Blog: Midwo

I will not use Wordpress

They don't have a monopoly, but as soon as it comes to creating a website, it's the first tool that gets mentioned when one starts talking about a CMS.

It's simple to install, simple to use, and has a vast array of free themes... And yet, I refuse to use it, neither as a managed solution nor as a self-hosted one.

Is it the best tool?
It's IT, so the answer is: it depends.
For what I want to do here, it can certainly handle it.

Does it fully meet my specifications?
Not entirely (the fact that it relies on a database already makes it too heavy for my use).

Just to differentiate myself from the crowd and attempt to assert some semblance of uniqueness, I prefer to turn to another solution.
My choice is detailed on this page of the wiki.

I want to grow my digital garden

Welcome to this first post.

This is not my first attempt at creating a website.
Several iterations, each one abandoned.

About a year passed between putting the CMS online at another address, the creation of the domain name, the redeployment of the CMS, and these lines.

The reason: excuses always stronger than the determination to complete this project. The strongest of them: why expose my notes publicly instead of just keeping them in my Nextcloud ? The motivation: to do it for myself, to learn and continue to improve myself.

(At the time of writing this post, the CMS is: Datenstrom Yellow).

This site is intended to be a digital garden. It's not just a blog, it's not just a wiki, it's definitely not an e-commerce site, it's not just a portfolio... it's a tool for organisation, creation, and aide-mémoire.

I discovered this concept on Johackim’s website, and it has been on my mind ever since.
I greatly enjoyed the retrospective posts by Gelnior, and engaging in this kind of reflection on oneself and one's activities gives a new dimension to the daily routine. Finally, if by chance any content shared here in the future is useful to someone other than myself, the magic of the Internet will have worked.

Many people can do without such a tool. I managed for 39 years and could probably continue to do so. But for everything that it can bring me, I want to grow my digital garden.