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Ask HN: What blogging engine do you use at your startup?

11 points by nfg ↗ HN
I'm looking towards starting a blog as an offshot of some business ideas I've been having. To that end I need some recommendations and thought I would pick your mind.

What blogging engine do you use at your startup? What advantages does it have? I'd be hosting the blog myself. I considered rolling my own, would you recommend/discourage trying that?

Thanks for any advice, I'll keep HN posted as things progress.

16 comments

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cperciva
I wrote my own shell script -- given my minimalist needs that was much easier than figuring out how to use someone else's blog code.
rsayers
I used my own simply because I had already written it and polished it for release before needing it for a business site.

If I was starting from scratch and needed something, I would use wordpress and spend my time elsewhere.

jncraton
I personally use Django with disqus for comments. It takes less than an hour to create a decent blog engine in Django if you know the framework, although it took me significantly more than that the first time I did it. With disqus, you can easily add a comment system in seconds.

For me, Django was the best choice because I use it for everything else and I really like Python. If you are currently using a more typical LAMP stack, then something like WordPress may be the way to go.

pg
Yahoo Store! Bet I'm the only one.
nfg
Would you typically recommend the use of a blog to YC applicants? I suppose I'm seeing it as a simple — but effective and fulfilling — way to build some visibility for the project.
pg
It's worthwhile if you're a good writer, but if writing comes hard to you I wouldn't bother. If blogging is forced it's painful for both parties.
ivankirigin
Why don't you try building a blogging tool in Arc? You could take it as a challenge and try to finish in N hours.
pg
I did as the example when I released Arc. It's very simple though.
brlewis
You're probably the only one using Yahoo store, but you aren't the only one using a Lisp-based web app that wasn't originally intended to be a blogging platform.
pclark
Posterous. Easy to blog, they host it, pity you cannot theme it (yet)
Mistone
wordpress and posterous, both rock. wp for general day to day blogging, posterous for mobile blogging, sneak peaks, and other little bits of content I capture on iphone and want to post. twitter as well if that counts.
hbien
I rolled my own with Django, which I kind of regret now. A blog is really about the content (in this case, news about your product) and not the technology you use.

If you're going to host your own, I'd recommend WordPress. If you don't mind someone else hosting it, try out Tumblr + Disqus.

unalone
We'll probably be designing our own. If we don't, it'll be Tumblr-based.
ejs
I usually roll my own, I dont care for most of the features that come with... and its easier to add my own features (like this one: http://codeachrome.com/blog/post/2-add-ruby-code-to-blog-com...)

My problem is that the blog tends to be the afterthought for me, so building a site around the blog is not a features I want or need.

jacquesm
drupal.

Though I have to say that their policy towards upgrades leaves me underwhelmed.

spoiledtechie
BLOGENGINE.NET OR Tumblr.com

Tumblr is damn easy, but blogengine.net is damn fun.

For Example blog.drinkingfor.com