TL;DR
Wordpress was overkill for my blog. I rebuilt it with AstroJS to create a static site that's faster for readers and simpler for me to update.
Problem
I lost interest in Wordpress and shared hosting. PHP, plugins/themes, huge MySQL database felt too
legacy. Wordpress still felt bloated on a VPS, compared to what I felt was achievable with e.g. Astro, Hugo, Gatsby,
Eleventy.
Idea
I wanted to rebuild BTOnomics with AstroJS. I wanted to try a framework that's great for content-heavy sites.
I'm happy with Astro. It's indeed good for content-first sites. It's fast. I also like native markdown support, view transitions, shipping HTML/CSS first.
Stack
AstroJS'/%3e%3c/svg%3e "Tailwind")
Tailwind'%3e%3cpath%20d='M60,97C93.137,97%20120,81.842%20120,63.143L120,50.831L115.91,50.831C107.182,38.22%2085.44,29.286%2060,29.286C34.56,29.286%2012.818,38.22%204.09,50.831L0,50.831L0,63.143C0,81.842%2026.863,97%2060,97Z'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cg%20transform='matrix(1,0,0,1,0.865602,-17.5396)'%3e%3cpath%20d='M116,52C116,59.317%20110.727,66.74%20100.454,72.562C90.301,78.315%2076.007,82%2060,82C43.993,82%2029.699,78.315%2019.546,72.562C9.273,66.74%204,59.317%204,52C4,44.683%209.273,37.26%2019.546,31.439C29.699,25.685%2043.993,22%2060,22C76.007,22%2090.301,25.685%20100.454,31.439C110.727,37.26%20116,44.683%20116,52Z'%20style='fill:white;fill-rule:nonzero;stroke:black;stroke-width:8px;'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cg%20transform='matrix(1,0,0,1,0.865602,-17.5396)'%3e%3cpath%20d='M57.886,72.061L87.282,41.837C88.625,40.456%2087.43,38.16%2085.528,38.468L26.082,48.108C23.986,48.448%2023.794,51.388%2025.827,51.998L46.715,58.265C47.218,58.415%2047.642,58.758%2047.894,59.219L54.699,71.628C55.346,72.807%2056.949,73.025%2057.886,72.061Z'%20style='fill-rule:nonzero;'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cg%20transform='matrix(1,0,0,1,0.865602,-17.5396)'%3e%3cellipse%20cx='58'%20cy='53.5'%20rx='7'%20ry='4.5'%20style='fill:white;'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e "Pagefind")
PagefindLook
What I built
- Migrated to AstroJS as a static site.
- Used ChatGPT to convert WordPress html/shortcode to markdown.
- Recently did some rewriting to convert to Astro 5's Content Layer API.
- Added QOL stuff like tag filtering and text search.
Not yet done
Didn't recreate Wordpress' social features, especially comments. But I don't want/need it, neither
does the blog.