How to Make Your Website Boring and Why!

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- I took the time last year to make my website more boring. Here's how you - can do the same and why you'd want to. -

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- Up until recently I was using a static site generator - (cobalt-rs) and a fancy CSS framework/library (Bulma) to - build my website. I also had one or two scripts to do various fiddly - things in the browser. I took the time to gut it and now I have a much - more boring website. I don't use anything but HTML to write all of the - posts and pages. This eliminated the need for a static generator or - script to turn something like Markdown into HTML for me. I also scrapped - all of the customized CSS framework style sheets that I had been using - for a very small (145 lines including whitespace and braces) single-file - stylesheet. I also dropped all of the fancy links, banners, most of the - icons, and any JavaScript that I had originally. Now, my site is much - more boring. And it's so much better. -

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How does one make their website boring?

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- Typically, ask yourself whether you need something. If the answer is - "no", you can safely remove it and you won't need it again. Your website - will become more boring (read: simpler). Here are some of the things I - evaluated: -

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- How many 3rd-party assets, templates, CSS libraries am I using? How - big are they? Are they slowing down rendering or annoying to - maintain/upgrade? -
Do I need a Sass interpreter to "build" my styles?
- Am I using a static site generator? Does it make my life easier or - more difficult? -
- Am I using a bunch of JavaScript? What does it do and does it really - need to do it to make my site work better? -

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- Do you use a lot of third-party assets, templates, or CSS for your site? - Do you have to run a SASS tool to generate your stylesheets? Are your - stylesheets really big (> 1000 lines I think anyone would consider on - the bigger side)? Consider whether or not you really need them. - Oftentimes, with CSS, less is more. Especially if your site is just a - collection of pages of text with links to other pages of text. You can - make your site attractive and compatible with 100% of browsers by - keeping things simple. And then you don't have to worry about rebuilding - your output stylesheets or keeping up with libraries and frameworks. -

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- Do you have a lot of dynamically-generated content on your site? Does - the document need to change based on user input? Do you have a large - number of script tags importing minified files from third-party CDNs? - Odds are you don't need those either and you can completely get rid of - them. Now you don't have to worry about making sure all browsers can run - those scripts, or whether or not the CDNs are online, or you're - requesting the latest version. -

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- Do you use a static site generator to build your site? Is your content - complicated enough to write that you can't write it in plain HTML? Is - Markdown really easier or more powerful? Odds are, it's easier to write - directly in HTML without having to tell your generator what to do with - your tags. And for the oddball tag that Markdown doesn't directly - support, you might often end up writing HTML into your Markdown files - anyways. And, you can better control what the output formatting looks - like, making your site's code more readable. Furthermore, you won't have - two acting copies of your site, a pre- and post-generator one. For me, - it was annoying having "source code" for my web site that was different - from what I was actually hosting. It's so much nicer to have a 1:1 - mapping between what I write, test, and deploy. -

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- Still not convinced? Still need to automate some part of building your - site, like generating an RSS feed? Is there any chance you can write a - quick Makefile to do that for you? I was able to do just that, and it - was way nicer not having to install and learn how a generator worked to - automate assembling my site. -

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- If you answered "no" to any of the above "do you need"-s, you just found - a way to make your site more boring. Boring equates with simplicity. - Simplicity is a good thing. -

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Why should you make your website boring simple?

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- Not relying on a bunch of libraries and assets is a good thing. It - seemed like every time I wanted to add a quick post, I would notice - there was an update for some library I was using and I was spending time - upgrading and learning about it. You know, that thing that computer - programmers enjoy doing and are good at but often doesn't actually help - them accomplish anything: fiddling with shiny new stuff that doesn't - solve a problem. Now I get to just focus on adding things to my site and - I'm never worried about whether it looks broken. -

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- I also didn't like having a pre- and post-build site. If I wanted to fix - one typo I couldn't remote into my live site, fix it, and then leave it - there. I had to do something like fix the typo in my Markdown, commit - and push it, and then re-run the generator and upload the new "live" - files. The generator step wasn't making things easier, it was making - them more annoying. -

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- You'd also be surprised at how easy it is to make your site fast and - reliable on all modern and old browsers when it's boring (read: simple, - again). Internet Explorer doesn't care about my site, it's a breeze to - render and there's nothing in it that hasn't been in existence for at - least a decade. (Alright, I do have a few SVG icons which it probably - wouldn't know what to do with. You can't tell the difference between - Firefox's and Chrome's renders of my site. And Google's PageSpeed - Insights score is a hilarious 99. -

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- My site is also more functional now. It's less distracting. It's really - easy to navigate and read. There's no runtime, no JavaScript that has to - execute before the reader sees the page they're looking for. And there's - practically nothing to maintain except my posts. It's also really easy - for crawlers to quickly ingest all of my posts and turn them into search - results. Hopefully, it's also easier for the visually impaired to zoom - in and not mess up the document, or use a screen reader that extracts - the article tags. -

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- The benefits are through the roof. My site used to be about tinkering - with tools and libraries and frameworks. Now it's just a boring website. - That leaves me with time to focus on tinkering with other stuff that's - more interesting, and only focus on writing when I'm working on this - site. So make your life easier and go make your website boring today. -