This is great, I really like this style of commented code! This gevent stuff is a bit beyond me but bookmarking for later when I learn more about network programmingā¦
āWhat do we want the future to look like?ā
There is a hierarchy of āwantā at play here, I think: There is what we apparently want (as revealed through our decisions) vs. what we want to want (as telegraphed through self-conscious aesthetics like vaporwave and neocities, trying to cultivate a certain aesthetic that has slipped away) vs. what we want the future to look like, which is a question not just about my own preferences but also about everyone elseās and the presence/absence of political will to make that future happen.
Just to ask this question is to espouse a certain level of faith in the future, and our ability to get there constructively without killing each other.
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Godwinās law ack. Welcome!
I agree with what you wrote about peopleās tendency to see the Holocaust (and other similar extreme episodes from history) as divorced from their history. They ascribe too much blame to the individual extremists involved (Hitler, Mao) and too little to the social forces that brought them into power and allowed them such unchecked authority.
I also think that some people get too historically minded in their understanding of past fascist regimes. They make statements such as āthis is bad, but it isnāt as bad as Hitler because ā¦ā and point to differences in the particulars of how that history unfolded as evidence that we are not going down the same path. There is danger in this, tooāthinking that the conditions that created evil in the past were so particular and narrow that thereās nothing for us to worry about.
There were people new to 32-Bit Cafe who didnāt know about SSGs, and as @nosycat mentioned, there are also people who complain about SSGs being too technical, so beginner guides or tutorials for SSGs are more than welcome.
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I have indeed read various Discworld novels. I think Wyrd Sisters was the first one I ever read. Last year I bought a huge Pratchett Humble Bundle and theyāre all on my Kobo. Theyāve gotten pushed to the back of the book listing though and I kind of forgot about them so thanks for the recommendation!
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Oh, good! I figured Iād be preaching to the choir here. 
I think the main issue with more of the recent SSGs out there is that their official documentation is often terribleā¦ written for professional developers and React enthusiasts, not for hobbyists who may have dabbled a little in HTML/CSS and not much else. Hopefully my post will help someone out, because SSGs truly are awesome time-savers!
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I really agree about it. I think there is danger in 2025 too, because I hear more and more dehumanization of other ethnic/religious/cultural groups. There is also the Ā« Great Remplacement Ā» narrative that resembles (in my opinion) the Ā« ressources competition Ā» nazi narrative. I donāt think fascism always have the same face through History, but not that it is 100% gone.
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I just posted this. Something tells me that somebody will eventually insist on trying to give me cause to regret it.
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This was a great read - maybe consider adding it to the resources post.
I think articles like this are definitely needed. I consider myself pretty technically minded, but I struggled with SSGs when I first tried them. Iāll share some of the frustration I experienced, in case you feel like writing a follow up 
- Many assume you are using Git, and I wasnāt comfortable with that at the time
- Most āmake a blogā tutorials stop as soon as they show how to print a loop of blog posts. They donāt cover using and optimising images.
- Most headless CMSes are sold from The point of view of developers shipping a website for others to use, not hobbyists trying to replace Wordpress
- Adding comments was either easy but a security risk, or involved wiring up Netlify forms
- Most starter kits were built with the developers preference so introduced all the complexity of JavaScript frameworks and CSS preprocessors
Jeckyll was actually the first SSG I tried and I really liked it - the community was very helpful - but that was long before I discovered the personal web and I think I was still looking for a Wordpress alternative at the time. I was experimenting with the JAMStack, including SSGs and headless CMSes. I tried Forestry.io (now Tina CMS) but didnāt get very far.
I also tried Eleventy, completing an excellent course on it, but again it was geared more towards a static marketing site than a regularly updated blog. I found myself having to learn Git, considering how to host my images (since they shouldnāt live in Git), looking into a CDN and other image optimisation strategies.. the whole thing felt very piecemeal and brittle.
I now use Statamic, a flat file CMS. It can be run like an SSG, but Iām not using it like that. However, it does mean I get to use all the things I liked about SSGs such as partials and have a nice, customisable UI for writing posts. Iāve also had to learn just enough Git and, though my images are currently on my server, Iāll be switching to Digital Ocean Spaces for some of my projects.
What frustrated me in the beginning about all these services is the choice seemed to be between using Wordpress or learning to cobble together a portfolio of technologies. It didnāt feel as āsimpleā as just writing a website in Notepad and dumping some images on the server with FTP, like we used to do 
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Asking as an Eleventy user who builds all their static websites, including blogs, with Eleventy: where did you get the impression that Eleventy is geared more towards marketing websites?
The official Eleventy starter project, eleventy-base-blog, is literally made for blogging. It is also worth noting the Eleventy community shares indie web values, speaking as someone who has been participating in the community.
No I meant the course I did was building a marketing agency website. I know there are starter projects with blogs, I tried several, though they did come with their authorās own preferences (naturally) regarding CSS etc. I found the tech stack of using those more complicated than just understanding Eleventy. At the time I was also trying to build a digital garden (I did try the starter kit for that) so my needs were a bit different than a traditional blog.
I actually really like Eleventy. If I was to use an SSG again, thatās the one is pick. I know thereās a lot of passionate, helpful people in the Eleventy community. I also found the Discord useful.
However, the docs are geared towards web developers, not hobbyists. My biggest stumbling block with Eleventy was how it handles images as this was not well documented enough (for me). I have a whole series of notes of my own that helped me figure it out.
My comment wasnāt intended to be negative. I was just highlighting the need for more articles like the one written. Like any SSG, yes, you can very quickly spin up a website - including a blog - with Eleventy, and I really liked writing in Markdown. However, I still think thereās a gap between that and setting up all the nuts and bolts of what services like Wordpress or Ghost provide.
I donāt want to use Wordpress. These platforms could do a better job of onboarding people who want to invest the time in implementing that flexibility, while still developing familiarity with the tech landscape. Thatās not specific to Eleventy.
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Fair enough. Thanks for clearing it up.
I do agree that documentations of SSGs in general tend to be geared more towards professional developers than hobbyists, so I agree that hobbyist- or beginner-friendly guides and tutorials for SSGs need to exist.
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- Sandstorm is an awesome cat name!
- I am also Team Cat. Itās not that I donāt like dogs, I just havenāt been around them enough to know what to do with them.
- One of the peeps I follow on Neocities made the coolest Warrior Cats Shrine! Itās made to look like an old school forum. I think if you like Warrior Cats, you might appreciate it!
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Iāve always been a cat person, but as much as Iād love to have a Maine Coon Cat myself, Iād rather adopt a shelter cat who actually needs a home and might not otherwise get one. All of my cats have been rescues and either black cats or āstandard issue catsā (brown tabbies).
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I love this! Congratulations on the mintāitās such a win!
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