The problem with these "I made this X in 5 minutes" announcements is that frequently, it looks like you made it in five minutes (and I don't mean that in a good way). This phrasing " I did X in Y time" is obviously meant to highlight one's skill and speed, but if the product looks crappy, the forest is missed for the trees.
I think this is a neat collection of frontend tools to make your Jekyll (or other static) blog snazzy. It's a good article in that respect: "Here are all the tools you need for a full featured Jekyll blog." But making the point of it being a "fast setup", as someone else pointed out, is a weak point, since wordpress and others are just as fast or faster.
Thanks for the feedback. I should have focused more on how open source allows us to now create and publish these types of applications more efficiently.
I have lots of ideas, sometimes you just have to start somewhere. Since I hadn't made GitHub user page that is just where I choose to start. Thanks for your feedback.
For those using octopress, here is a way to customize your blog so that it will stand out more and address the five minute easy set up problem. This will add like, 2 minutes, tops, to the minimum set up time, but it will be fairly unique.
http://zacharymaril.com/blog/2012/02/24/please-please-octopr...
Yah my first reaction after reading his post was hmm... watch me make a WordPress blog in 30 seconds. There are so many tools and templates and bootstraps out there to create a website in 10 minutes. The title definitely should have been something along the lines of what you suggested.
I was vaguely hoping the article was going to be about a mindhack for getting out fast blog posts. I can create the blog layout in 10 minutes, but the content is much more difficult sometimes.
I couldn't agree more and was about to make a comment like this. Bootstrap does not mean that you don't need a designer or time to think about UX, and it makes me ill to see all these sites coming out with no thought put into design or ux that are boostrapped and they say "hey look how great this is, and how fast I made it!"
Straight up default bootstrap is even worse in my eyes than craigslist style css. It's overused, and it's not enough to impress anymore. Take 6 more days, talk to a designer, and make this a real blog.
FWIW, I tell most developers I know to not stress out about their personal blog design and just focus on the value of content. The vast majority of default/built-in blog layouts are just fine. You're not a designer, you're not seeking to show off your design chops with a custom layout – just write good articles.
That said, this particular sort of design where it's not a standard blog theme and not a custom design, but is just tweaked Bootstrap just seems neither here nor there.
I know what you mean about bootstrap. On the other hand, nobody I know would have any idea what it is. One of my friends the other day who wants to do a startup had no idea what Wordpress is. I had to pretend not to be completely floored, lest I insult him.
If the blog will be targeted towards more savvy tech folk like yourself, then I kinda see your point. If it's not going to speak to that niche then I say go forth with bootstrap!
true...I've been wanting to try out jekyll and even though it looks slower than a login/3rd-party setup it's still demonstrably easy, from this post...so that's extra incentive to give it a go.
I think this is a neat collection of frontend tools to make your Jekyll (or other static) blog snazzy. It's a good article in that respect: "Here are all the tools you need for a full featured Jekyll blog." But making the point of it being a "fast setup", as someone else pointed out, is a weak point, since wordpress and others are just as fast or faster.