I thought the idea of webmentions was cool but never went looking into it. So much of my personal site's decisions hinge on "is it too complicated? Then I won't bother!" even if later on something I earlier thought sounded like too much, becomes something I later build into it :)
@sarajw I'm honestly pretty stuck in the liminal space of knowing enough about WebDev to want to make my site unique, but not enough to jump the "assumed knowledge" gap of most unique-website-making paths
Also up against the desire to "keep it simple" but the reality that most "how to keep it simple" discourse in the webdev world starts with "simple" things like the command line 🙃
@EmilyMoranBarwick@robb@jefklak I'm happy to help with any gaps that are putting you off - not that I can fill them! But I think it's helpful to just put something up even if it gets torn down and rebuilt several times before it settles... Or replaced annually!
@sarajw much appreciated ;) atm I am not even sure where I’d start. I think a great deal of “wanting to get it as right as possible before taking a step” comes from having been through the nightmare of “undoing” a bloated monster site (it’s still a monster).
As a non-dev, undoing something is rarely simple…so the idea of just doing something and changing it later is daunting ;)
@EmilyMoranBarwick If you want, I can spew a load of opinionated advice at you, or just leave you to your own devices 😅
Yeah as a non dev I get it, what's annoying is that the structurally simpler sites can be less usable unless you're willing to dive a bit into the code side. It's worth it, maybe, but then I'm a dev so I'm already on the other side...
@sarajw RE: willing to dive into code...that's what also keeps me in a liminal space. I WANT to have access/understanding of the code (I'm not into "ready-made" stuff) BUT my knowledge isn't robust enough to fully implement code myself
I'm up for input, but felt I needed to get a clear handle on what I want the site to be/do first...so I'd started a Notion page to "gather my thoughts" & it's now a Notion wiki with all the chaos & organizational devolution expected when combining Notion & ADHD
@EmilyMoranBarwick lolol. Totally get that kind of chaos even if I reckon I'm not ADHD myself!
There's not a thing wrong with starting small (one single hand written page even if it's all copied code) and building from there. If you want a blog, and you don't mind writing in markdown as opposed to having a web based post editor, then it's simpler to build and get it hosted.
I do recommend just making one page first. Just a landing page. Upload it somewhere easy and free like Neocities.
@sarajw Yeah I have been considering hand-making an HTML "home page" just to put into the universe while I continue my endless meandering toward my "real site"
I’m also rubbish at knowing what's ACTUALLY necessary until I'm too deep in & then have to "undo" a bunch :)
I do want to have a blog, but also want to show visual art & other things. So would need more than Markdown. Ideally, also have tags/filters/search kinds of things
@EmilyMoranBarwick Nothing is necessary, or mandatory, and there's nothing wrong with having extra frivolous pages just for fun :)
I don't think anyone who has built their own website started off with a fully formed one - they seem to unwrap one feature at a time. Often with lots of "undo"ing and refactoring along the way!
People like @lynnandtonic can put out an awesome new site annually, but I suspect the underlying structure doesn't get wholly renewed each time.
But being able to manipulate a framework is a very very transferrable skill, once you get to that point it doesn't hugely matter which one your start with.
I just worry that you're stuck in the mire of feeling you have to have a fully formed blogging & gallery website built from the start. If this is the case no wonder you're overwhelmed, it's loads!
Start with one page. A static one. As you mess with it, you'll get ideas, ask questions, start to explore...
Helping people to get their first web pages up is starting to feel like a personal mission for me, so I'm possibly being a bit pushy!
Take your time, but also, there is always so much we can't know at once. One step at a time. One page before many pages. Static hand coded site before dynamic content. You can do it :)
I really don't know where you are with this stuff - I mean, you can't apply CSS to a blank page, so it's probably worth mocking something up.
If this isn't teaching you to suck eggs, you're welcome to copy this page as a start - there's a little openable bit at the bottom where you can copy code, and some suggestions on where to put it:
Despite several attempts at deploying web mentions it has defeated me each time but in the back of my mind has always been the fear of someone spamming the feed. I’m sure it isn’t a problem yet because the sites that implment it are small and the backlinks are not giving any benefit. But it does feel like a system waiting to be abused!
Still annoyed that I am too feeble to implement it though!
@simoncox@robb@jefklak I've heard that spam is a problem for some people. It's not surprising. Anything that amounts to an open end point is going to get spammed sooner or later. To me this is a huge turn off. I don't have the desire to deal with yet another source of spam.
@robb@jefklak I didn't think about it much, but I guess this is another reason why me just fetching directly from the original server, on demand is good enough lol.
@robb@jefklak the first time I revisited a post and saw I was on the page for that post, I thought "huh that's neat!". And it is!
But I think the idea that it can't be deleted is concerning. I also feel like a social media response may not equate to the same thing I'd leave as a comment on a blog post, but that line is a bit blurry perhaps.
@rardk64 Indeed (and you're reaction was one of the ones I thought of, I remember you mentioning it).
I can delete specific mentions, but there's no real "process" for it, I would just need to add some kind of filtering to remove people or those comments.
@robb@jefklak Interesting. I think the privacy thing concerns me less, as people have chosen to publicly reply to my thread - but I do agree with the suggestion that the webmentions are usually not very interesting!
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