I designed my very first website using raw HTML code while an undergrad at FSU in 1997. That site was hosted on the school’s webservers, and was as basic as you could get. It remained up for two years before I purchased my own domain, the former nikknakks.net. Over the next few years, I migrated website hosts several times, in search of better service and costs. I don’t even remember what the images on this page were, but I assume they were very low resolution. Everything back then was.
During those early years I used a variety of web design software (after deciding using raw HTML was too time-consuming). I vaguely remember using Netscape Composer and Microsoft Front Page, before landing on Dreamweaver, which I used for many years.
I switched to Weebly in 2016, at the same time I switched hosts to FatCow. Up until this year, that was working just fine for me. Unfortunately, FatCow’s support and reliability have become problematic. Add to that the fact that Weebly will likely be sunset in the next few years, and it was time to take a leap.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been re-creating my entire site via WordPress. Linode will be the new host (this is the same company that hosts the Wind Repertory Project). But it does mean a lot of work, and it will render my old “Musings” blog inaccessible. I’m hoping that the new blog will receive the same “traction” as the old one, which helps bring visitors to the site (and helps with SEO rankings). It will be time-consuming, but hopefully I can get at least a dozen or so back-dated posts ready by the end of summer, before drill writing and music arranging season kicks up in earnest.
Please pardon the dust while I do a little light remodeling…
