Build a website that lasts
Stub • 277 Words • IndieWeb/Meta-blogging, 2026 • 05/06/2026
⚠️ This post contains a rougher cut of my thoughts on the topic and may be updated in the future. Please forgive any mistakes or lack of polish!
My perspective on how to build a website on the shifting grounds of the Web.
There are 306 words in this article, and it will probably take you less than 2 minutes to read it.
This article was published 2026-05-06 00:00:00 -0400, which makes this post and me old when I published it.
Stick to using technologies that have been used for a while
- Technologies that have been used for a while have a higher likelihood of lasting a longer time
- Jekyll (which I use) was first released in 2008. While it does not get a lot of releases, it is still being supported now and I haven’t had any problems.
- Similarly Hugo was created in 2015 and Eleventy in 2017, both very popular static site generators.
- This is sometimes called “Choose Boring Technology”
Do not assume that linked content will last forever
- Prevent link rot
- I have started using blockquotes and quotes and linking back to original sources, especially with tweets
- You could also use Quotebacks
Compile into HTML or something that is plain text readable
- The CEO of Obsidian talked a lot about “file over app”
- This site (made with Jekyll) is all Markdown that compiles into HTML so it is readable and portable
Host your own stylesheets, JavaScript, images, and data if you can
- Relying on external services, relies on network connection, and those services existing via corporations
- I say this using a CDN for my images so I can get screwed there, but for me I wanted fast images not stored in Git so it was a compromise I had to make for my own needs.
- If you want to host things, externally, like in a CDN have some sort of fallback system for local copies
- You should be able to lift and shift your website very easily just in case you need to move hosting services
If thinking like this interests you, definitely check out: