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A Brief History of Blogging in China#

December 1997: American Jorn Barger first used the term "Weblog," marking the birth of blogging.

1999: Peter Merholz first used the abbreviation "blog."

2001: In early 2001, a translated article from "Industry Standard" magazine appeared in the domestic publication "Digital Wealth." This article, "The Plastic Media" by Nicholas Carr, served as the basic enlightenment for blogging in China. On September 11 of the same year, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in the United States made blogs an important source of information and personal experiences during disasters. From then on, blogging officially entered the mainstream view in the United States.

July 2002: The Chinese name for "blog" was officially translated by Fang Xingdong and Wang Junxiu as "博客." In August of the same year, the website "Blog China" was launched, marking the comprehensive enlightenment and promotion of blogging in China.

2003: In March, the Nankai University Lily Blog System was launched, and the University of Science and Technology of China Blog System entered the testing phase, leading to rapid development of blogs in universities. Starting June 19, the online diary published by the user "木子美" on China Blog Network brought huge traffic to Chinese blogging websites. That same year, "博客" became a popular keyword in online search engines.

2004: The year of blogging commercialization, blogging began to become a common phenomenon on the internet.

2005: Sina Blog went online. In the same year, the number of blog users in China reached 1 million.

2006: The number of blog users in China reached 5 million.

2007: Microblogging platforms represented by "海内，" "饭否，" "叽歪，" and "做啥" emerged and gained popularity.

From 2009 to present: In September, Sina Weibo went online, marking the beginning of the independent blogging era.

Why Write a Blog#

Using a blog to record your valuable thoughts brings many benefits without any obvious downsides.

Many people have discussed the topic of "why to write a blog," so I won't elaborate further.

A representative piece is Mr. Liu Weipeng's “Why You Should (Start Now) Write a Blog”, which introduces the benefits of blogging, including sharing one's thoughts and summaries, as well as improving one's ideas through communication and reflection. The article also mentions that problems lingering in the subconscious for a long time can lead to deeper thinking and more perspectives, making blogging a great way to think and learn.

• Read More

  • Why You Should Start a Blog Right Now

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  • Why and how to write things on the Internet

  • Write about what you learn. It pushes you to understand topics better.

  • Thoughts on Meaning and Writing

  • The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online

  • NONFICTION WRITING ADVICE

  • The real power of the Jeff Bezos memo and how you can put it into practice (even if you don’t have any meetings)

  • Selfish Writing

Choosing a Blogging Framework#

Before starting to write a blog, an important decision is to choose the right blogging framework for independent deployment. Blogging frameworks are mainly divided into two types: dynamic blogs and static blogs. In addition, if you do not wish to deploy independently, there are also some all-in-one blogging platforms to choose from.

Dynamic Blogs#

Dynamic blogs are the most common form of blogging. Dynamic blogging systems like WordPress, Typecho, and Ghost dynamically generate web pages on the server, meaning that every time a user visits the blog, the content is generated dynamically and then sent to the browser.

Advantages:

• Easy to use: Dynamic blogging systems typically provide user-friendly interfaces, allowing you to publish and edit content conveniently without programming knowledge.
• Feature-rich: Dynamic blogging systems offer a wealth of plugins and extensions, making it easy to add new features like social media sharing, comment systems, analytics tools, etc.
• Flexibility: Dynamic blogging systems can be easily customized and modified to meet different needs.

Disadvantages:

• Loading speed: Since each page is generated in real-time, loading speeds may be slightly slower.
• Database required: Dynamic blogging systems require a database to store and retrieve content, which may increase the complexity of configuration and management.
• Security issues: Due to their complexity, dynamic blogging systems may be more vulnerable to security attacks.


WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) developed in PHP. It was initially a tool for creating blogs but has now evolved into a powerful platform for creating various types of websites.

• Its main features include:
  1. Usability: WordPress provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to easily publish and manage your content without any coding skills.
  2. Highly customizable: WordPress is highly customizable, with thousands of free and paid themes available, and you can also write or modify your own themes.
  3. Plugin ecosystem: WordPress has a vast plugin ecosystem with over 50,000 available plugins to extend functionality, such as SEO, social media sharing, e-commerce, etc.
  4. Community support: WordPress has a large and active community where users can find plugins, themes, and help with any WordPress usage.
  5. SEO-friendly: WordPress offers many built-in SEO tools and a wealth of SEO plugins to help your website rank higher in search engines.
• Example blog: hyuanverse

Typecho is an open-source lightweight blogging system written in PHP and relies on a MySQL database. Its goal is to allow users to publish their opinions easily, with a simple yet extensible functionality.

• Its main features include:
  1. Simple and easy to use: Typecho seems to be designed for "simplicity," with easy and quick installation, a clear interface, and intuitive usage.
  2. Extreme performance: Typecho is lightweight and fast, achieving almost instantaneous speed in a PHP 5.1+ environment.
  3. Highly extensible: Typecho has very high extensibility, allowing you to add new features by writing plugins and customizing themes.
  4. Markdown support: Typecho supports Markdown syntax, allowing you to write articles more easily.
  5. Multi-user system: Typecho supports creating multiple users to meet team collaboration needs.
  6. Easy backup: You can export your articles and comments as XML files for easy website migration.
• Example blog: 友人 C

Ghost is an open-source blogging platform written in Node.js, designed for a clean writing and reading experience while also providing customization options like theme design and plugin extensions.

• Its main features include:
  1. Markdown support: Ghost supports Markdown syntax, allowing for simpler writing.
  2. Clean design: Ghost has a simple interface that focuses on content, providing authors and readers with a distraction-free reading and writing experience.
  3. High performance: Ghost is written in Node.js, resulting in excellent performance.
  4. Theme customization: Ghost supports custom themes, allowing users to create new themes based on their needs or use themes developed by others.
  5. Built-in SEO: Ghost integrates some SEO tools internally to optimize its SEO performance.
  6. Integrated publishing tools: Ghost allows you to publish directly from the Ghost blog to various platforms, such as Email, AMP, Facebook Instant Articles, etc.
• Example blog: Dailyio

Static Blogs#

Static blogs, such as Jekyll, Hexo, or Hugo, generate static HTML files directly, which can be deployed to any web server.

Advantages:

• Fast speed: Since the pages are pre-generated, they load quickly, providing a better user experience.
• More secure: Static blogs do not rely on databases and do not require server-side dynamic processing, making them more secure.
• Low maintenance cost: Static blogs generate static files that can be deployed on any service that supports HTTP, requiring no complex maintenance or updates.

Disadvantages:

• Functionality limitations: Static blogs have relatively simple functionality; if more dynamic features (like user comments) are needed, additional tools and services are required.
• Complex updates: Every time content is updated, the website needs to be regenerated and redeployed, which may be inconvenient for frequently updated sites.
• Requires some technical knowledge: Creating and managing static blogs typically requires some programming and command-line knowledge.


Jekyll is an open-source static site generator developed in Ruby, seamlessly integrated with GitHub Pages, making it ideal for building blogs and personal pages.

• Its main features include:
  1. Simple: Jekyll allows you to write content using Markdown or Textile and the Liquid template engine, then generate a complete static website that can be easily hosted on any server.
  2. Static: Jekyll converts Markdown (or other formats) text files into static HTML files. This means you can host your project page, blog, or website for free using GitHub Pages.
  3. Blog-aware: Jekyll is designed for blogging, making it easy to create and manage posts. For example, it can automatically sort your posts by date.
  4. Free hosting: If you use GitHub Pages, you can host your Jekyll blog for free.
• Example blog: 欧雷流

Hexo is a fast, simple, and powerful blogging framework written in Node.js. It uses Markdown (or other rendering engines) to parse articles and generates static web pages during the build phase.

• Its main features include:
  1. Fast generation: Hexo can quickly process files and generate static web pages, making the overall site generation speed very fast.
  2. Markdown support: Hexo supports all features of GitHub Flavored Markdown, making it easier to write articles.
  3. One-click deployment: Hexo has a powerful one-click deployment feature, supporting GitHub Pages, Heroku, etc.
  4. Rich plugins: The Hexo ecosystem has a large number of plugins that can provide RSS, search, comments, and other functionalities.
  5. Diverse themes: Hexo offers many optional themes that can be selected based on personal taste and style.
• Example blog: Macin’s Blog

Hugo is a static site generator written in Go. It is designed for speed and flexibility, making website creation faster and simpler.

• Its main features include:
  1. Fast speed: Since Hugo is written in Go, it generates web pages extremely quickly.
  2. Easy installation: Hugo is a single binary file that can run on various platforms, making installation simple without third-party dependencies.
  3. Static site: Hugo converts Markdown (or other formats) documents into static HTML files, allowing for easy deployment on any server.
  4. Real-time preview: Hugo has a built-in server that allows for quick previews of website changes, enabling you to see results while writing content.
  5. Rich themes: You can choose from Hugo's rich theme library to quickly change the appearance and feel of your site.
  6. Powerful and flexible: Hugo supports custom URLs, blog content, paths, site-wide data, etc., making it extremely user-friendly.
• Example blog: pseudoyu

Zola is a static site generator written in Rust, aiming for simplicity and speed, focusing on providing fast generation tools.

• Its main features include:
  1. Fast speed: Zola is written in Rust, a language designed for performance and concurrency, resulting in fast web page generation.
  2. Single binary: Zola is released as a single binary file, meaning no complex environment setup or dependencies.
  3. Markdown support: Zola quickly creates content using Markdown and supports custom links and inline HTML.
  4. Template engine: Zola provides a complete set of template engines, supporting conditions, loops, includes, inheritance, etc.
  5. Sass & SCSS support: Zola has built-in support for Sass/SCSS.
  6. Built-in Tera: Zola uses the Tera template system, a template engine written in Rust.
  7. Automatic hot reload/real-time preview: Zola has a built-in server system that allows you to see real-time website building effects.
• Example blog: Pin 起来

Astro is a front-end framework for building fast, optimized websites and applications. Astro allows you to write modern JavaScript or TypeScript while ensuring better performance by sending minimal static JS scripts to the client.

• Its main features include:
  1. Zero-runtime JavaScript compression: The main goal of the Astro framework is to allow you to build websites while minimizing client-side JavaScript, as reducing client-side JS improves site performance.
  2. Framework compatibility: Astro supports using components from React, Vue, Svelte, Preact, or Vanilla.js within the same project as needed. This means you can mix and match your favorite UI components within a single project.
  3. Markdown support: Astro has excellent Markdown support, allowing Markdown documents to be directly converted into pages.
  4. Partial rendering: Astro has partial rendering capabilities, allowing for on-demand loading of JS, providing rich interactive experiences while building performance.
  5. SEO-friendly: Since Astro generates static HTML files, it is SEO-friendly.
  6. No bundling required: Astro does not use bundling during development, resulting in a faster development experience.
• Example blog: 四零二曜日

Next.js is an open-source JavaScript framework based on React, providing server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) solutions.

• Its main features include:
  1. Mixed rendering: Next.js allows users to choose between pre-rendering (SSG) and server-rendered (SSR) pages within the same application, offering flexibility based on each page's needs.
  2. File system routing: The only constraint of Next.js is that the file system must serve as the primary routing mechanism; you can create files in the pages directory, which will automatically convert to corresponding routes.
  3. Built-in CSS and SCSS support: Next.js provides built-in support for CSS and SCSS, and you can import other style libraries and CSS-in-JS solutions.
  4. Hot reloading: Next.js provides hot module replacement in the development environment, automatically updating and rendering in the browser when you modify code.
  5. API Routes: Next.js supports API routes, allowing you to build your API endpoints, which the framework automatically handles and responds to.
  6. Fully compatible with React: Next.js is fully compatible with the React ecosystem, allowing you to apply most React-related libraries and tools in your project.
• Example blog: 佐玩

Gatsby is a free and open-source framework based on React, particularly suitable for complex websites and web applications, easily fetching data from various sources.

• Its main features include:
  1. Performance optimization: Gatsby generates static files for your project, resulting in a high-performance site. Additionally, it has many built-in performance optimization features, such as preloading and code splitting.
  2. Data integration: Gatsby uses GraphQL to pull data and pre-generate static HTML, not just from Markdown but also from CMS, APIs, databases, etc.
  3. Powerful plugin ecosystem: Gatsby has a rich plugin ecosystem, making it easy to add more features.
  4. Hot reloading: Gatsby uses hot reloading on the development server, automatically updating the page when you modify your JavaScript, CSS, or data.
  5. Based on React: Since Gatsby is built on React, you can use all the features and ecosystem of React during development.

11ty is a simple and easy-to-use static site generator based on JavaScript. It aims to be a JavaScript alternative to Jekyll, allowing users to use it in a Node.js environment without needing to install Ruby.

• Its main features include:
  1. Flexible data: 11ty is very flexible, allowing you to use JavaScript data files, global data files, and data-driven content creation (like blog posts).
  2. Diverse template support: 11ty supports various template languages, including Nunjucks, Liquid, Pug, Markdown, HTML, JavaScript, etc.
  3. Non-intrusive: 11ty does not impose any build steps on your project, allowing you to freely organize and handle static files.
  4. Excellent performance: 11ty generates websites quickly, making it a good choice for those selecting static site generators.
  5. Plugin system: 11ty supports using plugins to extend functionality, such as adding image optimization or RSS support.
  6. Excellent documentation: 11ty's official documentation is detailed and easy to understand, making it easy to get started.

VuePress is a minimalist static site generator developed by the Vue.js team, particularly suitable for documentation websites.

• Its main features include:
  1. Based on Vue: Every page generated by VuePress is a single-page application (SPA) dynamically rendered by Vue, Vue Router, and webpack, providing a Vue development environment.
  2. Markdown support: VuePress supports GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown) and extends some default plugins, such as tables and scrollable directories. This also means you can directly use Vue components in Markdown.
  3. Rich themes: VuePress provides a default theme aimed at creating technical documentation but also supports using or creating custom themes.
  4. Built-in search: VuePress's built-in search engine creates a search index based on titles, page content, and default subtitles without additional configuration.
  5. Performance optimization: VuePress pre-renders static HTML for each page while turning into a complete SPA upon loading, optimizing the initial loading time.

Pelican is a static site generator written in Python. It can convert Markdown, reStructuredText, or AsciiDoc documents into HTML, PDF, and more.

• Its main features include:
  1. Convenient writing: Pelican supports writing content in Markdown, reStructuredText, and AsciiDoc formats, making writing easy and free.
  2. Rich themes: The Pelican community offers several themes that you can choose based on personal needs and styles or customize your own.
  3. Powerful plugins: Pelican's plugin ecosystem is rich, covering everything from SEO optimization to social media integration, allowing you to find almost all the features you need.
  4. Easy deployment: Pelican can publish your content through FTP, SFTP, Rsync, GitHub Pages, or Amazon S3.
  5. Dynamic content generation: Although Pelican is a static site generator, it supports generating some content that appears dynamic, such as comments and article sharing.

Notion-Based#

• Nobelium is a static blogging system implemented using NextJS + Notion API, deployed on Vercel. Designed for Notion and all creators.
  • Example blog: Wonder Space
• Osmium is a free, open-source, backend-free static blogging tool based on Notion for data storage, developed using Next.js. It is derived from the well-received Nobelium by Notion blog users and incorporates many developers' personal understandings of "Notion blogs."
• NotionNext is a static blogging tool implemented using NextJS + Notion API, supporting various deployment options without a server, designed for Notion and all creators.
  • Example blog: Tangly Blog
• Notablog is a free, open-source static blogging tool based on Notion.
  • Example blog: Alexander’s Garden
• Next.js Notion Starter Kit is a free, open-source website building tool based on Next.js and Notion.
  • Example blog: transitvebullsh
• Super is a paid website building tool based on Notion.
• Feather is a paid blogging tool based on Notion.

Others#

• xLog is an all-in-one blockchain blogging tool with a good community ecosystem.
  • Example blog: Hi DIYgog
• Gridea is a full-featured blogging tool that provides writing, hosting, and custom domain services.
  • Example blog: 海岛心 hey
• Obsidian Publish is a publishing tool launched by Obsidian that allows notes to be directly published as blogs.
• Montaigne is a blogging tool based on Apple Notes.