Bilingual

Here we go
16 hours ago
- Author's old Hugo blog broke after a Hugo update, prompting a decision to build a simple blogging platform.
- Static site generators like Hugo have UX issues: writing in code editors, publishing via git, and lack of easy image uploads.
- Ghost and WordPress are problematic: Ghost is too commercial, WordPress is intimidating.
- Small platforms like Bear, Pika, and Mataroa are almost perfect, but the author wants to build a custom platform.
- New platform named Exotext focuses on simplicity, beautiful design, speed (<0.5s), old web UX, portability, community features, an online markdown editor with image uploads, and RSS.
- Finding a good markdown editor is difficult; TinyMDE is used but lacks undo functionality.
I wish your bespoke React-Tailwind-etc static site generator had RSS
16 hours ago
- Many blogs lack RSS feeds, especially those built with modern frontend stacks by passionate programmers.
- Adding RSS to a custom static site generator is straightforward, as it's similar to HTML generation.
- Common RSS issues include missing meta tags for automatic discovery, invalid XML, mismatched content, and lacking permanent IDs.
- Standard blogging platforms like WordPress, Ghost, and newsletter platforms (Substack, Buttondown) generally provide working RSS.
- Static site generators like Jekyll and Hugo usually include RSS, but customization can lead to problems.
I Switched from Hugo to Astro
13 days ago
- The author switched from Hugo to Astro due to limitations in Hugo's static approach, which made adding dynamic features like contact forms and view counters cumbersome.
- Astro's build-time TypeScript feature allowed seamless integration of dynamic data, such as view counts from Umami API, without client-side JavaScript or islands architecture.
- The migration led to a full site rebuild, including design changes to Tailwind CSS, image optimization via Astro's pipeline, and enhanced features like dark mode and a table of contents.
- Despite the switch, Hugo is still praised for its simplicity and effectiveness for purely static sites, but Astro better fits the author's need for build-time flexibility without sacrificing static benefits.

Hasty Briefsbeta

static site generators

Here we go

I wish your bespoke React-Tailwind-etc static site generator had RSS

I Switched from Hugo to Astro