Time to switch it up… again!
Folks who know me know that I love tinkering. In this case, I was getting kind of bored and frustrated with the limits of my previous blog host, Wix. It’s not that they did anything wrong, but I was seeing features I liked getting more bloated and harder to use, while feeling increasingly locked into their ecosystem.
Admittedly, it has been quite some time since I published regularly (and certainly a far cry from the height of 2020… I can’t imagine why). Part of my reluctance over the last few years has been my issues with the Wii platform.
Blogging Platforms 101
Popular platforms like Wix, Squarespace, or even some of the baked-in functions of LinkedIn have their place. For one thing, they’re painfully easy to get started with and build with almost no technical knowledge. I say almost, because you still find spots where having an understanding of the underlying technology is crucial. I will even continue to encourage folks to use them! They’re incredibly user-friendly and great for when you just want to put your ideas out there without tinkering.
Enter: WordPress
Ah, yes. The 800-pound gorilla of the blogging world. I’ve purposefully avoided it since I first launched a self-hosted blog in 2012. This latest iteration of the site is me admitting defeat. Mostly.
My concern about WordPress was the countless security issues that have plagued the platform since its inception. This isn’t to say that WordPress itself is the problem; however, many new administrators are so tempted by the constant barrage of themes, plugins, and updates that it’s easy to get locked in to using a kludge with intermittent update schedules.
Why is this a problem? If you’ve become dependent on a particular plugin, it’s easy to break your whole page when it stops getting updated alongside WordPress itself. This leaves you either trying to figure out how to replace the plugin and risk needing to overhaul your site, or leaving WordPress without updates. No updates means no patches for the latest security holes. Self-hosting is fun, but you’re poking holes in your home network where you keep most of your important files; leaving your security in the hands of disparate blogging platform developers is probably not a great choice.
Version 3.0
My compromise: figure out how to use WordPress alone. Everything on this site is vanilla WordPress without the assistance of any plugins. The theme itself is actually just an extensively-modified default theme (since so many of the themes out there require plugins). It has been a lot of fun learning how the various default components nest within each other and allow me to produce something unique.
I also used this opportunity to pivot. Version 1.0 – Vertner.net, self-hosted on an old platform called Octopress – was primarily for discussing technical projects and security. Version 2.0 – Lessons Learned, hosted on Wix – was a great place to share my thoughts on whatever I was reading at the time. Version 3.0 is an attempt to mix approaches and philosophies these while providing a better billboard for potential employers and partners. I recently crossed the 20-year mark of an active duty Air Force career and I’m excited to transition into something new.
