I started out making this site using a blogging engine backed by a database, but at some point it stopped working after I upgraded a bunch of dependencies, and I wasn’t ever able to get it working again.

To make the situation even more frustrating, I wasn’t able to duplicate it anywhere but the “production” system. Matching library versions exactly on my development box yielded a fully-functional system. So I’ve started over, this time using that time-honored database: the filesystem.

I adapted a simple CMS I wrote for work (which ironically was itself based on an earlier version of this site) to do on-the-fly conversion of Textile files on disk with configurable filters, all managed via Mercurial, and so far it’s been a breath of fresh air.

I started out this project with the promise to myself to do it just for me, not worrying about ever distributing it or cleaning it up for public consumption, which was incredibly hard, but it’s now paid off completely. I burned down everything, started over, and didn’t have to tell anyone, worry about which version number to increment, or manage migrations. It’s programming just for pure fun, without the accompanying repetitive informationless bug reports, inane suggestions, and posturing that has become part of the Open Source experience.

Now I just have to work on actually posting stuff to it. No promises on that front, as I know by now that I’m a horrible procrastinator with the attention span of a cockatiel. So, yeah. At least it isn’t a lame “my site is down” warning anymore.