welcome back!

if you've stalked this page for a while, you may have noticed that all the posts that used to be here aren't available anymore.

I intentionally got rid of those posts because the topics and the ways I addressed them seemed too personal for me to put on the internet. the way I wrote each post seemed like I was writing a journal entry. a long, and stuffed, journal entry. I wasn't proud of having people open my blog and see some half-baked complaint about the world or myself disguised as a blog post.

in addition, I wanted to experiment with how the blog works. with my first try, each post was written in an .mdx file (markdown w/ extensions) and the server would cache all the posts from the filesystem and render them to users on the fly. this non-database approach had several limitations, like being unable to edit blog posts on the fly remotely. the closest I could get to that was ssh-ing into my vps and editing the .mdx directly, but then I would have to restart my server and it would be a real hassle to sync to all of my devices I develop on.

I was pretty unhappy with this system, because I disliked having to push to a git repo in order to publish a new post. I also wanted to play around with the idea of editing blog posts from any device I wanted, like my phone or desktop. so when I decided to redo my website yet again, I incorporated these ideas into an admin panel, which gives me remote control over blog posts (and now images). I can now create or edit them from my laptop, desktop, phone, maybe even my tv if I'm so inclined.

taking some inspiration from other websites, I also wanted to add an anonymous method of communication with blog posts. something like a user giving approval for the content they just read, or another user shaming me for misgendering someone I cited. the mechanism is more so from guestbooks, since blogs that allow comments typically do so from an outside source, like replies to a corresponding thread in the fediverse or replies on github. the system isn't perfect (like not allowing for markdown or editing of comments), but I think it's simple enough for such a simple blog.

I know I won't ever be happy with everything I do on this website. heck, I might look back at this version in 3 years and complain about its vibrant colors, poor(-ish) contrast, and monospaced font. but this time, I want to actually try and make posts that I know I would love to read later on. and hopefully, others will catch on and love them just as much as I do.