markdown, but also others), but is intended to be used in Rails for
everything “around” the text.

http://nestacms.com/

See https://github.com/pengwynn/blog as an example (without comments,
though ;)).

Best,
Florian

10

LOL… I do have some things I want to say, but at the same time,
blogging
is rather a chore.

And yes, in a way, I would rather write the code. :wink:

As for the list – every one of these items is realistic and has
multiple
options
in the real world… it’s just a question of “Which tools provide the
best
covering
of these features?”

Hal

On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 3:42 AM, Robert K.
[email protected]

11

Thanks, I will look at that soon!

It is amazing how many Florians I have met on this list over the
years…
I think you are at least the sixth? I never knew it was a common name
in Germany or elsewhere, because I have never seen it at all on this
side of the Atlantic.

Cheers,
Hal

On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 4:05 AM, Florian G. [email protected]

12

On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 4:22 PM, Hal F. [email protected] wrote:

It is amazing how many Florians I have met on this list over the years…
I think you are at least the sixth? I never knew it was a common name
in Germany or elsewhere, because I have never seen it at all on this
side of the Atlantic.

To balance that we Germans know Hal only from an old movie - and from
you, of course. :wink:

Cheers

robert

13

Hi Hal,

Always good to hear from you…!

I would have thought that Radiant CMS meets most of your needs but I’m a
bit out of touch with the current state. There’s no reason why it’s not
still working great but I expect that you’ll not be on the latest
greatest version of Rails.

Radiant is more a CMS rather than a blog, and you have to add in the
extensions needed to get it going - that itself makes a great first blog
post. The rest of the answers are inline…

On 6/10/2014 5:21 AM, Hal F. wrote:

Here are some of my contraints:

  1. Obviously if it’s in Ruby, that’s a plus. I get to hack the code.
    Yes, it is. Based on Rails.
  1. If it at least can handle plugins in Ruby, that’s nice, too.
    Absolutely - that is what drew me to it in the first place.
  1. I want comments, so no static solution.
    You need a plugin for that - there is one.
  1. I want to host it all myself, so no 3rd-party hosting.
    Rails - so, yes.
  1. Likewise no 3rd-party tools such as Disqus.
    Your choice. I think there is a plugin to go to Disqus but it’s not
    mandated on you.
  1. Call me crazy, but markdown doesn’t thrill me. I’d like options.
    Crazy! (I love using Textile) but there are options - you can use HTML,
    Textile, Markdown or add a plugin that makes you happier.
  1. Obviously geek-friendly features are a plus – easy code fragment
    insertion, syntax highlighting, maybe integration with git/gist, etc.
    Syntax highlighting is easy to add with a couple of CSS and JS bits.
    The rest is up to you.
  1. Ease of use is very nice, but power and flexibility are more important.
    You can program Radiant both ways. From the front-end, you can use
    variables and if-then Radius tags to configure pages and fragments to
    show up as you like. You can also write plugins to do things that you
    need. So, yes, it is quite programmable and flexible.
  1. If I can work at the command line and publish easily, that’s a plus
    (though I don’t like Octopress because of Disqus).
    I have written programs that have parsed a Word document and created
    pages in Radiant using simple Ruby scripts. You could do the same if
    you want.

Negatives…

  • Well, the main negative is that it’s not a blogging platform per se,
    and you’ll have to setup and configure all the bits you need - tags,
    comments, etc.
  • I have seen less activity in recent months… but that’s also because I
    haven’t been following it very closely recently myself.

Best wishes,
Mohit.

14

I had forgot about Radiant. I never really looked at it much,
but I will now.

Thanks!
Hal