The quandary of whether to continue using WordPress, or continue my transition to a static website created from scratch, lives on.
The issue arose back in October when WordPress began acting up. I photographed a few AT&T Long Lines sites and was in the process of updating site pages when WordPress would no longer save changes due to a database error.
I’ve had a couple other issues with WordPress, which added to the frustration. Thus, I set out to completely redo my personal website from scratch using HTML and CSS. A static website would allow greater control over the layout of my content, and I would not have to worry about changes being lost or corrupted due to a random internet connection issue.
The transition to static began with the AT&T Long Lines section, but I’ve published other new content on the static website. For instance, I wrote about my experiences with the OpenIndiana operating system on the Lenovo ThinkPad W541 and running TiMidity++ on it. I also created a page explaining the transition, much like this post.
However, there are drawbacks to the static website that are making me seriously consider sticking with WordPress.
The biggest being that all of my content from the past eight years is on here. While I was working on pages about my individual computers, posts about those computers — such as regarding the restoration process or issues — are chronicled here on my WordPress site. All of the images are here on the WordPress site.
It’d be easier to remove extra/unnecessary/outdated content on the WordPress site than transfer everything over to static. That would take a long time to transfer more than 200 posts and 70-plus pages.
I can edit posts and pages in WordPress from anywhere using a web browser. When away from the W541 and OpenIndiana, which hosts a local copy of the static page, I have to rely on a copy on a thumb drive or download the page from the web server. To edit a page, I need a text editor. (I’ve been using vim in OpenIndiana for most pages, and BBEdit in macOS to create a couple pages and make edits. Because of current living situation, and bouncing from two places, the ability to edit the same page from anywhere right in a browser is a huge plus.)
Global edits are made very easily in WordPress. With a static website, I have to individually update each page. That requires a lot of time and effort, especially as the site grows and more pages are added.
Then there’s the features WordPress does automatically that takes even more time/effort with a static site. For instance, Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Categories, tags, etc.
The static site provides more freedom, but the more complex it grows — the more I realize maybe sticking with WordPress is best.
If you have any thoughts or feedback on the transition, or to voice your opinion on WordPress or the static site, please feel free to email me.