It's fun to set up static site generators but I think it's better to pick something you can start writing in immediately instead of spending time thinking about what to use.
If you end up enjoying blogging you can switch to different software later if you like. But don't let that stop you from starting to write now.
This is really great advice and I appreciate it. You're right about having something to start writing in immediately. It's funny getting tied up in the process when I haven't really even discovered if I have much love or knack for writing yet!
All the replies to my comment have been super helpful but the mindset to write immediately is important. I'm grateful for the suggestions and one of the other replies also sound positive for bearblog - it could work out well and I'm going to check it out :-)
If I had discovered bearblog I probably would have never written my current static site generator. Bearblog is exactly what I was looking for because you don’t have to make any choices. Just write!
Yes, the project is still alive and well! It also powers our very alive commercial service, Write.as, which has most of my attention. The open source project is just moving at a one-maintainer pace because it only has one maintainer :)
There will definitely be future releases, especially once we get through a roadblock with the tool we use to cross-compile WriteFreely [0]. Otherwise, anyone who wants to see the project move faster is more than welcome to contribute, especially with tasks like code review, to help clear out those PRs [1].
Last year they discussed why they didn’t choose rust (predicted 12-18 months to build a runtime that met their requirements) or erlang (performance too slow):
That's me. I discussed why we (I am no longer at Wallaroo) made the decision about 5 years ago to use Pony to build a product that is no longer what Wallaroo is selling.
[0]: https://xblock.aendra.com/getting-started/