Some good platform for blogging, journaling, & archiving
Recently, with modern social media becoming more unfriendly for long-form posting & archiving, I really think people should give blogging platforms a try!
Seeing my mutuals on Twitter making long-ass threads for reviews, essays, or thoughts is kinda painful to look at because Twitter’s format is simply not really great for long-form posts. Not to mention how hard it is to archive posts these days, with how volatile modern social media has become, where you can randomly get suspended over nothing or their AI police acts up.
So that’s where blogging & journaling become useful! You can write in long form without character limit restrictions, and sometimes it’s great to archive some of your thoughts/reviews/essays/media lists in blog posts! No more weird clogged-up Twitter threads or messy FB posts.
“I want to try blogging or use a platform to write essays, but I don’t know which site I should join..”
Great, you’ve come to the right place! Because in this post, I will give recommendations about websites that are good for blogging & journaling, and I’ll elaborate on which site is suited for your needs.
This list is based on my experiences using them and also my friends who use them. There are many blogging sites, and I will narrow it down to which sites are great, so you don’t have to be confused. And here we go, based on my personal recommendations:
Dreamwidth👍
Although it’s been like more or less 3 years since I started using DW, honestly I can’t recommend this site enough if you want to start your blogging journey, especially if you want the fandom-focused type or miss LiveJournal-type services. To me, DW honestly feels like a better WordPress because there are no ads/algo bs pushed onto you or the feeling that you need to pay something just to access certain features. DW has everything you need, with easy customization too. There are many free journal templates, and you can even edit them. The curation & tagging, I’d say, are pretty great too.
Not just that! in DW, you can also subscribe to accounts if you like their posts or just vibe with the person in general, and you can join communities that share your interests. Again, if you’re the fandom type, DW also has a lot of fandom-focused communities based on certain kinks, series, events, RPs, etc., where you can follow many community-based events. It’s also better than Tumblr in a way because you’re less likely to encounter discourse, and you can post NSFW content too (also DW lets you put warnings on your account & posts if they’re NSFW, which makes it easier if you don’t want minors to interact with you).
The only downside is the image hosting. you need to use an image hosting site to post pictures or embed videos. But because DW is community-funded, honestly I can’t blame them.
Bearblog👍
Another excellent option if you want pure blogging with no social media baggage. It’s basically a blogging platform in its purest form, and it’s also very simplistic & minimalist, making it easy to set up your blog. The only downside is that customization here is pretty barebones compared to DW, so no cute layouts but if you don’t care about that, then this site is for you!
I’m using Bearblog for archiving my serious posts & essays. it’s honestly a great site for that! Although I must say the tagging system here is kinda lacking compared to DW, and categorization for this site is also a bit weak. So if you’re the type that cares a lot about curation & categorizing, it might feel subpar. You also cannot subscribe to some blogs (only through RSS), and there’s no community. But honestly, I’d still recommend this site, especially since Bearblog is also community-funded, and the creator is committed to making Bearblog with longevity in mind.
I actually think this is the best blogging site compared to WordPress & Blogspot. You can post adult content here according to Bearblog’s policy, but you just need to hide it from discovery. So yeah, it’s allowed, just be cautious not to air it publicly.
Write.as👍
I’ve never used this site, but I have mutuals who use it. While I can’t comment much, according to them, it’s a really great site if you just want a pure writing platform, like, really pure writing. Because there are no complicated features such as customization, algorithms, and yada-yada, this site can be used to archive your writing. I’ve also seen many people post their fanfics here too (even NSFW ones), so I think it’s good if you want to post adult content there. In my opinion, this site is like Medium.
Also, a neat thing about Write.as that I just found out: you can write without signing up! They’re committed to respecting your privacy and allowing you to write under multiple identities.
Neocities👍
Neocities is that site that can be anything you want if you know what you’re doing. I think it’s probably the most stable site and more personal since you basically host and own the site yourself. Some people use Neocities as a blogging site too because they can customize it and have more control. Especially since there’s the Zonelet template where you can do blogging directly on the site.
Honestly, I’ve never tried it myself because I can’t code for shit. I did try it before but gave up because coding is just not my thing. But many people have tried it & recommended it, so I’d say it’s worth giving a shot. You’ll probably need to do some research on how to use it as a blogging site, since Neocities is basically a DIY kit where you have to make it yourself from scratch. As for adult material, I think it’s allowed, since I don’t remember people’s sites getting removed because of it.
Blogger (Blogspot) & WordPress Now, despite my dislike toward these sites because they’re owned by big corporations, they’re still solid platforms for blogging if you want something easy, and being owned by big companies might have some perks in terms of longevity.
But just a reminder: they have ToS & CoC that might be unfavorable toward creators—especially for adult content, as WordPress & Blogger don’t allow any adult content hosted on their sites (though you can probably bypass it through loopholes). Because they’re owned by big tech companies, you have to be prepared for your content to be used as fodder for AI training without your consent, your data being sold, and also intrusive ads and paywalled features.
You can also host your own site (especially since I’ve heard WordPress is great for that), but otherwise, these sites are a bit of a landmine to me. I think if you want to use them, make sure to have some backup ready in case your content gets nuked, or use these platforms as alternatives if your main one goes down.
Now, this section is not exactly a recommendation, but some other alternatives that can be used despite their baggage. Generally, I have mixed opinions on these sites, but I can still see how they can function well:
Tumblr:
Despite its fall from grace, it’s still the king of microblogging, especially if you need that social media fixation, active fandom communities, and a good place for long-form posts. I think Tumblr is still a great choice. It has a good tagging & curation system among big social media platforms.
However, it still falls into the same pitfalls of big tech companies: wanting to feed your writing to AI (if that matters to you) and banning NSFW content. There are still some NSFW blogs, and I think enforcement has died down a bit (since I still follow some NSFW blogs there), but you still need to be cautious because their moderation AI can be a pain, it can randomly suspend your account (I’ve experienced this). Not to mention, Tumblr users can still be obnoxious, especially if you accidentally stumble onto discourse accounts lol. Kinda hard to avoid, especially with its algorithm.
Substack:
Honestly, I think this site is like Patreon but for writers. While it focuses on writing, it’s more geared toward monetizing your work. You can post your writing publicly for free, though. I personally don’t like this site because it doesn’t feel like an actual journal/blogging site LOL. Still, it’s a good alternative if you want to monetize your writing.
Medium:
This is like a premium version of Write.as. I honestly think this site is more focused on essays & reviews rather than personal blogging/journaling, which is fine. Medium is still a decent site if you just want to store your long-form writing. But Medium is pretty permissive with AI, and since it’s a big site, there’s a chance your writing could be fed to AI & not to mention your data might be used for ads/algorithm.
As mentioned, platforms owned by big corporations & focused on monetization usually don’t allow adult material. It’s still a good idea to research their ToS and see some existing accounts to understand what boundaries they allow or what people can get away with.
Personally, I still recommend using Dreamwidth & Bearblog because they’re community-funded, have lasted more than 10 years (DW & Neocities), and the developers already have plans to keep the sites going long-term (like Bearblog). Community-funded sites also tend to respect your privacy (important!) and won’t sell your data or feed your content to AI.
Also, considering how much media has been lost and how unpredictable platforms can be, it’s important to have many alternatives just in case. Like in my case, I technically have 2–3 blogging sites just to keep my writing intact in case another platform disappears. If you’re capable and have the resources to build your own site, then do it, it’s more stable that way! I’m also planning to do that once I can make my own site too!
But don’t be afraid to use other platforms! Just do research on them, especially regarding their stance on longevity & how the site operates.
Also, here are some other references if you want to compare more platforms.
Anyway, happy blogging & journaling! I hope my post here is useful for any aspiring blogger & writer. Let’s keep the culture of blogging & long-form posting alive!
Dreamwidth