Ask HN: Developers using Wordpress etc.. for personal site

Many devs build their own because they find it interesting or because they want to tune details just how they want it, but if your goal is just to publish content (which normally is the primary reason to have a website) and an existing tool works for you, it makes no sense to build something DIY just because you can.

It depends upon what kind of code you develop. If you do any front end work you really do need to code it from scratch. If you do back end or native client development you don't need to showcase your javascript and css3 skills so you could get away with anything you like that works for you. But if you touch front end web development or want to be involved it really sets you back to not have some kind of examples of your work that are your own original work.

I use Wordpress because I don't want to reinvent the wheel and I want to use plugins for it.

Sure I could write my own blog if I wanted to, but it would not be as good as Wordpress. Wordpress was forked from a B2 project that got abandoned.

I want to write my own forum software someday that finds a better way to reward good behavior with Bitcoins and punish bad behavior with hiding comments and posts. The users decide using credits to vote up or down, and if they earn enough credits they can sell them to other users for Bitcoins, etc. But it is just a theory and dream so far.

Wordpress.com:

- free

- just works

- handle all the traffic it gets without any issues (a HN first page can send 10k viewers in a few hours)

- good stats, decent analytics

- all common wordpress plugins preconfigured

- good themes ready in one click

- good indexing in google

- good reputation (who doesn't trust whatever.wordpress.com?).

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Shit you make yourself:

- Start paying $5/month to digital ocean and $15/year for the domain. Get none of the above. :D

#Just my experience

Yeah, if you're a front end developer then you really need to use your own. How will clients have any kind of confidence in you or your abilities if they don't see you 'dogfooding' ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food )

There's a million and one 'developers' out there, what sets you apart? Any school kid can put up a wordpress site (and they do!) you need to show people you're capable!