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I've recently jumped on the static bandwagon after being an early adopter and user of WordPress since CafeLog/0.71 days. What a blessing it has been. I've take

I've recently jumped on the static bandwagon after being an early adopter and user of WordPress since CafeLog/0.71 days. What a blessing it has been. I've taken two different approaches: 1. Maintain a local WordPress instance that builds the site using all the theme/plugin magic that WordPress is famous for, but have a static-export of that into Github -> Netlify. 2. Small sites being powered by Cloudflare Workers - using pure JS. The jump to React.js / Vue / Go / Ruby et.al for an old PHP/HTML/CSS hack like me was too hard (and I tried them all!), so I settle for WordPress (the devil I know) for the build/back-end, and incorporate and embrace static on the front end. This separation is key - in my mind - for speed and security.

kop316 6y ago
I've seen people say WordPress is the devil, but honestly, I have found if you want a simple blog, it works extremely well. I selfhost two WordPress instances with a LAMP stack on Debian (the hardware is literally in my basement), and the maintaince I do is log in maybe once a week to make sure that Debian/WordPress auto updated. Most of the time I don't even do that because Debian/WordPress email me to tell me it's updated. I think one of WordPress' biggest issue is that I have not really found a good how to to really set it up (they advertise their "5 minute deploy", but it leaves a lot of things lacking). If I set it up, I have a series of articles I used to set it up. The other issue I've anecdotally seen is when someone installs a bunch of plug ins then gets into a dependency hell when trying to update.
- seriocomic 6y ago
  I used "devil" in the context of the axiom "better the Devil you know..." - so while I understand and relate to much of the anti-WordPress commentary, I wouldn't call it "the Devil". Just to clarify!
  - kop316 6y ago
    Ahh, fair enough! I have just seen a lot of hate to it, and I personally think some of that is unfair to WP.
- 52-6F-62 6y ago
  WordPress is great for simple blogs. The people (probably like me) who would call WP the devil is people who have had to maintain 15 year old intertwined WP instances riddled with outdated portions of the platform, insecure hand-coded modifications, terribly functioning custom plugins, horrible data hygiene for exporting and re-appropriating content, and terrible, clunky infrastructure setups. WordPress makes all of those easier, and encourages them when it’s anything more than a simple blog or product page or something. It’s easy for new features to be requested and sold and horrible to sell fixing any of the above problems. It goes on deaf ears once people get used to the web products just being there. And once clients get used to the blog interface, you dare not recommend any change no matter how good for the business. I’ve seen smart, talented people just give up in the face of that kind of monstrosity, shelve all their plans for improvement and just buy into the duct-tape patch jobs of yore and developing one-off plugins for every request because it’s fast and needed to be done yesterday because something else has been requested or broken. After my rambling let me reiterate that Wordpress is great for its intended application. But it is horrible for the extrapolated purpose many companies and teams have bent, twisted, and surgically manipulated it to be used. It’s not Wordpress’s fault exactly. It’s those who’ve recommended wp as a tool to solve problems it wasn’t meant for, and industry that has built up around that to make it appear as if it’s a viable solution.
  - mauflows 6y ago
    The one time I was brought on to a WordPress project, it was deployed via ftp and there was an ominous text file (not named Readme) in the root that said something like "we had to use a lot of symlinks to get things to work. Be careful deploying"
    - 52-6F-62 6y ago
      That sounds hauntingly familiar. How bad is your PTSD? haha
  - sandymcmurray 6y ago
    This. Client wants a "simple" site, but insists on custom themes and plugins that break or are unsupported or abandoned by the developer.
- efficax 6y ago
  Wordpress has had a history of serious security vulnerabilities that gave it a bad rap for folks that have been following the industry for a long time. I think automattic has done a great job overall in improving Wordpress and you don't hear about mass defacements or easy hacks for the standard wordpress install anymore. The plugin ecosystem however opens you up once again: here the devil is in the details. Every plugin you install might be the giant blinking red light that says: hack me, steal my data, etc. On balance though wordpress is pretty good these days.
  - trey-jones 6y ago
    Part of the reason for highly visible security vulnerabilities in Wordpress is just a result of the massive user base. Heavily used platforms are naturally more heavily targeted by malicious users since they are easier to find, and exploits are more readily available. In truth, most software at any given time probably has serious security vulnerabilities that just aren't as obviously exploitable, and I wouldn't say that the volume of published exploits related to Wordpress is indicative of a poorly managed or written piece of software.
justaguyhere 6y ago
How do you handle search?
- seriocomic 6y ago
  Search and comments are the casualties of static-sites - unless you bow and crumble to the use of something 3rd party (Disqus or Google Site Search to name some poor examples)
  - justaguyhere 6y ago
    Comments are not as important as search, I guess. If the site has tons of pages, not having search might be annoying to the user
  - vidar 6y ago
    Can't you point algolia at a static site and get decent search or have I misunderstood?
    - andreasha 6y ago
      You can check out Lunr. The Jekyll theme Minimal Mistakes has that as a search option and builds a JSON index file. The demo site uses Algolia though https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/ https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/
  - jeromenerf 6y ago
    Hugo provides a Json output that can be used by a js script to provide simple search. I guess the same is possible for other systems. Comments, contact forms and other features that "creates" content are more difficult.
  - clairity 6y ago
    staticman[0] for comments is a neat solution that avoids those surveillance companies. it can use heroku hobby tier for processing and github as the content backend for a free, hosted comments solution for static sites (fully acknowledging that heroku and github are both owned by other surveillers). [0]: https://github.com/eduardoboucas/staticman https://github.com/eduardoboucas/staticman

kop316 6y ago

I've seen people say WordPress is the devil, but honestly, I have found if you want a simple blog, it works extremely well. I selfhost two WordPress instances with a LAMP stack on Debian (the hardware is literally in my basement), and the maintaince I do is log in maybe once a week to make sure that Debian/WordPress auto updated. Most of the time I don't even do that because Debian/WordPress email me to tell me it's updated. I think one of WordPress' biggest issue is that I have not really found a good how to to really set it up (they advertise their "5 minute deploy", but it leaves a lot of things lacking). If I set it up, I have a series of articles I used to set it up. The other issue I've anecdotally seen is when someone installs a bunch of plug ins then gets into a dependency hell when trying to update.

seriocomic 6y ago
I used "devil" in the context of the axiom "better the Devil you know..." - so while I understand and relate to much of the anti-WordPress commentary, I wouldn't call it "the Devil". Just to clarify!
- kop316 6y ago
  Ahh, fair enough! I have just seen a lot of hate to it, and I personally think some of that is unfair to WP.
52-6F-62 6y ago
WordPress is great for simple blogs. The people (probably like me) who would call WP the devil is people who have had to maintain 15 year old intertwined WP instances riddled with outdated portions of the platform, insecure hand-coded modifications, terribly functioning custom plugins, horrible data hygiene for exporting and re-appropriating content, and terrible, clunky infrastructure setups. WordPress makes all of those easier, and encourages them when it’s anything more than a simple blog or product page or something. It’s easy for new features to be requested and sold and horrible to sell fixing any of the above problems. It goes on deaf ears once people get used to the web products just being there. And once clients get used to the blog interface, you dare not recommend any change no matter how good for the business. I’ve seen smart, talented people just give up in the face of that kind of monstrosity, shelve all their plans for improvement and just buy into the duct-tape patch jobs of yore and developing one-off plugins for every request because it’s fast and needed to be done yesterday because something else has been requested or broken. After my rambling let me reiterate that Wordpress is great for its intended application. But it is horrible for the extrapolated purpose many companies and teams have bent, twisted, and surgically manipulated it to be used. It’s not Wordpress’s fault exactly. It’s those who’ve recommended wp as a tool to solve problems it wasn’t meant for, and industry that has built up around that to make it appear as if it’s a viable solution.
- mauflows 6y ago
  The one time I was brought on to a WordPress project, it was deployed via ftp and there was an ominous text file (not named Readme) in the root that said something like "we had to use a lot of symlinks to get things to work. Be careful deploying"
  - 52-6F-62 6y ago
    That sounds hauntingly familiar. How bad is your PTSD? haha
- sandymcmurray 6y ago
  This. Client wants a "simple" site, but insists on custom themes and plugins that break or are unsupported or abandoned by the developer.
efficax 6y ago
Wordpress has had a history of serious security vulnerabilities that gave it a bad rap for folks that have been following the industry for a long time. I think automattic has done a great job overall in improving Wordpress and you don't hear about mass defacements or easy hacks for the standard wordpress install anymore. The plugin ecosystem however opens you up once again: here the devil is in the details. Every plugin you install might be the giant blinking red light that says: hack me, steal my data, etc. On balance though wordpress is pretty good these days.
- trey-jones 6y ago
  Part of the reason for highly visible security vulnerabilities in Wordpress is just a result of the massive user base. Heavily used platforms are naturally more heavily targeted by malicious users since they are easier to find, and exploits are more readily available. In truth, most software at any given time probably has serious security vulnerabilities that just aren't as obviously exploitable, and I wouldn't say that the volume of published exploits related to Wordpress is indicative of a poorly managed or written piece of software.

justaguyhere 6y ago

How do you handle search?

seriocomic 6y ago
Search and comments are the casualties of static-sites - unless you bow and crumble to the use of something 3rd party (Disqus or Google Site Search to name some poor examples)
- justaguyhere 6y ago
  Comments are not as important as search, I guess. If the site has tons of pages, not having search might be annoying to the user
- vidar 6y ago
  Can't you point algolia at a static site and get decent search or have I misunderstood?
  - andreasha 6y ago
    You can check out Lunr. The Jekyll theme Minimal Mistakes has that as a search option and builds a JSON index file. The demo site uses Algolia though https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/ https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/
- jeromenerf 6y ago
  Hugo provides a Json output that can be used by a js script to provide simple search. I guess the same is possible for other systems. Comments, contact forms and other features that "creates" content are more difficult.
- clairity 6y ago
  staticman[0] for comments is a neat solution that avoids those surveillance companies. it can use heroku hobby tier for processing and github as the content backend for a free, hosted comments solution for static sites (fully acknowledging that heroku and github are both owned by other surveillers). [0]: https://github.com/eduardoboucas/staticman https://github.com/eduardoboucas/staticman