Knowing for a while now that I’d eventually need a website to showcase research, I’ve been on the lookout for solutions. I currently use Obsidian for a notes solution – and I like it quite a bit. It’s introduced me to Markdown, which has been very quick to learn. Additionally, Obsidian allows for LaTeX-like math using MathJax and has a great option for embedding code. Did I mention it’s free? What isn’t free however is Obsidian Publishing, which currently is $20 a month – more than I pay for 2TB of cloud storage from Google. This seems excessive for hosting what are essentially just text files (Obsidian files are stored as Markdown files).
I’d seen other PhD students use markdown sites hosted on GitHub for material related to comprehensive exams and thought that looked like a good idea. Additionally, GitHub Pages uses Markdown, which would allow for easy cross-posting of my Obsidian notes (since they’re already Markdown).
Unfortunately, someone already owned the URL for my name, so I bought PhDane.com and went about configuring the GitHub page as a custom domain. Turns out there is a great static site generator - Jekyll - which is widely used and has a large number of open-source themes available for use. I opted for using the excellent Chirpy theme, which also allows for MathJax and even Mermaid diagrams. It integrates some Google Analytics features that I might jump into in the future. I have no experience with Ruby (Jekyll is based on Ruby) or HTML/CSS and little experience with GitHub, but figured it out after a couple days. Jekyll Compose, though run through the command line, makes the blogging experience a bit quicker. Also, a good spell checker for your IDE can save you some time.
Resources
If you’re interested in setting up a site like this, I’d suggest this video…
And here’s the issue that hung me up for a bit…
If you’re looking for a more basic site (that allows for more customizability without jumping into CSS), this video was fairly quick and straightforward.
Honestly though, this 4-part series is the best one I’ve seen so far. Check out the accompanying website here. Parts 3 and 4 were especially useful and new (to me).
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