Last night, I modified the blog software running this website. Now, it can load different streams of posts into separate loops on the same page display, allowing a chronological listing in the main section and a random listing of posts in the sidebar that changes with every page load. Impressively, this doesn’t affect site performance – a key goal of mine is maintaining the speed of a static site with static HTML files.
While reviewing the site and ensuring it functioned as intended, I read through some older articles and noticed they generally fall into three categories. The first category dates back to before Twitter, featuring one or two sentence posts with links to other sites – many of which are now dead or defunct, rendering these posts mostly irrelevant.
The second category consists of posts like this one, discussing the site, technology, or projects I was working on at the time. While interesting to read, they often lack enough context to understand what I was doing and are more momentary thoughts than lasting contributions to my writing.
The third category includes opinion pieces and personal experiences involving family, vacations, and other life events. These posts are more engaging because they remind me of significant moments worth remembering rather than fleeting thoughts about code or projects I no longer use.
As I write this post in the style of the second category, I’m considering adding features to the site that will help distinguish between these three types of posts. This way, more interesting content can be easily surfaced and enjoyed by readers.
I’m considering reorganizing the content on this site, focusing more on the posts that hold my interest, rather than eliminating other bucket types entirely. Despite having around 3,000 posts since 1998, I find that browsing through them isn’t as engaging as I’d like. The manifestation of these changes is still unclear, and there’s work to be done in terms of blog design.
I obtained the current blog template from a site offering free templates; however, it comes with some issues concerning accessibility and page load performance. Given that the entire website is designed for speed, the front end hinders its overall performance. In short order, I aim to resolve these issues and improve my Lighthouse scores.
By reorganizing and highlighting the posts that truly matter to me, I hope to create a more enjoyable experience for both myself and readers alike.
