Just a blogging platform

The thing I find most challenging is “simple”. So far this morning, the best thing I’ve found online is just a blogging platform.

Jekyll

Since the advent of Jekyll - static site generator, many developers are moving the blog to Github. Writing a blog with Jekyll is relatively simple.

Jekyll at its core is a text transformation engine. The concept behind the system is this: you give it text written in your favorite markup language, be that Markdown, Textile, or just plain HTML, and it churns that through a layout or series of layout files. Throughout that process you can tweak how you want the site URLs to look, what data gets displayed on the layout and more. This is all done through strictly editing files, and the web interface is the final product.

Scriptogr.am

Then I found Scriptogr.am, a tool for generating simple, elegant, static weblogs by reading Markdown files stored in your Dropbox folder.

Put simply, Scriptogr.am is a tool for generating simple, elegant, static weblogs by reading Markdown files stored in your Dropbox folder. Writers are free to write with their preferred editor app, and publishing is as easy as hitting the "Synchronize" button in the Scriptogr.am dashboard.

Dropplets

I also found Dropplets, a fresh platform dedicated to making blogging simple again.

There's no database or confusing admins to worry about. Install in seconds, compose in markdown, then drag and drop to publish.

Ghost

And lastly I found Ghost, but still in development (would be completed within few days). I can't wait to try it.

Ghost is an Open Source application which allows you to write and publish your own blog, giving you the tools to make it easy and even (gasp) fun to do. It's simple, elegant, and designed so that you can spend less time messing with making your blog work - and more time blogging.

So, what do you think?