I would like to set up an online platform for users, within my niche hobby of interest, to blog about their activities. (notice the hosting company only has FTP access and databases - no SSH)
So it is basically an online blogging platform (could it be wordpress?) where people simply sign up and start blogging about their hobby. I would want sign up to be more or less automatic. As far as I could tell, Wordpress offers this, but an admin would be needed to set up and approve the new blog.
I was hopping for a joined feed on the front page, showing all post as the are posted, but also allow for each user to have their own “front page” or feed, with their own posts.
Categories, tags etc should be shared (but not uploaded media).
I have been looking at federated option, but the ones that I have found require SSH or me to be able to execute commands (?). I have only tried installing systems using the PHP files and I am not offered SSH or cPanel at my host
Not sure if this fits your exact need, but I’ve been running my blog on Grav CMS. It’s really easy to setup as it uses flat file to store your content instead of database. You could just download a tarball, extract it, point your HTTP server (and php-fpm) to it, and see it on your web browser. If you know your PHP, you could even customize a theme.
Anyways, feel free to check out my blog: timkenhan.co