Now with comments

I have added support for comments to this site! I enjoy comments on a website, and think they can really contribute to it. I am not sure it is still possible to maintain them without a large effort to fight spam, but I want to try… so I used staticman, we will see if I can manage to keep it without too much overhead.

With this my wishlist about the technical aspects of my website is basically done. I feel that having a reliable way to publish my stuff that will not be affected by the whims of a big corporation is still useful (moderation at scale is hard). I also decided to use Twitter again because despite everything it is a simple way to follow some people and communicate updates. I had account a log time ago, but I never used it, so I created a new one: @fawzirmohamed.

I always cared about long term sustainability, for this reason I choose a static site, generated by jekyll using the minimal mistakes theme. I expect plain html to remain readable for a long time, also maintaining it running is simple (no database webserver serving files).

I am pretty happy with the results, now one can always do more. I read with interest an article on running your own social site. I was never very attracted by social sites, they fill an important function, but I was always too aware of their shortcomings, and never much inclined toward gossip. Indeed, even after having read the article I do not think I would be motivated enough to run my own social site. This website offers me enough for now.

It is a bit sad, but while more people use the internet, due to the increased economic and political interest in it, in some way the diversity in it has decreased. There are very few large sites that have an outsized influence, and with the increased economic and social aspect, also more laws. These can reduce freedom and increase the barrier of entry.

Along those lines this article on the chilling effect of sex censorship is thought provoking.