Fri, 13 May 2022
THIS SITE IS NOW A "SHINOBI WEBSITE"
My personal website is now an RSS-focused blog, generated from a
collection of plain text files.
But before we get into greater details about the switch, let me first
introduce the concept of a "shinobi website".
THE SHINOBI.WEBSITE PROJECT
---------------------------
Instead of repeating myself in this post, feel free to read up about
the project at the official site:
> https://shinobi.website
To summarize: by using a simple `shell` script I'm able to render all
my plain text files (which is now how I solely write my articles) into
a structured RSS 2.0 `xml` file. Subscribers can now consume my posts
directly in their RSS reader of choice without the need to directly
visit the article's URL.[0]
WHY THE CHANGE?
---------------
I'm a hardcore minimalist at heart and have a tendency to make my own
personal projects _leaner_ all the time. I also have been trying my
best to find the most refined writing workflow to keep myself posting
consistently (and hopefully keeping the quality high). My first
iteration towards this step was switching over to hand-coding
everything via HTML & CSS[1]. That worked well - for a very brief time.
After recently launching the Shinobi project, I kept toying with the
idea of switching my personal website over to use the same format.
There was a heavy internal debate about ditching HTML in favour of
plain text. What kind of impact would this have on both my site and
audience? Would people be pissed about yet _another_ radical change?
After sleeping on it for a couple nights, I decide to say screw it.
This is my personal website and it should ultimately reflect who I am
and what I prefer. Dwelling too long on the opinion of others (as much
as I respect any of you kind enough to follow along) can lead to
decisions that negatively impact ones own well being.
So here we are. Blogging in plain text.
AVOIDING LINK-ROT
-----------------
I've manually added this blog post to my original `feed.xml`, in order
to help inform those of you following that feed of this change. But
this will be the last entry of that feed. Any of you currently
subscribed will need to update to one or more of the available new
feeds:
Posts: https://tdarb.org/feeds/posts.xml
Notes: https://tdarb.org/feeds/notes.xml
If you decide not to re-sub, I completely understand and thank you for
your time! Those of you choosing to still follow along: welcome aboard
a new adventure!
As for the older HTML-based articles, no worries. They will remain on
this site under the standard `blog` directory so that old links don't
break or cause conflicts. You can find that directory here:
TUTORIALS AND DEMOS
-------------------
I will still be writing up detailed tutorials and interactive demos
going forward - no need to worry. My plan is to link directly to a
collaborative coding site like CodePen, etc. I haven't decided on the
best option yet (want to keep things as easy for my readers as
possible) so only time will tell what my decision will be.
Feel free to comment below if you have any suggestions! Preferably one
that respects user privacy and advocates for a more open web.
SPEAKING OF COMMENTS...
-----------------------
Since the old commenting system[2] required me to manually add each
comment individually, I assumed I would just do the same here. Then I
got a hack-y idea. What if I used a mailing list linked through this
website's sourcehut project?
It might not be the most user friendly or sustainable but I think it
could be an interesting experiment at the very least!
Now each new article will have a link (which I will generate manually)
that users can email directly to in order to share their comments. I
have no idea how spam will work with this concept. This whole idea
could blow up in my face. Only time will tell.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
----------------
This workflow is clean and simple. It allows me to open a blank text
file and instantly start writing. Once I'm happy with it, I run a
simple shell command to update the RSS feed and sync it with my web
server. Local testing is dead simple too since everything is set as
`.txt`.
Some may like the concept of reading my new articles in their RSS
reader, others might hate it. I've learned over the years that you
can't please everyone.
Thanks for taking the time to read my jumbled thoughts.
COMMENTS
--------
FOOTNOTES
---------
[0]: Users can _of course_ still visit the individual article `.txt`
files in their browser, if they so wish.
[1]: https://tdarb.org/blog/my-static-blog-publishing-setup.html
[2]: https://tdarb.org/blog/poormans-comment-system.html
* * *
Subscribe via RSS:
Posts > tdarb.org/feeds/posts.xml
Notes > tdarb.org/feeds/notes.xml
Help pay for hosting costs:
https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/contribute/tdarb.org (code: tdarb)
Maintained with love for the web. Member of https://1mb.club &
https://xhtml.club
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