My girlfriend often says I enjoy tinkering with my site more than I actually enjoy having a blog and writing a lot on it.
I recognise that. Over the past few years I have redesigned my site so many times. And now, once again…
Previously On Alxndrr.nl
The last time I wrote about this, I proudly said this had become the coolest website I had ever had. Last year I used vibe coding to adjust everything exactly the way I wanted. I could publish reviews with their own unique design, and I could post short bits of text without immediately turning them into a full blog post.
But my site was running on Ghost. And while Ghost is a nice platform if you just want to blog and send newsletters, that is kind of where the possibilities end. The things I built with AI were a bit held together with tape and hope. They worked, but not exactly gracefully.
The site also was not particularly fast, and after a while it suddenly stopped working out of nowhere. So I removed everything again and went back to a simple design.
But it kept itching.
Because I want a website that is shaped around what I actually want to post: sometimes a long blog like this one, but probably more often a short post where I share something small. And of course my TV Top 100 needs a proper place on the site too.
So I decided to get back to work with AI, Cursor and a few weeks of proper vibe coding. Back to good old WordPress, and with the help of AI and Cursor, I built a site that works the way I want it to. Complete with a nice mobile-first design and my own custom plugins to show my content as well as possible.
Happy With The Result
I took my time, and I am really happy with how it turned out.
Once again, I can say this is the coolest website I have ever had. The TV Top 100 has a great new design, and thanks to a custom plugin I can add new shows and information to the list much more easily. I can also make other lists myself, like a list of my favourite films, shows and games.
When I watch a film, I can easily share my Letterboxd review here. That looks pretty great too. But if I wrote a blog about that film myself, the site simply opens that instead of sending you to Letterboxd.
Now I Just Need To Blog
My girlfriend is right, of course: I really enjoy tinkering with a website. But once it finally works the way I want, the dopamine fades a little.
I have been blogging for years, but never consistently. That is something I hope to change with this site. Not always long pieces of text, but more frequent updates: a micropost like on Threads, a review, or just a longer blog whenever that is needed.