Whoops.

Put all that effort into writing a blog platform (which began as a static site generator, then became a quasi-dynamic web app), then neglected to actually write anything for the following three-and-something years. Whoops.

I think part of the problem there is that, as cool as it sounds that your blog posts are stored as markdown files inside a Git repository, the fundamental issue is that it becomes inconvenient to draft up and write posts. Almost immediately, I found myself wanting for an XML-RPC interface for remote publishing, and a web interface for writing posts when I didn’t have access to my preferred MetaWeblog-compatible writing software (OpenLiveWriter). I could’ve added these features to BlogAlba, but this would’ve necessitated a user management system of some sort, as well as actually implementing a web administration interface of some kind, and XML-RPC features that allow for remote blogging. Doable, but I just didn’t have the energy to actually bother with it.

So the blog sat dormant since that first “new blog” post, a testament to how much I simply couldn’t learn to love the now-traditional workflow for static site blogging (and pseudo-static relatives such as BlogAlba).

Enter Chyrp Lite. A blogging platform that seemed simple enough that I could feel comfortable with deploying it, and which is actively maintained - latest release at time of writing was 18 days ago! From reading the features list, I felt quite enamoured with the software due to its support for the MetaWeblog API, ease of templating, and ability to have different 'types' of post, which differ from pages (akin to Tumblr, the default set bundled with Chyrp is Audio, Video, Disco, Text, Link, Photo, Quote and File), each of which can be toggled on or off.

As much as I didn't want to go away from Perl, I've gotten to a certain point in my life where, frankly, I don't have the time or energy to be opinionated about technology and software. This website now runs inside Docker, a technology I've been very vocal in my hatred for. Docker, in turn, runs within Rancher OS, inside a Hyper-V machine. For all my love of FreeBSD, I've long lost the energy to put significant time into building infrastructure that needs regularly maintained; it goes against my personal philosophy, but the convenience of systems that can be repeatedly torn down and rebuilt rather than updated cannot feasibly be ignored.