Tiny blogs: When WordPress is too damn big

By Steven Rosenberg on February 24, 2011 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) |

I've been investigating tiny blog software — mini CMSes if you will.

I already have a blog running on Flatpress:

I'm trying to use systems that are simple, radically small and efficient.

I'm anxious to look into Blosxom, PyBlosxom, NanoBlogger and Ode.

Blogging is grass-roots. Usually one person, a computer (and a server of some kind on the other end) and pure (irregular) expression.

With automatic install scripts, complicated GUI panels, monolithic database structures, I think tech bloggers especially should be as familiar with the code that makes up their publishing platform as they are with anything else they're working on.

The Internet, blogging and all that is all about moving bits around, and it's not all about WordPress (or Drupal, Movable Type, Joomla).

That and I've seen lots of tech bloggers (generally developers on open source projects) who either rolled their own blogging platform or use one of these closer-to-the-ground content-management solutions to organize their written words.

So ... FlatPress is mostly PHP, Blosxom and Ode are Perl, PyBlosxom is Python, NanoBlogger is a collection of Bash scripts.

No databases. All "flat" files. You can see the code. It's definitely non-commercial.

Here's what creator Rob Reed says about Ode:

It's a new platform for creating weblogs (and other types of dynamic sites) which emphasizes simplicity, both in terms of usability and design. The idea is that anyone who is interested should be able to understand how the program works at the source code level.

Let's do it.

4 Comments

Curt Howland said:

Steven! After I finally get FlatPress working with Lighttpd, you go find another half dozen to throw my way?

Have you no restraint? :^)

BTW, I really like FlatPress. If for no other reason, the fact that it's just a bunch of text files makes backup so bloody EASY! I worry about database back-ends that, if something happens to the database, my content is just plain gone.

Thanks for the pointers and ideas, let's keep this thing rolling.

February 24, 2011 3:48 PM

Curt Howland said:

BTW, I looked them up, and Blosxom, PyBlosxom and NanoBlogger are in the Debian repositories.

Just an apt-get away!

February 24, 2011 3:55 PM

robreed

said:

I'm the creator and lead developer for Ode (pronounced O-dee). Just wanted to invite all to come check out the project.

In addition to ode-is-simple.com, there is a blog at

news.ode-is-simple.com/weblog

and a community forum at

forum.ode-is-simple.com.

Here's a quote I really like from the introduction for the O'Reilly book "Fonts & Encoding" (Haralambous) http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596102425:

Homo sapiens is a species that writes. And among the large number of tools used for writing, the most recent and the most complex is the computer—a tool for reading and writing, a medium for storage, and a means of exchanging data, all rolled into one. It has become a veritable space in which the text resides, a space that... has come to transcend geographic barriers and encompass the entire planet.

Given Ode's architecture and its reliance on simple yet powerful plain text files, this quote describes and encapsulates Ode quite nicely. Ode is a tool for interfacing with the web. The web in turn 'is a tool for reading and writing, a medium for storage, and a means of exchanging data, all rolled into one. It has become a veritable space in which the text resides, a space that ... has come to transcend geographic barriers and encompass the entire planet.'

Ode exists to help you and me become more active participants in the Open Web, and so play a small part in encouraging the web's future growth and development, while allowing more of us to better understand the web and take advantage of it to do things that are personally meaningful.

The idea behind it is to make web design and development as simple as possible without losing any of the creative freedom, flexibility, and independence the Open Web affords all of us (and without dumbing-down the experience).

People often confuse easy and simple. Easy will have you up and running as quickly as possible. Simple may take a little more time but you'll learn along the way. Simple means understandable. Ode's motto is 'simple means you know how it works'.

You can learn more about all of this on the project sites. I would encourage anyone interested in the project to participate in the community forum. Also, feel free to send me an email directly (rob [at] ode-is-simple [dot] com)

February 28, 2011 6:13 AM

Steven Rosenberg

said:

Rob, thanks for the comment.

I've been messing around with Bloxsom, Ode and FlatPress a bit, and I have working installations of all three.

I really like the default style for Ode (as seen on your web site), and that's a bit of a factor for me. I also really like Ode's mission as a learning ground for Perl. That's something I've very interested in.

While I did manage to get my Ode site working, I'm probably going to wipe it and start over. I introduced a few complications in the file layout that I want to avoid (and probably will if I read the installation instructions a lot more closely).

I'm very encouraged and excited by what I see in Ode, and I hope to learn more about it very soon.

February 28, 2011 4:42 PM