Happy 2026! Hope you're all doing well, I'm finally getting over my flu... ;w;
2026 is the year of the personal blog, I'm calling it. I've seen a good few set up blogs and even do old school RSS... if you feel the call... maybe this one's for you... Why don't you speak your mind? You should.
I endorse blogging. You can forget about it for weeks and months and everything's still the same as you left it. You can have monthly updates. You can just fujo out. Post tutorials. Yammer on. A blog (AND WEBSITE) that you have full control over... and nothing gets randomly deleted... (always have local files and backups) (you can accidentally delete things)... you can go back and edit typos... We have to bring back the blog. We are bringing back the blog. The blog has been brought back, everyone else is just late to the game.
I prefer to recommend templates that aren't websites, since they can go at anytime. But here's the tried and true:
Websites
I'm not going to recommend places like wordpress or blogger. They're SO CLUNKY. You could use tumblr, but it's tumblr. Milage may vary.
Has been around. Extremely oldschool. It's clunky, but it's stood the test of time. You can customize via CSS and HTML. Lots of people use this instead of making a blog on their own website, as dreamwidth supports comments and dms (DMS ARE SLOW AS FUCCKKK).
NEW: If you're of fannish nature, fandom calendar has been around forever. It has stood the test of time for a reason. It's still popular for fandom events and rp.
Comes with: comments, RSS, email alerts, dms, can follow others, very customizable, has a healthy active community.
Small blogging platform, focuses more on shorter blogs and is very minimalistic. Perfect for people who want to write and go. The creator is clear on their stance on AI and the future of their platform.
Comes with: RSS, email, dms, can follow others, very customizable, has a healthy active community. Does not come with comments but can be added.
This is the first and most popular. It's strength is its simplicity. It's hard to edit the CSS unless you've had some experience, but its' nothing too crazy. I used this one for about a year before moving onto an alternative, then to my most recent. I think its great for people who just want a blog up and running.
There's a lot of addons made by the community, in fact, the rest in this section use Zonelets as a base/were inspired by Zonelets to make their own template.
Based on Zonelets, Zonelots comes with added features. A popular alternative to Zonelets. I've used this and I loved it! And I do miss some of its features, but the CSS can be fiddly to edit. If that doesn't bother you, I HIGHLY recommend this blog template!
Comes with: Tags! Header messages, post navigation, gallery css. No comments, but you can easily add them if you know what you're doing.
A RSS feed and posting tool, compatible with Zonelets. I might try using this for RSS posting myself... I'll report back and see how it goes. I think this tool could be extremely useful for all!
If you're lookijng for an RSS generator (not like those FAKE ones...), here's RuSShdown! It lets you create, and add on to, your own RSS feed! It'll download the .xml file when you hit the generate RSS feed/Add post button. How helpful!
This one is getting popular! Extremely simple blog template for 11ty. Lots of info on the site, easy to get up and running while showing you some new web skillz. But it can be a bit intimidating for people who've never used Node or Github before but the documentation is very clear.
Comes with: TAGS! RSS. Comments can be added from a third party, active dev.
Like Zonelets, but has added SSG features, and has integrated Bsky comments. I want to try this for myself sometime lol. It seems a bit mismash and barebones but has some fun ideas! I'm not sure if it includes RSS or not lol
Now I am using tabloids by stupied. But they have recently taken down the project (it is still accessible via the first link) so I can't recommend it. I personally love it, but please note you won't get any help if you run into issues. I would point you to Zonelets or one of its alternatives.
But why blog at all?
A quick socmedia post has its time and place, it's why it got so popular. But I have things to say, and I waffle a lot... It's nice to take the time to sit and think about what you're saying without thinking about how it breaks up, or how to make your thoughts smaller to fit into 280 characters.
Also my golden rule is if something pisses me off on socmedia, I HAVE TO make a blog post. You'll be surprised how little, or how much, you care when you're removed from whatever site that caused the annoyance. You get a little perspective and see how silly you're being (or how right and correct you are...)
Expressing yourself is a muscle, you gotta exercise it.