Quickest, easiest, no-fuss, bare-bones "blog" / sharing space?
May 9, 2024 4:34 AM Subscribe
I want a free space online to post stuff I would ordinarily send to my husband via email or dm, and I don't want to fiddle with it at all (just sign up, boom, go) or get updates, ads, promos, etc., etc. from the site. (like maybe the site itself has some ads, which is okay, but I don't want to get ads, mail or notices from them.)
I'll be posting images and links, and I'd like the images to be able to be viewed at full-size (like click to view full size, or mouse right-click / view image -- so no auto-resizing of the base image). It can be private or non-private, and needs to be searchable. I seriously don't want to spend more than a few minutes setting this up.
Here's an example of the sort of thing I'll be posting. (Big image, which I'd like him to be able to view without having to click to go to another site). So, basically I'll be posting stuff of interest for his work and hobbies, funny meme type stuff, links to articles and youtube videos.
The situation is that he is getting lots of email these days that need immediate attention, so he gets sound alerts every time he gets an email or message, and I want a place he can just go check at his leisure, without being interrupted by an alert. I've considered pinterest, but he hates pinterest, and pinterest also often resizes images, and boards are not easily searchable. Tumblr might work, but I don't know that much about posting there, and I'm curious about other possible solutions.
Thank you for any ideas!
I'll be posting images and links, and I'd like the images to be able to be viewed at full-size (like click to view full size, or mouse right-click / view image -- so no auto-resizing of the base image). It can be private or non-private, and needs to be searchable. I seriously don't want to spend more than a few minutes setting this up.
Here's an example of the sort of thing I'll be posting. (Big image, which I'd like him to be able to view without having to click to go to another site). So, basically I'll be posting stuff of interest for his work and hobbies, funny meme type stuff, links to articles and youtube videos.
The situation is that he is getting lots of email these days that need immediate attention, so he gets sound alerts every time he gets an email or message, and I want a place he can just go check at his leisure, without being interrupted by an alert. I've considered pinterest, but he hates pinterest, and pinterest also often resizes images, and boards are not easily searchable. Tumblr might work, but I don't know that much about posting there, and I'm curious about other possible solutions.
Thank you for any ideas!
Best answer: tumblr in fact would be perfect for this! Just make a tumblr blog, customize it with a theme of some sort, and give him the link to it. Posting is easy, with support for images, videos, links, text, etc, and there are tools for queueing if you want to space things out or post special items on special days.
[ haunting sound: join ussss ]
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:52 AM on May 9 [3 favorites]
[ haunting sound: join ussss ]
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:52 AM on May 9 [3 favorites]
If you're a little bit technical then github pages.
posted by lawrencium at 5:18 AM on May 9
posted by lawrencium at 5:18 AM on May 9
Nthing Tumblr. Should do what you need.
posted by humbug at 5:51 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
posted by humbug at 5:51 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you, guys! I'm tumbling! I'll post any issues or questions here as I go along, but so far so good, and fast/easy, as promised!
(also, other ideas still welcome)
posted by taz at 5:57 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
(also, other ideas still welcome)
posted by taz at 5:57 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
adding to the pile of votes for tumblr
posted by wowenthusiast at 6:09 AM on May 9 [2 favorites]
posted by wowenthusiast at 6:09 AM on May 9 [2 favorites]
If tumblr doesn’t work out for some reason, I suggest notion which has many of the same benefits but is more customizable in my experience.
posted by scantee at 6:38 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
posted by scantee at 6:38 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
Pinboard.in and Flipboard might also be worth exploring.
posted by fifthpocket at 7:22 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
posted by fifthpocket at 7:22 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
Use tumblr. A note on searchability though: tumblr's own blog search is finicky, and if a post is all photos with little/no text, you're not gonna have any luck finding it again in your own tumblr if you just search cats or whatever. If you want something to be reliably easy to find, come up with a tagging system.
posted by yasaman at 10:15 AM on May 9
posted by yasaman at 10:15 AM on May 9
I think Tumblr does auto-resize images, though? Would mltshp be better for this?
If you use Tumblr, seconding the recommendation to use tags; they are super easy and fun to use. (note that Tumblr tags can include spaces, unlike here.)
You may get in-site notifications that other blogs "follow" you. Sometimes these will be real people, but more often than not they will just be a scantily clad profile pic with no posts. These are spam, just hit "block" and/or "report spam". There was a real wave of these last year, but there seem to be far fewer now.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:09 AM on May 9
If you use Tumblr, seconding the recommendation to use tags; they are super easy and fun to use. (note that Tumblr tags can include spaces, unlike here.)
You may get in-site notifications that other blogs "follow" you. Sometimes these will be real people, but more often than not they will just be a scantily clad profile pic with no posts. These are spam, just hit "block" and/or "report spam". There was a real wave of these last year, but there seem to be far fewer now.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:09 AM on May 9
Response by poster: So, the problem I'm seeing right now is that he's going to have to sign up for a tumblr account just to view the blog? That's not a thing he's going to want to do. urgh.
posted by taz at 1:15 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
posted by taz at 1:15 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]
This is basically what our friends group uses Discord for. We have a few channels for keeping topics separate, like event planning, news, hiking, and of course, memes. You can easily attach/embed links, images, videos, etc. and it's pretty quick and easy to get up and running. Desktop and mobile clients, as well as via the web, if you like. The usual caveat applies with free spaces or anytime it's another platform hosting your content: Depending on how crucial this information is, and whether it needs to be preserved long-term, consider whether that platform easily facilitates creating an export/backup/archive of your stuff. This is much easier to do on your own web hosting, but I'm not aware of any that a both free, and worth a damn.
posted by xedrik at 1:28 PM on May 9 [3 favorites]
posted by xedrik at 1:28 PM on May 9 [3 favorites]
You can always get a free hosted WordPress blog - can post anything, back up stuff, no login to view etc.
posted by Hartster at 2:24 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]
posted by Hartster at 2:24 AM on May 10 [1 favorite]
Mltshp above is a great but he will have to create an account too.
posted by ellieBOA at 7:04 AM on May 10
posted by ellieBOA at 7:04 AM on May 10
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I was going to suggest Tumblr. It’s really easy to set-up and manage/post to. Honestly, I can’t think of anything else that checks your boxes quite as completely as Tumblr.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:50 AM on May 9 [3 favorites]