Preface#
I started playing with blogs since 2015, starting from Emlog → WordPress → Typecho → Hexo → xLog.
Here are some themes I remember purchasing and using:
- Emlog: Mingyue Haokong's theme, Jiaozi's Fly
- WordPress: Amativeness by @Diygod, Giligili by Shawn (modified version)
- Typecho: Photograph by Xianggu
- Hexo: Nexmoe by Zheyin Qingmeng
In fact, I am a person who cares about appearance when it comes to blogs. I have purchased countless blog themes (I believe in supporting the masters I admire).
What is xLog?#
It is an application product based on the Crossbell blockchain. The underlying technology framework includes Ethereum, InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), and smart contracts specifically designed for social content creation.
For more details, please refer to the article "The First Open Source On-chain Blogging System xLog - DIYgod" by @DIYgod introducing @xLog.
Why choose xLog?#
- Blog Traffic
If you have a personal blog with few articles and poor SEO optimization (in the past, you could optimize your blog's SEO through some techniques, but now in China, search engine rankings are mostly achieved through paid methods), then very few people will know about your blog. You can only rely on exchanging links with other bloggers, sharing your blog in groups, and creating a pseudonym for your blog in various groups to gain familiarity. - Expand Connections
In the past, if you wanted to make friends through blogs, you could only do so by exchanging links and clicking on other bloggers' links to get to know them. The community was always small, and it took a lot of time to discover excellent hidden bloggers. - Cost of Investment
Setting up your own blog requires preparing server hosting and domain names, as well as preventing DDoS attacks and considering page loading speed (server configuration and CDN).
In summary, these are the drawbacks of personal blogs. Of course, I'm not exaggerating or downplaying the benefits of writing a personal blog. After all, you can define your own website as you wish, and you can build any source code, script, or program yourself. However, if you only want to record some notes, I recommend xLog.
I have been observing xLog for a year and found that more and more masters are joining, and the user base is growing, and the community is gradually maturing.
Advantages of xLog#
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@xLog is completely free!! You don't need to buy your own domain name and server, saving you money and not having to worry about your blog being DDoSed.
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Don't worry about poor SEO optimization. When I just joined xLog and posted an article, Google immediately indexed it, which shows that xLog's SEO optimization is really good.
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Don't worry about no one reading your articles. xLog has a lot of active users, and in just a few days, my xLog has received 2k views.
How to join xLog?#
The community already has a master @Songkeys who has released a tutorial Five Minutes to Own a Decentralized Blog on Blockchain and IPFS - Songkeys. Just follow the instructions to have your own blog.
Future Vision#
Although xLog currently only has one theme (which looks great!), it also offers the ability to customize CSS. This way, users can apply these styles to their entire blog, including the dashboard. I hope that @xLog will provide a rich theme and plugin system for users to play with in the future.
Currently, my xLog is also beautified based on @DIYgod's work, and I also used CSS styles shared by @yawnhaaa Decorate Xlog - yawnhaaa. Finally, I made some changes to the CSS according to my own taste. If anyone needs it, I can also share it and learn and progress together.
Conclusion#
Many excellent blog masters from the early days have disappeared. Those who can persist are really few. Now, xLog has attracted many excellent masters (@kpi, etc.) to join, which reduces the time cost of finding like-minded friends. I hope that the number of xLog users will continue to increase, and the community will continue to improve! Let's respond to @DIYgod's words - Writing code is about love, and writing until the world is filled with love!