Fediverse

Orrrrr Friendica.

I would suggest Write.as or running your own WriteFreely install using Yunohost.

Here's mine: https://writing.socl.bz/

I'm currently using write.as. It's a pretty bare-bones setup when in single user mode and doesn't give the kind of list view you might expect for readers - it loads everything onto a single page. I'm considering maybe using Ghost, which is another big name in the federated blogging space. Write.as doesn't come with comments by default, but I was able to add cactus-comments, but it was a huge PITA because it requires a matrix server.

I do, however, like the minimalist UI aspect of it. You can take a look at mine here. I was also able to get around the list thing by using pinned posts, which stay at the top, so I made an about, a directory, and subscribe pages.

Write.as will post to mastodon under an account that it creates and I have myself on mastodon as a verified owner of the blog site.

Personally I use Hugo and host it on Codeberg Pages, it is super fast and the templating system is a godsend. If I wanted an easier solution I would go into Bearblog

Some people recommend omg.lol too.

Check out Hugo. Takes a little to setup but it's completely free. You can host for free using your GitHub and a provider, plenty of tutorials on how to do it (blanking on the providers name atm)

This is a really good question. I've also been wondering why there seems to be no obvious go-to service for blogging, i.e. full-form authored text, in the same way there are for photos (Pixelfed), video (PeerTube), and of course microblogging and discussion forums like this one. Seems like an oversight.

Yes, there's WordPress. But IMO WordPress is just overkill for most use cases, with its massive database backend. Text is text, the web was designed for text and it worked before databases existed. A static site generator will generate a flat text site just fine (I've used them) but you need to host it.

Someday I’ll try self hosting but for now, I’ll pay for decent services.

Maybe you shouldn't even need to try?

I've changed my mind on this one. I used to believe in the utopian internet dream of everyone hosting their own stuff on their own domains. But managing domains and hosting are both a PITA. They require money, technical expertise (because security), and commitment (or else your site goes away). The URL of a blog article posted, say, right here is probably going to be more permanent that it would be on the average private site. And Archive.org is recording the content either way. I've come to the view that sites should be left to organisations, and individuals should do themselves a favor and just affiliate themselves to one of those sites. Against payment if appropriate.

Which leaves the question of which site?

I’ve tried all sorts of things and have settled on using Wordpress with a rss widget which publishes my rss feed from Mastodon (it picks up certain hashtags to avoid publishing everything - eg. #blog). It publishes pics and everything. It also works with Pixelfed (maybe not Bsky). There’s probably more elegant ways to do this - and ones involving activitypub - but this one works without much effort setting up.

So, this is kind of a left-field suggestion but what about WAFRN (app.wafrn.net) - it's the Fediverse's version of Tumblr