I’m going to write my own blogging platform instead of using a 3rd party solution

Not that you give a fuck

This has been a huge debate for me. Use 3rd party solution (eg. Ghost, Medium) or write my own?

In the end, I’ve decided to write my own website because I want the power and flexibility to do more than want a 3rd party solution can provide.

Specifically, I want there to be a clear distinction between the blog and tutorials, but without the hassle of them being on separate websites. The home page should show posts from both in two columns. Also, there needs to be a way to see other posts in the sidebar. I’m amazed that I’ve never seen anyone do that for a personal blog. To me it just seems so obviously useful.

For the database I think I’m going to go with SQLite. It’s fast (for a SQL database) and simple.

The absolute most annoying part of it all will be adding the admin functionality to edit the posts. I hate working on stuff like that that the end user will never see. I’m going to have to suck it up and get over it though.

I think I’m going to make the post writing screen look like the two column layout in Ghost because it’s awesome.

Still unsure as to which domain names and branding to use. Right now it’s between nychacker.com and beasting.co. NYCHacker.com is more logical, but Beasting.co is more fun and plays more to my (jokingly) arrogant personality.

I’m going to definitely use server-side rendering, mainly for SEO purposes. I may or may not use Angular too though.