[Discuss] Jekyll users, experts, developers anywhere?

[Nancy Allison]

Thank you, Dan. This is really helpful. I didn't realize the level of
sophistication I would need; sounds like a hosting service may be the way
to go.

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 7:47 AM, Dan Ritter <dsr at randomstring.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 01, 2018 at 08:24:24PM -0400, Nancy Allison wrote:
> > Hello, all.
> >
> > I am investigating software for a new blog. I've used Wordpress before
> and
> > don't want to get bogged down in it again. I did some searches for open
> > source blogging software, and it looks as if Jekyll might be a clean,
> > simple alternative that meets my requirements. (However, I'm willing to
> > believe that another blogging tool might be better.)
> >
> > I am not the world's most technical person, so I'm looking for help. The
> > Jekyll Quick Start Guide begins with this sentence:
> >
> > "If you already have a full Ruby <https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
> downloads/>
> > development environment with all headers and RubyGems
> > <https://rubygems.org/pages/download> installed (see Jekyll’s
> requirements
> > <https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/#requirements>), you can create
> a
> > new Jekyll site by doing the following:"
> >
> > This is Greek to me. No, I don't have a Ruby development environment and
> > have no idea how I'd get one.
> >
> > I'm looking for suggestions for user groups, forums, consultants, etc.,
> > etc. All suggestions gratefully received.
>
> You probably already know that Jekyll is one of a class of
> static website generators: it takes content written in Markdown,
> combines it with templates that show how each page is
> structured, and finally adds in CSS to control colors and
> margins and fonts and so forth.
>
> These have excellent performance and security characteristics,
> but require a fair investment in learning how to run and use
> them. In particular, Jekyll assumes that you are at least a
> beginner Ruby programmer.
>
> You'll need a server to run the software on. If you don't have
> one set up, you're going to need to learn how. The cheapest
> method is to rent a virtual machine from Linode or Digital Ocean
> or similar; the cheapest VM at $5/month will do just fine.
>
> Once you do that, you'll have a choice of operating system. For
> example, if you choose Debian, installing jekyll and all the
> dependencies is as simple as saying:
>
> sudo apt install jekyll
>
> and all the ruby bits that are necessary will be installed for
> you, and then jekyll will be installed as well. You'll be able
> to proceed from instructions on the Jekyll site.
>
> If this sounds too daunting, you might want to pay a company to
> run the software on your behalf. I don't know of anyone doing
> Jekyll hosting in specific, but you might want to look into
> Ghost, www.ghost.org, which supports its open-source development
> by selling hosting services. I think it's kind of expensive at
> $20 per month, but they really do everything for you except pick
> out images and write the blog.
>
> -dsr-
>