No!

I won't relaunch my website (kind of)

22.10.2023

In January, I loudly announced that I planned to relaunch my website. The whole thing should be done by the end of 2023. There's still plenty of time, because I'm already 90% done. For months. But I've changed my mind. I got bored of the new site before it even hit the web. On the other hand, it's not that bad. But what now? I didn't changed my mind completely. It's complicated, you might think.

This Website is under Construction.

From the last #Klassenfahrt to the beyond tellerrand conference this wonderful talk by Sophie Koonin came back to my mind. On the one hand it is about ones own website in general and on the other hand about the resulting diversity on the web. It's so nice when not all sites look the same. True! And why should all pages of my website look the same? It would be much more diversified, if everything would look a little bit different! And this is my new plan ...

Be unique.

Instead of using a CMS and thus being bound to templates in some way, I continue to build everything by hand. This facilitates my plan to make every single page look different. Do you remember CSS Zen Garden where every click led you to a different looking page. Although the comparison is a bit lame, because my pages will differ significantly in markup. But I like the idea. So my plan is to build unique pages over time.

Not to be underestimated, however, are the drawbacks of building everything by hand: Dynamically generated article lists, an automatic RSS feed, generated image sizes and formats - a lot of things become much more elaborate, but I'll just ignore that! Because ...

I don't really blog!

My second plan (besides the relaunch) was to write more blog posts. In a way, I've already achieved that, because I've already written two posts this year including this one. That's two more than I've done in the last 13 years. On the other hand, it's not an excessive amount either, to be honest. And with that amount, I think it's perfectly acceptable if each article also gets its individual touch. That will take a little longer, but writing itself takes an extremely long time for me anyway. 7 Reasons why I don't write by Max Böck nailed it.

Smaller pieces. Better playground.

Another advantage to my new strategy is that I can try out new technologies more easily. Technical changes do not have to work on all pages and for all components because the shared bricks are limited. I can use new shit on a single page and play around with it without running the risk of breaking other things, which then have to be fixed again in annoying hours of work. How awesome is that?

Let's see how it goes …