Why this website

So firstly, why not write reviews on Letterboxed or similar? Or just post to social media? Because I don't want to fit my writing to an existing audience or platform. I want to write how I want to write and to present it how I want to present it. If anyone finds this place and wants to stick around then that's great as well.

Why kiki?

Why not use an established blogging platform like Ghost or Wordpress or Bear or Pika. I don't know. kiki is the first piece of software that felt like it was designed to be meddled with by an actual human. Not someone who fitted into a stereotype like 'blogger' or 'writer' or 'software engineer'. It's the first piece of software I've used that has created a website that feels like it's mine. The fact that I can host the website on my personal hardware only increases that feeling of ownership.

kiki is super small, taking up only slightly more than 3MB when downloaded. It's super lightweight, it'll run on basically anything, perfect for a Raspberry Pi or old recycled pc hardware. It's super easy to install, just drag'n'drop the downloaded files into the folder where your webserver looks and it's up and running.

Admittedly, the hard bit is getting that web server softare up and running. If you want to use Wordpress there's plenty of hosting platforms that can carefully walk you through the set up process and hide a lot of the more technical stuff.

If you want to go outside of big, commercially supported options then it's kind of expected that you know what you're doing with regards to web servers. Reader, I do not know what I'm doing.

Still, it's not too complicated, the biggest problem is the lack of documentation aimed at regular people. Everything just assumes that you're comfortable using the Command Line and SSH. Reader, I am not comfortable with these things.

But once you have got your webserver set up and you've moved your kiki files into place, that's when kiki really starts to shine.

Why is kiki so great?

Firstly, kiki has just about the best documentation I've come across in a piece of software. Most of what you need to know is clearly written in help files. Each one clearly aimed at particular type of user. A simple start up guide lets you know how to use the basic functions. Another guide walks you through kiki's options and how to change them to your needs. A theme guide gives you the basics to start customising the look of your website. And finally, there's a programming guide that talks you through how the software functions and gives you tips on how you can edit the code to change how your website works.

But it doesn't stop there. Open up the any of files that constitute kiki (a trivially easy thing to do with any text editor) and you'll find code that's not only clearly written but is also extensively annotated. Pretty much every section of code has an explanation as to what it does and, where appropriate, how you might want to change it.

This approach does have it's drawbacks. Whilst all the information is in the place where you need it, sometimes it can be difficult to remember/work out where that place is. Having all the information in one book/file has the advantage of allowing you to include an index or simply hitting Command+F and searching for the term you're looking for. Occasionally I've found myself opening up several kiki files, one after the other, searching for the section I want to change.

But the end result is software that encourages, practically begs, you to play about with it. Make changes to it and make it your own.

In order to do that though, you will need a little knowledge.

What do I need to know to use kiki?

If all you want to do is use the software as-is, then you can just pick one of the supplied themes, edit a few options and you're away. Your website is up and running and you don't need to learn anything that's not explained in the basic guides. If I have one major criticism of kiki it's that there's not enough support for this type of user. The included themes are a bit basic and clunky looking for what I imagine most people will use it for. I think it would help a lot if there was a selection of themes based around usage type. 'Blog', 'photo gallery', 'micro-blog' etc.

If you do want to show different types of content like lists, tables, different types of images etc then a little bit of HTML knowledge will go a long way. Thankfully, I've found learning HTML to be relatively easy to pick up. There are loads of resources to be found on the internet and the code is consistent and reliable. And it integrates very easily with kiki.

You also have the option of changing the way the default mark up language (called Bug) works. This is tremendously powerful and combined with a little HTML allows you to do an awful lot. I've cludged the markup and dynamic variables files to add in support for image hover text, inline images and footnotes. If I can manage that then god knows what somebody vaguely competent can manage.

If you want to add some pizzazz to your website, then you'll want to learn a little bit of CSS. Sadly, I've found CSS code to be anything but consistent and reliable. I've come to view CSS as the spawn of the devil and I hate it. It's tremendously powerful and can do an awful lot with very little. But try and search for a solution on how to do something and you'll get a hundred different answers. Which one will work? Who knows? CSS is flaky and vague and difficult to troubleshoot. If you're a CSS expert then I don't think you'll have any trouble with making kiki look bloody amazing. But for me, for now, I've tried to keep things as simple as possible until I can learn more about it.

And then if you really want to get extravagant and you can code in PHP then the sky is probably your limit. I say probably as that is currently way outside my current abilities. I've had a look at the PHP code, as well as a book on the subject, and it looks like something I could learn but that's going to have to wait for another day.

Should I use kiki?

Yes, maybe. If you want to create your own website, rather than somebody else's that you slap your name and theme on, then yes. If you know at least a bit of HTML and CSS and want something that makes it easy to get a website off the ground without hand coding everything from scratch, then yes, kiki is a joy to work with. If you want a project where you learn a bit of HTML and CSS then yes, absolutely yes, kiki is just about the best starter kit I've come across.

If you just want a space to put your words on the internet and don't want to mess about with any fiddly, customisable stuff then maybe, maybe not. There are other software platforms/websites that will get that up and running quicker, easier and will probably look nicer than straight-out-of-the-box kiki.

Final thoughts on kiki

I'm just going to post a section from the Design Philisophy page from the kiki website.

All tomotama software is crafted with these four related ideas in mind:
1. Human-sized things are friendlier, more economical, and easier to learn.
2. The user is both a creator of things and a playful being.
3. Let people personalize, modify, and repair their toys and tools.
4. Imperfect creations feel more human, serene and beautiful.

This may sound a little new-age-ish. But those four ideas are shot right through the code of kiki. I've learnt a hell of a lot from playing around with it, and play really does feel like the operative word. It's easy to modify, you can make big changes quickly, you can see those changes instantly and then either revert back if it doesn't look right or continue building from there.

On top of that, the designer has been very helpful when I've reached out. Fixing reported bugs, listening (and occasionally implementing) feature requests and answering general questions.

The end result is that I have a website that's mine and I'm quite pleased with it.

You can read more about kiki here. And you can download a shareware version from here as well as purchase a full license for just $11.00 USD. Which is ridiculously cheap, in my opinion.