wtf is blog?

This is a personal blog hosted directly on GitHub, created by Nicolas Rougier, a neuroscience researcher in Bordeaux. Instead of setting up a traditional blogging platform or website, Rougier uses GitHub's built-in features, README files, issues, and labels, to publish and organize posts. It's a minimalist approach that avoids the overhead of managing a separate blog engine. The way it works is straightforward: blog posts are written as markdown files in the repository, linked from the main README. Readers can engage with posts by opening GitHub issues for comments, and topics are organized using issue labels like "GITHUB" or "HACK." There's no automation or complex machinery behind it, it's just using GitHub's existing tools in a clever way. The setup trades a bit of manual work for total simplicity and the advantage of keeping everything version-controlled and on a platform most developers already use. This approach appeals to people who want to share their thoughts or technical knowledge without friction. A researcher, engineer, or hobbyist can host a blog this way in minutes: create a repo, write posts in markdown, and let GitHub handle hosting and comments. It's particularly practical for people already living in GitHub for their projects and who don't need fancy themes, analytics, or media-rich layouts. The tradeoff is that this isn't a fully-featured blogging system. There's no automatic post discovery, no feed generation, and readers have to know where to find the blog. But for someone writing occasional posts on technical topics for an audience comfortable with GitHub, that simplicity is actually the point, no distractions, no maintenance burden, just writing and community feedback through issues.