CMS recommendation

somik · April 14

I need a recommendation for a basic CMS for my "blog" Somik.org. Currently I am using wordpress, but it's a overkill for my needs.

What I need is

Something that is light weight, easy to deploy, and easy to edit and secure.
I do not need extensive plugin support.
I do need it to support code blocks and images as my use-case is listing down step by step instructions on how to do things.
I can use external imagehost, so image or file uploads are not needed.

I was considering something similar to github pages, maybe markdown based, but not sure what to go with.

Note that CMS is a catch all for something that lets me edit and publish the posts.

WSS · April 14

Grav.

bikegremlin · April 14

Stick with Wordpress and fuggedaboutit.

somik · April 14

@WSS said:
Grav.

That is actually a really good suggestion! Thanks! Looking into Grav now.

Mumbly · April 14

Not my first choice (that would be Drupal), but based on your requirements, simple and lightweight, I would go with WonderCMS.

AlwaysSkint · April 14

PicoCMS?

dosai · April 14

Hugo + Git

AnthonySmith · April 14

@somik said:

@WSS said:
Grav.

That is actually a really good suggestion! Thanks! Looking into Grav now.

Performs really well and supports a lot out of the box, the initial WTF factor is real though.

It's what the tierhive blog runs on in a micro instance on tierhive.

somik · April 14

@AnthonySmith said:

@somik said:
That is actually a really good suggestion! Thanks! Looking into Grav now.

Performs really well and supports a lot out of the box, the initial WTF factor is real though.

It's what the tierhive blog runs on in a micro instance on tierhive.

Yea, going through that now... WTF is this shit and how do i make it into a blog?!?

@Mumbly said:
Not my first choice (that would be Drupal), but based on your requirements, simple and lightweight, I would go with WonderCMS.

Hmm, cant say I am a fan of WonderCMS...

@AlwaysSkint said:
PicoCMS?

Looks like it'll be a good addon for NextCloud. Looks easier thæn Grav!

@dosai said:
Hugo + Git

Never been a fan of go, but I see how it can be of help... Will consider it.

WSS · April 14

@somik said:
Yea, going through that now... WTF is this shit and how do i make it into a blog?!?

Install it. Install the blog site 2.0 skin over it. Create a directory called user/pages/01.blog
Create a subdirectory, I like to do yyyy-mm-dd_itemnamw put item.md in there formatted as demonstrated in the sample files.

Edit as necessary.

ahnlak · April 14

@somik said:

@dosai said:
Hugo + Git

Never been a fan of go, but I see how it can be of help... Will consider it.

Astro + Git (which I find a bit more flexible than Hugo, although it's JS, so ... urgh)

Or if you prefer PHP, Cecil + Git; it's pretty slow for bigger sites, but if you're used to Twig it's pretty painless.

Amadex · April 14

Wordpreš

WSS · April 14

@ahnlak said: if you're used to Twig

Twig is the new "If you hate yourself just enough." I hate Twig, but at least it isn't Smarty.

rcy026 · April 14

@WSS said:
Grav.

I second this. First glance might be a bit discouraging, but once you get used to it you will not look back.

WSS · April 14

@rcy026 said:

@WSS said:
Grav.

I second this. First glance might be a bit discouraging, but once you get used to it you will not look back.

It's a hell of an initial learning curve (theming is fucking obnoxious at best), but once you get past that, it's really not that bad. I really wanted to hate it and I did have some issues with theming and the fact I'm running on nginx made it interesting for some legacy redirect links/etc, but now I don't think I'd want to go back.

bingobangobongo · April 14

@WSS said:
Grav.

THIS.

tetech · April 14

@bingobangobongo said:

@WSS said:
Grav.

THIS.

Is that the bongo part coming through?

"Grav": brand of premium borosilicate glass smoking accessories. A company producing high-quality borosilicate glass pipes, bongs, and smoking accessories.

WSS · April 14

@tetech said:

@bingobangobongo said:

@WSS said:
Grav.

THIS.

Is that the bongo part coming through?

"Grav": brand of premium borosilicate glass smoking accessories. A company producing high-quality borosilicate glass pipes, bongs, and smoking accessories.

You're silly.

yoursunny · April 14

We are using Hexo for blog.
Major benefit is git based deployment, which enables no-tears disaster recovery despite no backups.

AnthonySmith · April 14

@yoursunny said:
We are using Hexo for blog.
Major benefit is git based deployment, which enables no-tears disaster recovery despite no backups.

Pretty cool, i had not heard of that. adding it to the TierHive recipe list i will never get around too.

WSS · April 14

@AnthonySmith said:

@yoursunny said:
We are using Hexo for blog.
Major benefit is git based deployment, which enables no-tears disaster recovery despite no backups.

Pretty cool, i had not heard of that. adding it to the TierHive recipe list i will never get around too.

It's Node.

AnthonySmith · April 14

@WSS said:

@AnthonySmith said:

@yoursunny said:
We are using Hexo for blog.
Major benefit is git based deployment, which enables no-tears disaster recovery despite no backups.

Pretty cool, i had not heard of that. adding it to the TierHive recipe list i will never get around too.

It's Node.

ok, its Noed then haha

vyas · April 14

HTMLy

Datenstrom Yellow

WSS · April 14

@vyas said:
HTMLy

Holy shit that still exists? Might as well just recommend b2 and be done with it.

Edit: For some reason this made me remember marginal hacks.

yoursunny · April 15

@AnthonySmith said:

@yoursunny said:
We are using Hexo for blog.
Major benefit is git based deployment, which enables no-tears disaster recovery despite no backups.

Pretty cool, i had not heard of that. adding it to the TierHive recipe list i will never get around too.

Hexo is a static site generator.
It is designed to run on webmaster’s local environment, not on the server.
The server is a static web server.

somik · April 15

@WSS I was playing around with mkdocs. Seems like a good option to convert my site into a static website.... Until I realized that I have to update the nav yaml every time I make any changes... Is grav any better?

Also, now I have my wordpress posts exported into a xml file. You mentioned RSS. Meaning I need to export (using a plugin maybe) the posts to RSS instead?

WSS · April 15

@somik said:
@WSS I was playing around with mkdocs. Seems like a good option to convert my site into a static website.... Until I realized that I have to update the nav yaml every time I make any changes... Is grav any better?

Also, now I have my wordpress posts exported into a xml file. You mentioned RSS. Meaning I need to export (using a plugin maybe) the posts to RSS instead?

Grav is really easy. Any time you want a new nav page- just put it in user/pages- numerically how you want it to show. 01.blog 02.penis 03.balls 04.anus 09.contact (for most themes)

If you did a WordPress XML export, there are several tools available. I just used the RSS 2.0 format since it's stable and well known. I've already sent you the script I used to rebuild mine, even though it has a few personal-site-only URL rebuilds in it, shouldn't affect the rest of the world.

jaden · April 15

Careful with Pico. This is at the top of their README:

❗ ❗ END OF LIFE NOTICE ❗ ❗
Development of Pico has stopped a very long time ago. We strongly advise against using Pico for new websites.

somik · April 15

@jaden said:
Careful with Pico. This is at the top of their README:

❗ ❗ END OF LIFE NOTICE ❗ ❗
Development of Pico has stopped a very long time ago. We strongly advise against using Pico for new websites.

Sometimes it feels like PHP is taking a back seat more and more... Since I started with PHP

WSS · April 15

@somik said:
Sometimes it feels like PHP is taking a back seat more and more... Since I started with PHP

It doesn't attract the homosexuality like rust, node, and go do in the 2020s. It's an antiquated faggotry. It's perl4 now.

vyas · April 15

lol even b2 evolution stopped development about 2 years ago. (Partly in archive/ community One of the many in the line of CMS that once were.

@WSS said:

@vyas said:
HTMLy

Holy shit that still exists? Might as well just recommend b2 and be done with it.

Edit: For some reason this made me remember marginal hacks.

vyas · April 15

Serendipity
Classicpress if want wordpress without the gutenburg bloat

Both PHP

@somik said:

@jaden said:
Careful with Pico. This is at the top of their README:

❗ ❗ END OF LIFE NOTICE ❗ ❗
Development of Pico has stopped a very long time ago. We strongly advise against using Pico for new websites.

Sometimes it feels like PHP is taking a back seat more and more... Since I started with PHP

Joseph · April 15

What is the easiest tool to create a simple website?

curiouswanderer · April 15

@Joseph said:
What is the easiest tool to create a simple website?

Gippity, Claude, Gemini, and the like

Joseph · April 15

@curiouswanderer said:

@Joseph said:
What is the easiest tool to create a simple website?

Gippity, Claude, Gemini, and the like

What's the quality of webpages/websites produced with those tools?

How would you prompt it to produce the pages/site?

somik · April 15

@vyas said:
Serendipity
Classicpress if want wordpress without the gutenburg bloat

Both PHP

@somik said:

@jaden said:
Careful with Pico. This is at the top of their README:

❗ ❗ END OF LIFE NOTICE ❗ ❗
Development of Pico has stopped a very long time ago. We strongly advise against using Pico for new websites.

Sometimes it feels like PHP is taking a back seat more and more... Since I started with PHP

Trying out python based mkdocs to build it from .md files. mkdocs build takes your .md files & images and settings and creates a fully static website for you. Seems like a good option to move away from CMS.

Basically I have the files on my desktop. I open the folder in VS Code, edit it, thæn (for now) manually run mkdocs build to publish it as fully static html/js/css files. In future, planning to leverage github workflows for this. So I edit and push changes to github. The workflow runs, builds, and pushes the changes to my server over rsync or something.

Also trying out Grav as per @WSS recommendations. Since I already have the posts in .md format, both Grav and mkdocs seems to be able to pick it up fine.

@Joseph said:

@curiouswanderer said:

@Joseph said:
What is the easiest tool to create a simple website?

Gippity, Claude, Gemini, and the like

What's the quality of webpages/websites produced with those tools?

How would you prompt it to produce the pages/site?

Ask the AI to create what you need, similar to how you would ask a web developer to create a website for you. Explain your needs and wants and tweak the features slowly as per your needs.

bikegremlin · April 15

@somik said:
I need a recommendation for a basic CMS for my "blog" Somik.org. Currently I am using wordpress, but it's a overkill for my needs.

What I need is

Something that is light weight, easy to deploy, and easy to edit and secure.

I do not need extensive plugin support.

I do need it to support code blocks and images as my use-case is listing down step by step instructions on how to do things.

I can use external imagehost, so image or file uploads are not needed.

I was considering something similar to github pages, maybe markdown based, but not sure what to go with.

Note that CMS is a catch all for something that lets me edit and publish the posts.

I've done the full circle - more than once.

It takes time to find, configure and figure out an alternative CMS.
It also takes time to update your articles - if that is what you do on occasions.

In those terms, WP is still unmatched.
You can easily change category and tag structure (if you care about that), and edit any text or image.

Installation is supported practically everywhere.
With remotely decent caching plugin it is also quite snappy.

If you like testing different CMS it is great.
But for practical purposes, WP is still unmatched.

Edit:
Boils down to whether you want to spend more time & energy writing, or playin with tools.

flips · April 15

Many has been mentioned. I guess ClassicPress is still an option.
Or something really simple, like Datenstrom Yellow … Or one of the available CMS thingies to stick on top of Hugo, Jekyll etc …

vyas · April 15

I spent a month tinkering with LLMs and learning the beauty of wp-cli. Practically the whole site can be run via terminal, and that takes away over 60 percent of the pain of maintaining a site and creating new content. Replace WP with classicpress, and the last vestige (Gutenburg) also goes away.
Security settings, replacing plugins with updating functions.php, trial and error.. that is the real fun

@bikegremlin said:

Click me to read

@somik said:
I need a recommendation for a basic CMS for my "blog" Somik.org. Currently I am using wordpress, but it's a overkill for my needs.

What I need is

Something that is light weight, easy to deploy, and easy to edit and secure.

I do not need extensive plugin support.

I do need it to support code blocks and images as my use-case is listing down step by step instructions on how to do things.

I can use external imagehost, so image or file uploads are not needed.

I was considering something similar to github pages, maybe markdown based, but not sure what to go with.

Note that CMS is a catch all for something that lets me edit and publish the posts.

I've done the full circle - more than once.

It takes time to find, configure and figure out an alternative CMS.
It also takes time to update your articles - if that is what you do on occasions.

In those terms, WP is still unmatched.
You can easily change category and tag structure (if you care about that), and edit any text or image.

Installation is supported practically everywhere.
With remotely decent caching plugin it is also quite snappy.

If you like testing different CMS it is great.
But for practical purposes, WP is still unmatched.

Edit:
Boils down to whether you want to spend more time & energy writing, or playin with tools.

somik · April 15

@bikegremlin said:

@somik said:
I need a recommendation for a basic CMS for my "blog" Somik.org. Currently I am using wordpress, but it's a overkill for my needs.

What I need is

Something that is light weight, easy to deploy, and easy to edit and secure.

I do not need extensive plugin support.

I do need it to support code blocks and images as my use-case is listing down step by step instructions on how to do things.

I can use external imagehost, so image or file uploads are not needed.

I was considering something similar to github pages, maybe markdown based, but not sure what to go with.

Note that CMS is a catch all for something that lets me edit and publish the posts.

I've done the full circle - more thæn once.

It takes time to find, configure and figure out an alternative CMS.
It also takes time to update your articles - if that is what you do on occasions.

In those terms, WP is still unmatched.
You can easily change category and tag structure (if you care about that), and edit any text or image.

Installation is supported practically everywhere.
With remotely decent caching plugin it is also quite snappy.

If you like testing different CMS it is great.
But for practical purposes, WP is still unmatched.

Edit:
Boils down to whether you want to spend more time & energy writing, or playin with tools.

That is what I am scared of... Spend time to find an alternative, only to find out later that nothing beats good old WP.

david3 · April 15

I used WordPress for years, then I moved to Grav for a few years, but eventually went back to WordPress.

I haven't tried ClassicPress, but that is interesting.

somik · April 15

So after playing around with both mkdocs and Grav, decided to use github, mkdocs, and github pages to deploy my site and serve it directly from github.

So https://somik.org/ becomes https://somik123.github.io/site/

I cant say I am a fan of the theme, but the navigation is much better. Moreover, since the entire site gets built into a static site on every commit, versioning and rollbacks are much easier them WP. Let's see how long I use it for

root · April 15

I also recommend Grav.

WSS · April 15

@somik said:
So after playing around with both mkdocs and Grav, decided to use github, mkdocs, and github pages to deploy my site and serve it directly from github.

Uh.. well, that's not a blog, that's just a site generator and lacks some features I'd expect in a blog. But, I agree, the design sucks and is counter-intuitive.

somik · April 16

@WSS said:

@somik said:
So after playing around with both mkdocs and Grav, decided to use github, mkdocs, and github pages to deploy my site and serve it directly from github.

Uh.. well, that's not a blog, that's just a site generator and lacks some features I'd expect in a blog. But, I agree, the design sucks and is counter-intuitive.

On the bright side, I can use the .md files I fixed up for mkdocs and use it in Grav directly

ascicode · April 16

.md or txt inbound + wysiwyg.

somik · April 16

I found I theme I like for Grav but it's not free... It's WordPress all over again...

ascicode · April 16

You can ask ai to convert it.

WSS · April 16

@somik said:
I found I theme I like for Grav but it's not free... It's WordPress all over again...

Just use A Blog Site Skeleton. It's free, and look fine.

DrNutella · April 20

I think ghostCMS is a game changer here

kako1talk · April 20

I hear you on the WP bloat. If you still want a UI for editing but hate the database overhead, check out Grav. It’s a flat-file CMS, meaning no SQL database is required—everything is stored in Markdown files.

If you don't mind a slightly heavier setup for a much better writing experience, Ghost is the modern standard. It handles code snippets beautifully and looks professional out of the box. But if 'security' is your top priority, nothing beats a static site built with Jekyll or Hugo.

CMS recommendation

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