I’ve actually done it! My static site is now live!! ᕕ(⌐■_■)ᕗ ♪♬
For the longest time, I never felt the need to have my own website. From the moment I first understood what a computer was until just a few days ago, I remained indifferent. But then, something “clicked”. It wasn’t a single moment but a series of events leading up to that realization. More on that in a future post.
Well, I suppose the existing social media sites and forums filled that need. But I’ve finally had the realization that a personal website on the internet is the original form of “social media” intended by the internet. It’s your own URL and your own space, viewable by anyone, free from the control of a single entity and its policies.
I chose Astro as my tool of choice for this one, and it’s been great so far. It’s an open-source modern all-in-one frontend framework for building static websites and web applications.
Why Astro? As a backend developer whose experience with frontend development is limited (and where I work, frontend means either Android or iOS), I wanted a simple solution for my website. One with an about page, a blog, and the ability to share updates via RSS. (I suppose this sort of covers the basic parts of a social media profile.)
That and also Astro makes this process incredibly easy! It takes very less time to setup and get started, and creating new posts is as simple as creating markdown files.
Perhaps, with this I can keep the momentum of learning the frontend going, a step towards becoming a full-stack web developer. Alongside learning and tinkering with Astro, I’m also planning to dive into Angular as my primary frontend framework of choice.
I really believe everyone should try this. It truly captures what “social media” is meant to be.