Why handcode?
Why build your site by hand, aren't there easier ways of doing it? There are indeed. Platforms that make blogging easy and straightforward abound. I have even tried and enjoyed some of them. However, I kept coming up against their limitations, which I found frustrating. In the end, I had to answer the call of the wild and make a site that fitted the exact spec I wanted. It was an imperative against which I was powerless. I can now own all my mistakes, as well as triumphs.
Creating things is important
I like building things. I believe that creating stuff, for the fun of it, is important. The value for me lies not only in the outcome, that is the completed thing, but more importantly, in the process of making it. This is why I code this by hand. To paraphrase Damon Linker, sometimes it’s good to leave the shiny technology that makes things quicker and easier, because it's physically and spiritually healthier to complete the task for msyelf, with my own hands, arms, legs, muscle and bone.
I am lucky enough to have the skills to create a site from scratch without having to rely on a CMS. I find Content Management Systems (CMS) frustrating because there's always something I want to adjust and there's not always a way to do that. Not being fully familiar with the CMS tech stack can also be a hinderance. Coding everything myself frees me from these restraints.
Besides, I've never been able to feel fully at home with any CMS. Hand coding makes me feel like the site is truly mine. When I use CMS or other ways of getting online, there's always a degree of mystery about how the thing works, and it drives me bananas.
I want to own my own content. I cannot abide any platform that puports to own the labour of its contributors. By the same token, any mistakes I make are my own.
I'm not immune to nostalgia. I love the richness of ye olde internet when people just got online and messed around making whimsical personal sites. That was fun. There's no need to let that joy die on the capitalism vine where we surrender our data to corporate behemoths and churn sites using a conveyor belt of look-alike frameworks and themes.
A diverse web
We need to rewild the internet, not only at the front end, what we see and consume, but also the infrastructure that underpins it. The web should be more than a means of commercial extraction: e-commerce sites, commercial websites and walled gardens. I lament the loss of fun personal websites.
I dislike social media. I think maintaining your independence from platforms that are now walled industrial complexes is vitally important. I can see why people like them - it's easy to connect with others there. But the price for that convenience is high indeed. You surrender to the mercy of a volatile billionaire tech bro. It need not be so.
Besides, if connection is part of the goal, writing your blog need not feel like you're shouting into the void .
You say you code by hand, what does this involve?
Allow me to explain how the sausage is made.
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