Internet Weblog

Internet Weblog is a minimalistic Hugo theme for personal sites that combines a traditional blog, a microblog, and a photoblog, and was ported from an Octopress theme by Josh Johnson.

What is Internet Weblog?

Internet Weblog is a Hugo theme that builds a personal blog supporting multiple content types: regular posts, short microposts, photo posts, and link posts that redirect to an external URL. It takes Hugo content organized under posts, microposts, and photos directories and produces a responsive static site with a footer bio section, a Flickr-based photo stream, and yearly post archives. The theme runs on the Hugo static site generator and is maintained by Josh Johnson, whose blog at jnjosh.com serves as the demo and reference implementation.

Key Features

• Combined content types — Publish long-form posts under posts, quick thoughts under microposts, photos under photos, and link posts using the externalurl front matter parameter.
• Customizable bio section — Override the included bio.html partial by placing your own file at layouts/partials/bio.html; the content appears in the left side of the footer.
• Flickr photo stream — Set [params.author] FlickrID to display your Flickr photos in the footer, powered by jQuery 3.7.1 and lightbox2 2.11.4.
• Yearly archives — Posts are automatically grouped by year on the list page; enable the same grouping for microposts with the YearlyMicroposts parameter.
• RSS controls — Enable RSS output with RSSEnabled, choose which menu sections get RSS icons via RSSSections, and strip titles from micropost feeds with RSSMicropostTitles.
• Dark appearance — Set EnablePreferredDarkAppearance to true to respect the viewer's system dark mode automatically.
• Override partials — Customize the 404 page, JavaScript, stylesheets, and image handling through not_found.html, custom_javascript.html, custom_stylesheets.html, and custom_image_handler.html.
• Simplified menus — Uses Hugo's SectionPagesMenu with SectionPagesMenu = "main" so navigation is built from your content sections.

Who is it for?

Internet Weblog suits Hugo users who want a single theme for mixed personal publishing rather than separate blogs for each format. It's for bloggers who like to write long posts and occasional quick thoughts, and photographers who want a simple photo section with a Flickr footer stream. It also fits developers comfortable editing config.toml and front matter, since the theme relies on structured [params.author] configuration.

Use cases

• Personal bloggers: publish essays under posts, short thoughts under microposts, and images under photos all from one Hugo site.
• Link curators: create link posts by adding externalurl to a post's front matter, rendering with an arrow to signal the remote destination.
• Photographers: use the Flickr photo stream in the footer, with lightbox2 for image gallery viewing.

How does it work?

Install the theme by cloning its repository into your Hugo site's themes directory, then set theme = "internet-weblog" in config.toml. Add the required [params.author] section with at least Handle and FirstName, set SectionPagesMenu = "main", and create content with commands like hugo new posts/my-new-post.md, hugo new microposts/quick-thought.md, and hugo new photos/my-nyc-vacation.md.

FAQ

Does Internet Weblog support custom menus?

No, the theme intentionally simplifies navigation by using Hugo's SectionPagesMenu. You set SectionPagesMenu = "main" and define menu items under [[menu.main]] in config.toml. Individual posts don't need menu front matter unless you want a custom page in the root menu.

How do I create a link post?

Add externalurl = "http://example.com" to the front matter of a regular post under posts. The post renders with an arrow to indicate it links to an external site, and the URL is used as the post's destination.

Is dark mode supported?

Yes, limited dark appearance support is included. Set EnablePreferredDarkAppearance to true in config.toml and the theme will switch to a dark style when the viewer's operating system requests dark mode.

What third-party libraries does the theme use?

The footer Flickr gallery uses jQuery 3.7.1 and lightbox2 2.11.4. No other external JavaScript libraries are mentioned in the theme documentation.

What license is Internet Weblog released under?

The theme is released under the MIT license, and the author's license page is linked from the theme's documentation.