Full transparency, this site, or shall I say domain (kattic.top) was meant to be a pure HTML project. I was inspired by Neocity style sites and particularly Melon’s Manifesto.
The idea was that HTML doesn’t depend on backend systems to display pages. That makes HTML more what I’d call durable. Meaning if you abandon your site, as long as the files are still hosted there, there is no dependencies like plugins, updates, etc.
Building the site was honestly a lot of fun. I’ve used HTML a lot in the past, but never tried building a whole site. I’d say that I pretty much finished the skeleton of it. I never added content though.
The drawback to HTML is NOTHING is automated. That is where CMS’s like WordPress come into the picture. They handle a lot of the backend stuff. You get a nice post editor, easy media upload, slap some plugins, and you are good to go! Just make sure you keep up the updates.
I fell in love with the idea HTML, not so much the reality. I wanted a space to post content, not become a full-time web developer. It was too much friction, which doesn’t work for me. I don’t have enough discipline for that.
So, I’m back on WordPress. It feels a little like defeat because I wanted to be part of that “indie web” movement. Though stepping back from it, I realized I was always part of it. I’ve been running my own website for years. That is the indie! It’s not just the Y2K aesthetic that makes a indie site. It is simply existing outside the gated walls of the corporate internet and doing your own thing.
This site is a hybrid of another site I had for a few months, addendumk.link. It was something I threw together to be like a private bookmark stash. I didn’t intend for anyone to see it. I kept the theme barebones and just used it like a private social media feed.
It honestly got boring. I liked the “freedom” of sharing whatever I wanted to it, but there was no personality to it. It didn’t feel like a real website. I mean…it wasn’t, but you know.
Learning about old web style websites I realized I had cornered myself into being a “blog” so my entire scope of design came from that. Blogs tend to be more content and activity driven and not a lot of emphasis goes into building useful pages. I think this was old webs strength.
Exploring indie web sites gave me a inspiration on ways to design sites to make it fun to explore again, and I hope that I can implement some of that here.
I realize this post was a little rambly, like most of my writing. I hope you get where I’m coming from. It’s tricky figuring out how to express yourself online.