Statically Generated Hatred

2023-01-16

Unlike many of my previous projects, which are written in pure HTML, this one was made using the Zola static site generator. I've used Hugo in the past, but always had issues deploying it to a page unless it was through Github Pages or some other hosting service that I don't really care for. Of course, bad habits never truly die, and I often find myself making markdown pages on HTML files I've made on accident in the content folder or writing HTML on markdown files.

Perhaps it's just me being an idiot, but I find that those site generators, aside from incredibly and repetitive tasks, are stupidly complex when trying to get something to look exactly like you want to. I could make two pages that look completely different in style and structure from one another in the convectional way with only 4 files (2 HTML and 2 CSS ones, or even just 2 HTML ones). In a static site builder, I would need at least 3 new templates, and 3 different markdown files just for ONE style of page, unless I simply want to make a singular HTML template with 90% of the content inside it. But, you know, at that point I may as well JUST use HTML.

Not to say static sites generators like the two previous mentioned aren't good. They are pretty nice for making quick, good(-ish) looking sites that are easy to add content to. I just don't really vibe with that approach. Never let it be said I did not try, as this site is proof of my first successful attempt at deploying a site to the internet using a static site generator that isn't through Github Pages.

But hey, at least it isn't Wordpress!