So when I went looking for code to run this blog, I was only interested in one thing: simplicity.
I have installed, customized, templated and operated more than a dozen WordPress sites, and as much as I believe in WP, it's too much for my needs here.
What I wanted was a minimalist approach to blogging - post, image, comments, RSS. Done.
To be honest, though, I wasn't optimistic that I'd find that. Everybody wants their blog to have every accoutrement imaginable. They want to have tag clouds and monetization. They want categories, tags, flickr widgets ... the lot. So most blog engines are full-fledged cms packages anymore.
But lo and behold, I stumbled upon supersimple.org. Todd Resudek is a man after my own heart - a minimalist with good design sensibilities. His site is so spartan it makes mine look like a Las Vegas casino. I love it.
He offers his Super Simple Blog code as a free open-source download, and it comes ready to use almost right off the shelf. It took me a grand total of 9 minutes from download to first post (not counting the time it took for my host to initialize a mySQL database), and that is pretty damn impressive.
Now, don't get me wrong; SSB is bare-bones gritty. There's no fancy dashboard interface, and you'll be entering and editing all your content through ultra-basic form controls. But that's part of the charm - having nothing but what you need. No more, no less.
Another excellent thing about SSB is that you can get the extra accoutrements - forms, flickr integration, even chatrooms - with additional (simple) scripts. Not that I'll ever use them, but it's cool to know they're available.
There is one caveat, though - validation. Post divs get numeric ids, and that's a standards-compliance boo boo. It's a pretty minor issue, but I think I'm going to have to sort it out myself to keep the page valid.
Other than that, SSB is the best pound-for-pound value I've seen. Kudos, Todd.
