5 Open-source Blogging and Writing Tools to Donate to via Kivach

We’re in the era of content creators. The Internet has let us share all kinds of original topics, and the writing form is among the favorites. Of course, if you want to start your own blog, story, or website, you’ll need some useful tools to help you. Good news about it: in the beginning, and even beyond, they could be all free to use. And maybe you can contribute to them later via Kivach.

As we’ve mentioned in previous episodes, Kivach is an Obyte-based platform to make cascading donations to open-source GitHub projects. By cascading donations we mean that the recipients can distribute a part of the received funds automatically among other repositories, considering their contribution into their own projects —for instance, a library or embedded tool created by another team. This way, all such projects can benefit from donations too.

For their part, donors can send some Obyte-based assets (GBYTEs or any other available through the Counterstake Bridge) to help useful software tools that are running mostly on volunteers and goodwill. In this episode, we’ll discover open-source blogging and writing tools that are free to use and may appreciate a tip via Kivach. Let’s go!

Hexo

Created in 2012 by Tommy Chen, Hexo is an open-source static site generator written in Node.js. Designed for simplicity and extensibility, it allows users to create and deploy blogs quickly with support for dynamic content generation. It offers a plugin architecture, providing flexibility for customization and numerous pre-built themes and features.

It stands out for its emphasis on performance, generating static HTML files for faster page loading. Its command-line interface (CLI) streamlines tasks like post creation and deployment, while a local server enables users to preview changes before making them live. To install it, the only required things are Git and Node.js. The posts are written in Markdown format (plain text with simple formatting options).

Hexo and its involved costs are maintained by a small team right now. They accept donations to continue their work, and for less than $100 your name and website will be added to the public donor list. For over $100, your name, icon, and website will be added to their home page for a month. In Kivach, they appear as hexojs/hexo, and you only need to click “Donate” to send them funds —but don’t forget to tell them about it.

Alighieri

There’s a whole wide world outside Microsoft Office, and Alighieri is a nice open-source alternative. This is a minimalistic and distraction-free text editor, ready to use without installation, by anyone. It was released by Emanuele Bertoldi (aka Zuck) in 2021, and it’s completely free to use on desktop, mobile, and browsers.

The editor is full-screen with a discreet toolbar to the left side, and a character, word, sentence, and paragraph counter at the top. It has a dark mode, and it’s possible to save your work and print it or export it in plain text or PDF with basic format options. You can also add images via URL and take advantage of some keyboard shortcuts to access different features.

Zuck is, for now, the sole maintainer of this repository. He accepts donations via PayPal, but you can avoid their high fees with Kivach. The project appears as zuck/Alighieri on the platform.

Joplin

Launched by Laurent Cozic in 2016, Joplin is an open-source note-taking and to-do application. Its features include multimedia support, synchronization across multiple devices, and end-to-end encryption for securing sensitive information. It’s possible to upload audio, video, images, PDFs, and even math expressions.

Customization is also available with plugins, themes, and multiple text editors. All files can be synchronized on desktop, mobile, or cloud. Indeed, they offer their own cloud with additional storage for paying users. However, anyone can download and use the app for free, without cloud services. It can be perfect to organize time, ideas, and research before publishing.

They accept donations via PayPal, GitHub Sponsors, Patreon, Liberapay, and bank transfers. As you may know, all of them involve a middleman fee per transaction, often high. Kivach could be a better alternative. You can find them there as laurent22/Joplin.

Manuskript

This one is especially for fictional writing. It was released by Olivier Keshavjee in 2016, but more contributors have joined over the years**.** Manuskript allows writers to develop premises, create characters, conceive plots, and construct outlines for their stories. It incorporates a distraction-free text editor, a grammar tool, and an outliner that works to organize chapters, scenes, and sections in a hierarchy or a timeline.

The whole software is designed to build a whole new story using the Snowflake method by Randy Ingermanson. This is a novel-writing approach that begins with a one-sentence summary, gradually expanding into a detailed outline and ultimately evolving into a complete manuscript, fostering structured and organized storytelling. Despite being focused on fiction, Manuskript also offers templates for non-fictional texts.

The software supports document format imports and exports, such as HTML, ePub, OpenDocument, DocX, and more. Funding for Manuskript relies on community support, encouraging contributions through issue reporting, documentation writing, translation efforts, and donations to ensure its ongoing development and enhancement. You can find them on Kivach as olivierkes/manuskript.

BookStack

If you’re thinking of organized and shareable documentation, BookStack may be what you’re looking for. This is an open-source and free tool to create wiki-style content built with PHP and Laravel, released by Dan Brown in 2016. Its main purpose is to offer a versatile and user-friendly system for individuals and organizations to create and maintain their own documentation.

BookStack comes equipped with features such as a WYSIWYG editor, multi-language support, version control, and a powerful search engine, fostering a seamless content creation and management experience. Its flexibility extends to customization options, enabling users to adapt the platform to their specific needs. It also counts with multi-factor authentication, image storage, and a dark mode.

Currently, donations are the main source of income for BookStack and its creator. He left his day job in 2021 to dedicate full-time to this project. The team also offers some paid customized support plans, especially for professionals and companies. However, individual donations and contributions are always welcome. They accept funds through GitHub Sponsors and Ko-fi, and you can find them on Kivach as bookstackapp/bookstack.

Discover more free projects!

There are thousands of open-source projects on GitHub to discover, use, and donate to. If you’re going to send them some cryptocurrencies via Kivach, don’t forget to tell them about the donation. Initially, they may not know that they received something, and they’ll need an Obyte wallet and pass through a free GitHub attestation to verify their account and claim the funds.

Likewise, you can make suggestions to appear in our next list! Please comment on them below, on our Telegram channel, or via Discord. You can also read our previous episodes to discover more interesting software:

• Kivach Donations: 5 GitHub projects it has helped so far

• How You Can Support Key Open-Source Initiatives With Kivach

• 5 Open-source Projects You Can Support With Kivach — and Cryptocurrencies

• 5 Open-source Projects You Can Support with Kivach and Cryptos, Episode III

• 5 Open-Source Projects You Can Donate to via Kivach, Episode IV: Privacy Tools

  
  

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