*Feb 2025* #blogging After a longer break, I wrote a blog post and wanted to publish it to my [11ty](https://www.11ty.dev/) statically generated site, see [here](https://marcel.is). However, I realized that I find publishing cumbersome. I have to copy over the markdown file, copy over the images, check the post looks ok, then commit, and wait. Also, looking at the design, I realized it's perhaps time to admit that I'm not good at typography. I started looking for a better solution. Here's what I want from an ideal blogging platform: - a wysiwyg markdown editor, with an easy image drag&drop - no data lock-in, automatic sync with git, or other type of storage - minimal, customizable theme - lindy, existing for longer, so the risk of the platform disappearing is lower - tags, permalinks, RSS, custom domain, https - sharable drafts I've looked into Ghost, PostHaven, Bear, e11y themes, and a few others, but nothing looked plausible. Then I realized that I've been using [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/) for my private notes, and I love the experience. It turns out there's [Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/publish), which can turn Markdown files stored on my computer into a blog-like website. I remember checking Obsidian Publish years ago, but I quickly dismissed it back then, as it wasn't appealing to me. Checking the service now, it seems the offering has improved a lot. Things that I really like: - The writing experience feels streamlined, wysiwyg, customizable, and available on my laptop as well as mobile; publishing is immediate - I like the basic theme, it seems it can be customized [quite far](https://untested.sonnet.io/). - Markdown files are stored on my computer, could be synced through their Obsidian Sync or through my own means. - Support for [permalinks](https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Publish/Permalin), tags, https, and a custom domain Nice-to-have things that I lack: - **RSS support:** Obsidian Publish does support RSS, but it's rudimentary. There are no timestamps or descriptions. If I'd like to improve the feed, I'd need to find another solution. It seems it's not possible to generate my own RSS feed xml, because I didn't find a way to publish a non-markdown file. Another approach would be to host the feed elsewhere, for example [Buttondown](https://buttondown.com/) that I used for emails. - **DNS:** It turned out that for a custom domain, I need to switch the DNS provider to CloudFlare and proxy the traffic through their servers. I'd prefer to keep my current provider. - There's a [post from 2023](https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/abusing-and-reviewing-obsidian-publish/) which better explains some things lacking in Publish. Image loading performance and accessibility still seem to be open issues. While Obsidian Publish is not an ideal solution, I think it's better for me than the 11ty static-site generator at this point.