Best blogging platform

[rwdrwdrwd]

In terms of docs and support, Ghost is great for that with both well organised docs and forums alongside realtime Slack support.

In regard to themes and plugins, obviously nothing has the same number of themes / plugins as WP, however 1 million potentially insecure, unaudited themes and plugins aren't necessarily a good thing to have. The OP, however, claims they are familiar with development, so in that instance they can just extend a platform with what they need. If it is the case that they are not familiar with dev in reality, that changes everything and I would recommend a hosted platform, probably Squarespace.

[Bulldozer Dawn]

There are two issues I think important for my new platform. The first is that it must be responsive. That is why I have been swatting up on html5. The second is that it is easy to dovetail with what ever payment solution I have.

[innerspace]

Responsive no worries, most modern wordpress themes are already responsive, imagine similar in ghost. And if you are learning the basics you can tidy up the rest.

Payment provider plugins wordpress will have more off the shelf but anything can be developed for any platform if needed.

Security is a valid concern....like windows before it wordpress is now a favourite target due to its immense popularity. But being opensource it benefits from lots of work being done by the good guys as well as bad.

Years ago lots of wordpress sites were left on old versions for fear of updates breaking things. Dont tollerate that attitude, if updates break things the site is built badly. Wordpress kept on the very latest version, with the right permissions, firewalls, best practices and security plugins is safe enough(nothing is truly safe - ask sony etc).

As for ghost working on your hosting, certain it will. But when something is acting up you will have less knowledge to google to find the solution.

2 differing opinions being shown here and there are in fact many more options. No right answer, just personal preferences.

My advice.... install both and attempt to make a site on each of them. Only after you have actually tried will you be informed enough to make a decision.

[Bulldozer Dawn]

Responsive no worries, most modern wordpress themes are already responsive, imagine similar in ghost. And if you are learning the basics you can tidy up the rest.

Payment provider plugins wordpress will have more off the shelf but anything can be developed for any platform if needed.

Security is a valid concern....like windows before it wordpress is now a favourite target due to its immense popularity. But being opensource it benefits from lots of work being done by the good guys as well as bad.

Years ago lots of wordpress sites were left on old versions for fear of updates breaking things. Dont tollerate that attitude, if updates break things the site is built badly. Wordpress kept on the very latest version, with the right permissions, firewalls, best practices and security plugins is safe enough(nothing is truly safe - ask sony etc).

As for ghost working on your hosting, certain it will. But when something is acting up you will have less knowledge to google to find the solution.

2 differing opinions being shown here and there are in fact many more options. No right answer, just personal preferences.

My advice.... install both and attempt to make a site on each of them. Only after you have actually tried will you be informed enough to make a decision.

Thanks for your input.

[BigStar]

This "issue" by an as-yet-untested blogger reminds me of a kid who needs to spend lots of time sharpening all his pencils to postpone doing his homework.

I think before investing a lot of time on the blogging platform, maybe writing your own , better just do some blogging first and see if you've really got anything to say that anybody cares to read. You probably don't, same as most bloggers who find their hopes disappointed.

So just register with a free blogging site, which can be done instantly--some of these offer an ecommerce option--and get to it NOW. If, as is unlikely, you have any success, you can just move your blog later. Or before bringing out the big guns, like Wordpress, you can start modestly with a couple of plugins for a fast & easy flat file CMS like Gpeasy or Getsimple. Yes, these have responsive templates. If you want to mess around, mess around with the template. Good luck!

[Bulldozer Dawn]

This "issue" by an as-yet-untested blogger reminds me of a kid who needs to spend lots of time sharpening all his pencils to postpone doing his homework. I think before investing a lot of time on the blogging platform, maybe writing your own , better just do some blogging first and see if you've really got anything to say that anybody cares to read. You probably don't, same as most bloggers who find their hopes disappointed. So just register with a free blogging site, which can be done instantly--some of these offer an ecommerce option--and get to it NOW. If, as is unlikely, you have any success, you can just move your blog later. Or before bringing out the big guns, like Wordpress, you can start modestly with a couple of plugins for a fast & easy flat file CMS like Gpeasy or Getsimple. Yes, these have responsive templates. If you want to mess around, mess around with the template. Good luck!

Yep. Nothing is acheived by talk. My primary motivation for creating a blog is that I spend a good deal of time here on TV. Over the last 5 years I have seen a decline in the quality of the members' contributions, a sharp increase in flaming and trolling, and growing inconsistency in treatment by some mods. Even if my blog is a failure, at least my energy is going into something that is mine. I am loath to continue creating content for free for someone else to leverage off with ad income. So nothing to loose in terms of my own wasted time.

In regards to being a successful writer, for two decades I had my own company and wrote for a living. I started with a phone and a borrowed laptop and retired in my mid forties to Thailand. I think I have some prospect of success.

[jcisco]

If you are expecting to syndicate your content or you generate content bound for other sorts of media or sites what do you generate your content in. Do you say work in word or a text editor then publish to HTML and that becomes your source.

Furthermore beyond blogging only system there are quite a number of CMS Packages that are more suitable for use over a sites full potential life cycle and are very cable of multiple facets and hosting multiple sites and sub domains on so on. Most if not all can be configured for blogging and give you flexibility to work your site design flow and channels exactly as you want.

Wordpress while a capable tool I'd rather avoid if developing for it and depend on. Third party plugins instead. It is has some rather painful underlying coding styles that lend themselves to making code path impossible to follow. I am of course not intending to detract from its a ability and low barrier to entry.

Just specifically under it if you attempt to fork or make it your own with coding it is no high on the list of torture I'd willing submit too.