# fkfd.me First published 2023-11-27 Latest version 2023-11-27 Yes — the inevitable "How I built my blog" blogpost! Except it's like the 44th post, and hey, at least it's not Jekyll or Hexo or WordPress (no offense). ## Early history (2020) ### fkfd.me I bought the domain fkfd.me on 2020-02-14 for 20.98 USD, after my previous domain, [autometalogolex](https://xkcd.com/1932/).me expired. fkfd.me was for my comics initially; my blog was hosted on blog.fkfd.me. ### The meaning behind fkfd fkfd is a contraction of fakefred. fakefred, which happens to be my GitHub username, stems from the facts that (a) I go by the English name Frederick and (b) there was an "X might be fake" internet meme in mainland China. In retrospect, fkfd is a genuinely high-quality name. All four letters are in the QWERTY home row. And I'm glad I didn't go for fakefred.me because that would be cringe. ### First design The first git commit was made on 2020-04-23. I opted for MkDocs as the static site generator, forked the [alabaster](https://mkdocs-alabaster.ale.sh/) theme, and called it alabaster-lite. I disabled all JavaScript, kicked out all the clutter, and left this masterpiece: ![Website titled "You are in the wrong place. Leave." followed by a condescending paragraph demanding the reader to leave my blog](img/fkfdme/2020-04-23.png) ### Background color If you are reading in dark theme, you'll notice that the background color hasn't changed at all. It is `#19202b`. Why this particular color? I don't know. Probably forgot. No comment in the CSS either. This kind of shit is why I keep a blog, to archive my motivations. ## Then it was like this for one year and a half (2022) Per `git log`, the next big update was in 2022-01-07. I graduated high school, and began to use fkfd.me as a legit blog, moving comics to fkfd.me/comics. I also reorganized all past blogposts (like 7 at the time) into categories (projects, random, shitpost). ![Title "fkfd". Body: "Yes this is just a low effort blog why do you ask"](img/fkfdme/2022-01-07.png) ### Categories Two days later I did a major redesign on the homepage. ![Title "fkfd". Headings: "Categories", "Non-blog Content", "Fun", "All Blogposts"](img/fkfdme/2022-01-09.png) A few months later I joined [Fediring](https://fediring.net) and increased the line spacing. But apart from that not so much changed. ## Fast forward 7 months (2022-2023) ### Bad design. Just no On 2022-12-28 I was at home with covid. It really messes with your head. Which explains this absolute disaster of a design: ![Every category is a solid colored block with a handdrawn icon. They form a 2x3 grid.](img/fkfdme/2022-12-28.png) It would have looked great, if my theme was more vibrant, which it is not. Effort, however, is not wasted. The grid layout has been reused ever since. ### Much better Half a month later, 2023-01-15: ![The solid color blocks are gone](img/fkfdme/2023-01-15.png) Two days later: ![Updated icons for ham radio and shitpost, and new icons for fediring](img/fkfdme/2023-01-17.png) ### About Me I also included my About Me page in the heading, because I find it the most useful page when I'm visiting someone else's blog. What's interesting about you? What do you enjoy? What do we have in common? If it warrants a whole ass page, it deserves a heading unto itself. ## Another 7 months (2023) ### New categories In summer 2023 I flew to the US to study at U of Michigan, thus the UMich category. There was only one music post, initially in Projects (namely [Early Sunsets Over Monroeville](../music/early-sunsets-over-monroeville.md)), but I did anticipate more coming in the future, so I made it a category of its own. Turns out a great decision because of [This Song Will Uncure Your Depression](../music/uncure-your-depression.md). ![Categories section is now 2x4 grid](img/fkfdme/2023-09-03.png) ### Blogposts I don't regret The "Blogposts I don't regret" section was actually added in Janurary too. I didn't include it in my screenshot because then you won't be able to see my Fediring icons 🪐🚀 It was a compromise between "Featured blogposts" (narcissist) and "Blogposts that don't suck" (self-deprecating). I don't care about _your_ opinion. _I_ find them representative of my style, and thus good "entry points" for a new visitor. ### Accessibility Around this time I grew more and more accessibility-aware. A few problems were fixed, such as text contrast and heading levels. ### This is not the right vibe I've visited dozens of personal websites, but few do I consider "excellent". An "excellent" website is consistent in content and style, but manages to surprise me. For example, [maia crimew](https://maia.crimew.gay/)'s website delivers all its promises: - soft kitten - disregard of authority - gay It lowkey disappoints me when someone's website fails to capture their energy. I feel like if you are gay, a furry, a pirate, or a gay furry pirate, you most certainly deserve a decent website to show off that energy. Not that techbro-style boilerplate. Unfortunately, my blog falls right into this category. As a remedy, I would try to add an essential element of any good website: __Cat.__ Thus on 2023-11-05: ![Three icons on top of page, including a contour of a cat head](img/fkfdme/2023-11-05.png) It is a link to my About Me page, which does mention my affinity to cats. ### A more subdued approach At this point, there are three sets of icons on my homepage: - header icons (about, x, links) - categories - fediring Categories are supposed to be the focus, and the other two are stealing it. Also it looks terrible on mobile. Not good. I reverted the design only one week later. But the assets were still there. Plus, I really liked the cat icon. Meanwhile the sidebar is mostly empty. And there we go! ![Four icons in sidebar: cat head (about me), radiating atom (atom feed), balls and sticks (links), ascii tilde (~x). Below are fediring icons](img/fkfdme/2023-11-27.png) ### Hover I also made alternative icons for the categories that appear on hover. The problem is that, the browser does not prefetch them, and they flicker for a few milliseconds on the first hover. I can't find any non-hacky way to fix it.