Maybe I am too picky

I usually do this whenever I want to start something new. I get obsessed about the tools that I could potentially use for a new thing that I want to do.

I wanted to start writing, so I figure it’s a good idea to do it in the form of a blog. So I do all the research I can about blogging platforms and blogging frameworks.

See, I am a software developer, that’s what I do for a job, but it is also what I love. I think about software constantly and I am always trying to get better at it.

As a developer, I really wanted a nerdy, developer-centric blogging tool/framework to build a blog with. There are plenty of tools and static site generators that would do the job wonderfully. Hugo, Jekyll, Hexo, etc. But none of them are doing the job the way that I want them to, and none of them had a theme and layout that I loved. Again, like the subtitle states, I might be too picky.

As hard as it is to admit (it’s usually hard to admit where you get your inspiration from, especially when its a little typical or cliche) I like DHH’s blog. I don’t want to over complicate it more than just an intro about me, and a list of preview cards for each blog post. On top of wanting a very simple and light weight blog site, I also want just the simple functionality of having an rss feed, commenting, and an email list, where when I write a blog, it gets sent out to all people that signed up, otherwise known as a newsletter. (The reason I didn’t call it a newsletter up front, is because I don’t really care for the extra layers that come from a typical newsletter, advertising, revenue generation, etc. I just want my post, in plain text form, to be emailed out to people who signed up.)

On top of those features, I also really want it to be simple to post from my phone. I don’t want to get a hit of inspiration while I am out, and then not have the ability to post because I don’t have my laptop. I want to be able to quickly jot down a post and have it up.

Well, as much as I tried to resist a platform, as you can tell, I have landed on Substack. Mainly because the alternatives all are paid or just aren’t really hitting my desired aesthetic very well. I don’t want to be a medium blogger, I don’t want to write on Dev.to/Forem. I want to have a dedicated blog with a newsletter and comments and I want it to be free. Well substack is probably the best for that. Plus, I can also easily post from my phone.

The only thing that I don’t like is having my writings be walled up in this proprietary platform. I want my own corner of the internet, my own space, that I own. Well that is easy enough, get a domain, put stuff on it. I am still trying to figure out a convenient way to be able to write to substack, and have it automatically post to a markdown parsed, lightweight blog that I own.

The way that I think would be easiest, is just have a Cloudflare Worker or Github Action that pulls the html from the Substack RSS feed, converts it to markdown, throws it in the content folder of a Hugo/Jekyll blog, and badda bing badda boom.

I have just been too lazy to actually build that. (It wouldn’t be that hard, I am just too busy trying to learn Ruby on Rails and Zig lol)

p.s. if any of you know about some super underground framework that does everything I want perfectly, please let me know, thanks