faehnri.ch

insert XKCD comic where they say most posts on an infrequently-updated site are about how they haven't posted much

I've been meaning to simplify this site. It had been static pages built with Jekyll. But I had been reading more about "indieweb" and just simpler web sites and realized I want this site even simpler.

Even though this site was made of static web pages, it was generated with Jekyll. Something even simpler would be to just create the pages directly. This became apparent when I did my last refresh install of my computer and didn't have Jekyll installed. I ran into issues re-installing/running it.

I've also been interested in simpler sites that don't need/have javascript. I have the Firefox addon NoScript installed to block javascript by default on sites. I get annoyed when a site doesn't work without javascript. And these are sites that just show text. They shouldn't need javascript to do just show raw text!

I realized my site didn't fully work without javascript either. The main text showed, but the link icons to RSS or my twitter didn't work.

Also, I did like the theme I downloaded for Jekyll for my site. But with looking at text on computer screens all day, I do find the dark themes in my code editors to be easier on my eyes so wanted that for my site as well.

The update to my site would then have very minimal styling, no javascript except for pages where the point was some app on the page.

I've stolen the styling from several places, I don't even remember where. I particularly like the trick I found with how I did the favicon. I also realize the color scheme is kinda modern-day cyberpunky which I'm alright with. The pagespeed test is pretty good.

Another reason for the update was how personal sites were back in the day. They were just a collection of web pages linked together. Hence the term web. It made for a good time exploring someone's site.

Now, even if a person has a site, it's mostly in the form of a blog so all pages are now ordered posts. I'm finding this too restricting and I want more of the old web of a bunch of linked sites.

This idea was explored in this post, The Garden and the Stream. They're talking more about how information is linked and not just pages or posts, but what I'm thinking of is similar. For instance, I could have a page of links I think are interesting. I'd update it with new links, but how to post that if all you have is a feed?

With completely hand-edited HTML pages, I can have the control to just edit the page, then I could hand edit the RSS page with just a note saying the page was updated. There wouldn't be a post on the site corresponding to that entry in the RSS, so if you subscribed to my RSS you'd get updated but it wouldn't clutter my posts section.

All pages will have a way to be navigated from the home page, there will be hopefully a hierarchy that makes sense, but all pages can be found through links.

Posts will be traditional idea of a post, and the entire text of it will also appear in the RSS entry for it so it can be read in an RSS reader. Pages will be just that, and could be updated. Those updates won't make the entire page show up in RSS, but I might put a small entry in RSS about the update. I may also put in RSS-only entries that act like a social media post. I'm thinking I'll do that to maybe share interesting links, I'll share maybe one interesting link each day.

So subscribe to my RSS feed if you want updates. I'm slowing getting all my pages converted and put up, but until then feel free to wander around.