I’ve been very intrigued by all the talk about minimal blogging (or publishing) platforms lately. feathe.rs is one such platform that looked really nice.

But I say looked. Go read that review to get some more context on where I’m going next.

I 100% think that WordPress is awesome. I 100% think that WordPress is overkill if you just want to write content. Now if you want a blog, and some static pages, and the option of extending easily, then WordPress is 100% what you want.

Going for Minimal

The whole concept behind Feathe.rs is a minimal blogging specific engine. No plugins to get in your way, just you and your words. But with Feathe.rs it’s not minimal, it’s simply a product that’s not done and is trying to pass off missing functions as ‘minimal’.

I can go with no images or media in posts for a beta product, but no links? That’s a standard HTML element that simply doesn’t work. Even adding a link in and just letting the reader view the whole http string doesn’t work since it’s not clickable.

Then you add the ability to only log in via Facebook or Twitter, and no way to log out??

Minimal is Art

It seems to me that Feathe.rs has confused minimal with non-functional. Minimal isn’t just leaving things out, it’s a real art of having just the things you need and having them work well.

Designing an interface like MS Word is easy, think of all the options and show them to the user. Minimal is hard and Feathe.rs isn’t minimal, it’s just not done.