This blog is not hosted on GitHub

2024-02-07

Several people have asked me why I don't host this blog on GitHub Pages. My proper answer is that I treat writing and maintaing this blog as a learning exercise. Here's what I've learned so far:

• Go was actually a really good pick for this site. It has given me no problems so far. I found it a little annoying to code in it, but once it was done, it was done. I haven't had any issues deploying the code or transporting the code. I'm also a huge fan of how fast the site loads.
• The Markdown files model was also a really good pick for this site. I borrowed the concept from Hugo. I actually could've used Hugo for this site, but I chose not to for the same reason I'm not using GitHub Pages.
• One more point in favor of Markdown: I love how portable my content is. Markdown is just plain text, and I can stuff plain text files in Git repos. My content is my own, and no platform can hold it from me.
• My one external dependency, Goldmark, has paid for itself. HTML would be hell to write articles in. Thank you for this package, Yuin.
• I think I finally need to learn what CI/CD means. This site is the only thing running in "production" that I have to update regularly from a Git repo.

I usually code in Python, so when I built this site, I wanted to see what it was like to code in a style opposite what I'm used to. I reached for as few dependencies as I could stand. It turns out that scrutinizing dependencies like this leads to a Better Time.

My other answer for why I don't host this blog on GitHub Pages is that I simply don't want to. This blog is not "money code." I don't need to be brutally efficient, so I won't be.