Re: [libreplanet-discuss] helping newcomers start blogs - but where?

[J.B. Nicholson]

Daniel Pocock wrote:
blogger.com and wordpress are well known platforms for people to create 
free blogs.  Github pages have also become popular with developers

recently.

What are the recommended alternatives for people who want to adhere to
a more free / libre approach?


If you're hosting something on someone else's computer, I recommend picking 
hosting based in either something that carries no nonfree software 
requirement (I think there are multiple template-based blog programs that 
let you process a plaintext file and turn it into a blog post) or something 
that runs with free software client-side software (I'd look into WordPress 
to see if the software they send to the client is free because there are 
multiple places that host blogs with WordPress).


But there's not going to be a great solution to this until people can get 
their own domains, point them at their own box running in their home (ala 
FreedomBox), and host their blogs under their control.


Any third-party hosting can run aground of censorship -- find yourself 
saying something other people don't want to read? Recent events at 
Cloudflare[1] show us that claims to not "monitor, evaluate or judge" 
quickly become "I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick 
them [Daily Stormer] off the Internet.". Quite a ways from Noam Chomsky's 
wisdom and challenge[2] to those who think stopping publication of disliked 
messages is the right way to go.


I recommend buying one's own domain (for easily redirecting users to a new 
blog hoster without making users change their bookmarks) and hosting with 
someplace that hasn't yet censored someone's blog. The problem is I'm not 
quite sure which organizations to recommend on this right now.



[1] 
https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-kicking-daily-stormer-is-bad-news-for-pirate-sites-170817/


[2] "Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was 
Stalin. If you're really in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of 
freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you're 
not in favor of free speech."


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Re: [libreplanet-discuss] helping newcomers start blogs - but where?

[Erik Moeller]

On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 10:52 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:
> blogger.com and wordpress are well known platforms for people to create
> free blogs.  Github pages have also become popular with developers recently.
>
> What are the recommended alternatives for people who want to adhere to a
> more free / libre approach?

I'll echo others that Automattic/Wordpress is generally a good free
software citizen. There will always be points of disagreement, of
course, but it should not be lumped together with wholly proprietary
platforms.

I also recommend checking out Ghost, which is a relatively new player.
The platform is developed by a nonprofit with focus on serving
journalism projects, but they offer general hosting plans, as well:
https://ghost.org/pricing/

Note that unlike WP, Ghost doesn't have a built-in commenting system.
It's generally a much less feature-rich platform, with focus on clean
aesthetics, performance, and social media support.

Erik

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Re: [libreplanet-discuss] helping newcomers start blogs - but where?

[Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo]

On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 10:39:37PM +0200, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> On 17/08/17 20:57, Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 08:24:34PM +0200, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> >> On 17/08/17 20:17, Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo wrote:
> >>> On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 07:52:51PM +0200, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>  Hi all,
> 
>  blogger.com and wordpress are well known platforms for people to create
>  free blogs.  Github pages have also become popular with developers 
>  recently.
> 
>  What are the recommended alternatives for people who want to adhere to a
>  more free / libre approach?
> 
>  In particular, I'm looking for solutions I can recommend to students
>  getting into Outreachy and GSoC.  They often have a lot of things to
>  think about at the start of their project and need to start blogging
>  quite quickly.
> 
>  For now, I'm tempted to recommend github pages with Jekyll static
>  content generation because at least the git repository (and full
>  history) behind these sites can be easily migrated to any other hosting
>  platform.  Are there other alternatives people recommend?
> 
>  Regards,
> 
>  Daniel
> >>> I love ikiwiki, and there is branchable [1].
> >>>
> >>> [1] https://www.branchable.com/
> >> The fees there - $9.99 per month - are actually quite expensive in some
> >> of the countries where we attract students and interns
> >>
> >> I'm going to a hackathon event this weekend where there will be 25
> >> students and it would be great if all 25 start a blog but if they need
> >> to get out their credit card, I suspect some will be reluctant to try it.
> >>
> >> Are there similar options without cost?
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> Daniel
> > Well, at least I am glad cost is the first issue you have with using
> > branchable.com. There is ikiwiki-hosting at Debian, so setting up
> > something that allows all those 25 to use a single cheap VPS host should
> > not be a year's work. I have no idea how simple it is, but I understand
> > you don't have time for that, and it's something that you need to be
> > maintained and involve some money cost.
> >
> > Still, there is the first free month, and then you can test how the
> > migration really works out.
> >
> > Also, http://www.branchable.com/news/free_hosting_for_Free_Software/.
> 
> Good in principle but the process they describe looks a little bit
> complicated.
> 
> > The other way of thinking about it is: what is the sustaining model for
> > a "free" hosting?
> 
> Whatever it is, it probably needs to involve bringing together a range
> of services into a single package, giving a lengthy free trial (2-3
> years) for students and potentially being helped by subsidies from some
> of the non-profit organizations.

I wonder if Debian and/or SFC could help with that somehow.

Cascardo.

> 
> Regards,
> 
> Daniel

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Re: [libreplanet-discuss] helping newcomers start blogs - but where?

[klez]

Honest question: what's the problem with Wordpress? Don't they use a 
full free software stack?


And how is Github (which is a proprietary platform *for sure*) a better 
solution?


Thanks for your answers

klez


On 08/17/2017 07:52 PM, Daniel Pocock wrote:

Hi all,

blogger.com and wordpress are well known platforms for people to create
free blogs.  Github pages have also become popular with developers recently.

What are the recommended alternatives for people who want to adhere to a
more free / libre approach?

In particular, I'm looking for solutions I can recommend to students
getting into Outreachy and GSoC.  They often have a lot of things to
think about at the start of their project and need to start blogging
quite quickly.

For now, I'm tempted to recommend github pages with Jekyll static
content generation because at least the git repository (and full
history) behind these sites can be easily migrated to any other hosting
platform.  Are there other alternatives people recommend?

Regards,

Daniel




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[libreplanet-discuss] helping newcomers start blogs - but where?

[Daniel Pocock]

Hi all,

blogger.com and wordpress are well known platforms for people to create
free blogs.  Github pages have also become popular with developers recently.

What are the recommended alternatives for people who want to adhere to a
more free / libre approach?

In particular, I'm looking for solutions I can recommend to students
getting into Outreachy and GSoC.  They often have a lot of things to
think about at the start of their project and need to start blogging
quite quickly.

For now, I'm tempted to recommend github pages with Jekyll static
content generation because at least the git repository (and full
history) behind these sites can be easily migrated to any other hosting
platform.  Are there other alternatives people recommend?

Regards,

Daniel




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