Again?
Yet again, this website has changed. This time is the last time, though (have you heard that before?). It may seem frivolous to change so much, but when it comes to indie websites, and my own personal preferences, change and experimentation is constant. This time, I'm experimenting with Cobalt. It's a static site generator (or SSG) built for markdown blogs. Nuxt was pretty good for serving the same purpose, but was starting to feel overkill for what I really needed.
Bloat
I like web frameworks. They make the process of using javascript incredibly less painful. Being able to programatically create HTML blocks out of dynamic data is so much easier when you have a massive library of functions to pull from.
That is not what I needed to make a blog.
As you can see, the entire website is much simpler now. It probably even loads faster because the files' actual footprint is smaller. With Nuxt, I had to manage a bunch of npm packages and wait a while for the production build to finish whenever I wanted to publish changes to my server. With Cobalt, building literally takes seconds.
I think this simpler interface is much more suitable for a small website such as this one. There was never a need for me to use a heavy web framework, it was just what I was familiar with. In a way, it feels a lot more comforting to be back in plain HTML and CSS. The only javascript is for that dark/light mode button in the header, which functions pretty much the exact same way as the one in the Nuxt version did, except with a bit more javascript. The site is very much in a state where I can leave it and it will be stable for as long as the internet is around.
No need to worry about npm supply chain attacks any more.
The Future
I will still use web frameworks to make apps. I've had an idea brewing in my head for a chat app for a long time. I just need to sit down and implement it. Briefly, there was actually a chat page on the Nuxt version of this site. That page made use of Trystero for WebRTC P2P connectivity. There were no databases involved, so messages were not stored. Ultimately, it was just a way for me to practice making something with Trystero. The next step is to make something that utilizes a database for persistent storage, as well as the voice chat and screen-sharing capabilities of WebRTC.
Subscribing
I used Resend for sending emails to people who chose to subscribe. I'm deprecating that now in favor of RSS, which is a built-in feature of Cobalt. I recently started collecting RSS feeds with a self-hosted FreshRSS instance, which I find far more convenient than emails. I've actually unsubscribed from most of my email newsletters because I hate having a cluttered inbox. RSS does it what claims to do and puts all of your news in one convenient little inbox.
Plus, it gives me a way to stay up to date with the indie websites I stumble upon. RSS is a useful feature for the small web.
So, if you would like updates in the future, you'll have to start using RSS. You don't have to use a self-hosted instance like me; I believe the organization behind RSS offers a web-based client you can make an account for.
Until next time!