It is finally done. My new blog website is up and running!

Two years ago, I had a Wordpress based blog/site which I spent quite some time customizing (professionally). It was filled with personal rant and some interesting (to me at least) technical writings.

One day, I went to the site to add a post when I realised that my site has been replaced with a generic installation of WordPress. I was hacked!, All of my configuration and uploads were gone. I tried to get the hosting company backup restored but it was too late ☹️. I looked at what left and only the database of posts was left untouched. So I did a database dump and decided that I will not be bullied out of my blog.

I spent couple of years trying to put together another WordPress site with much better security. I thought of proxying the site to prevent direct hacking. I did white IP listing to wp-admin path. At the end, I lost faith in WordPress and decided to go another route.

I had experience with site generator (such as JAlbum). I decided that I wanted to simply statically generate my site which will ensure that nothing can be hacked. I started examining different Static Site Generators (SSG) and finally landed on Eleventy or 11ty for short.

It took me about couple of hours to understand its architecture. I picked a relatively simple theme as I wanted to experience building a personal website but not totally from scrtach.

I cleaned up my legacy posts from the old WP database and I added this article and as we say in French: Voilo. My site is up and running again. Simpler but secure. Basic technology but full of potential.

I will try to document my journey with Eleventy, Blogging and other technical curiosities that I might have! Stay tuned.