Why I switched from writefreely to zola
If you're reading this, my move from writefreely, a simple CMS, to zola, an SSG, has worked out. But why did I move?
writefreely
Since starting the blog three years ago, I've had it running on writefreely. The setup was easy and what really sold me at the time was the integration with the Fediverse and the option to have multiple users contribute. I had high hopes of friends joining in and sparking interesting long form conversations online. Alas, this never materialized.
But once set up, I started posting. writefreely is very minimalistic. I liked the distraction-free backend and slick theming. But, over time, I got frustrated with the things I couldn't do: writefreely doesn't allow you to upload images, doesn't let you customize the html or javascript, and has only a limited way of ordering the list of your posts.
Add to that, that it's a CMS (content management system), which means that it's an interactive service running on the server. It stores the posts in a database and can thus rebuild the site on the fly. This makes adding posts simple for non-coding people, but is overkill for me, when I just want to post once every couple of weeks.
zola
So I started looking around for alternatives. Because the main hassle was customizability, I started by looking at more robust CMSs. I almost went with Kirby. But then I asked myself what I was actually looking for. I need a site that:
- allows me to adjust HTML, css, and js
- has decent blogging support (i.e. serialized posts and rss feeds)
And keeping with KISS, there shouldn't be too many additional bells and whistles. With just the occasional post, a CMS is definitely overkill. The simpler alternative is an SSG (static site generator).
An SSG is a tool that does what it says on the tin: It takes some input and generates a static site. Typically, that means there are some markdown files that get converted to HTML according to some templates. You specify some js and css on top of that and it all gets thrown into an output directory that you point your reverse proxy at.
SSG it is, then. But why zola? Well, I'd already used it previously and found nothing wrong with it.
What does it mean moving forward?
Like you might have noticed, it means that I am free to customize the way the site looks. There's a toggle for dark/light mode and one to toggle between a serif and sans-serif font. What I was most excited about, was to alter the way my book reviews look. But now that it's done, I don't expect to do much more visual changes for the time being.
Other than this, I'm now free to place interactive elements into my posts. I don't have any concrete plans for this, but it's an option.
PS: I'm sorry if this move forced a RSS refresh that flooded you with old posts.
Thoughts? Reach out via Mastodon @Optional@dice.camp or shoot me an email.