I’ve been around the block trying to figure out how I would like to code and maintain a blog. Back in 2020, I was using Chronica to make updates about my networking hub. This year, since I opened a fansite I thought to try CuteNews after seeing it on someone else’s site. Not my best idea to just go directly to the website and install it without googling at all (plus using such an old script in the first place). Turns out there was a vulnerability discovered in it years ago (which, funnily enough, was only patched mere weeks after I installed the script this year). After finding that out I quickly tried Zonelots (a more feature-filled version of Zonelets) which ended up not being my cup of tea and decided to just go to Bearblog. I was still unhappy with the customization options (I’m currently using it as an iframe on my site) so I’ve been trying many other options in the background for months. The main things I was looking for in order (but could try to do myself if necessary) were post permalinks, an archive, rss, navigation between entries and tags. Here’s the list of stuff I tried (including the aforementioned):

1. CuteNews: I had this installed on PHP 7.4 (before I knew better) and did not utilize a lot of things while I had it installed. I just made entries and implemented the code into my site. I did not use tags or an archive. The most notable thing about this was introducing me to the joy of RSS feeds (CN can generate one with a basic stylesheet which threw me off when I installed the Feeder extension to my browser).
2. Zonelots: Not much to say about this but I did try to implement ZoneRSS and found out that the javascript for the arrays compared to Zonelets are different which is my own fault since I don’t know much about js.
3. Bearblog: As the only standalone option here I really do enjoy the simplicity of this service but the only thing that’s missing for me is navigation between entries. I would love to support the site monetarily at another time.
4. Chronica (again): I had issues installing and using this on PHP 8, but got it working on 7.4 (like I was using back in 2020). However, there are still errors and I never got around to customizing it this time so I just uninstalled and removed the database. It also does not have an RSS feed.
5. Fanupdate - This has basically everything I would want in a PHP blogging script at least. It has an archive with categories and generates an RSS feed. However, it is another old and insecure script so it’s probably best to not use it in production. It was good for a test run to see how I wanted things. It has been updated as far as PHP 7 so there are PHP 8 issues.
6. Blogify News System - This is a brand new script made by Design Freaks. It’s a good option if you want to keep things super simple with updates, drafts, uploaded images, customization and integration. There is no database or RSS feed, but I am thinking about reaching out to them about further features so I could maybe try it with another project.
7. Kiki - Another new flat file script I saw on someone’s site. I gave it a try and honestly didn’t care for it much. It still seemed like too much work to write a blog and I also didn’t like how the RSS feed generates.
8. Tabvoid - It is like Zonelets but I really loved the template choices so I gave this a try as well. It’s a bit too much manual work, especially title generation wise, but it’s not bad for a backup and I do prefer it to Zonelets (and Zonelots).
9. HTMLy - I haven’t touched Wordpress in years but this seems pretty similar to it (don’t know if there are plugins though). Premade theme-wise it seems pretty bare and I don’t really feel like making one just to use it. It does seem like a good option if you’re not concerned with those things and want a Wordpress alternative.
10. Astro - Now I’m here! I just went through the tutorial for this a couple of days ago! I still have a lot to learn, but ultimately it seems like the answer I’ve been looking for! I’ve definitely known about SSGs for a while, but was kind of hesitant to try them as I had not used my terminal much and that made me nervous. However the Astro docs have made almost everything an absolute breeze to get through and understand! I have the aforementioned tutorial blog site I made, as well as this blog, and am now working on designing the blog for my fansite so that I can integrate Astro in it!

Overall, I am happy that I did try a lot of different methods because I learned things from each along the way. For example, it forced me to look at my error logs and dotfiles in cpanel.