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One Answer to a wandering question, I stumbled through a site that offered a “free” service for hardening a WordPress site, or, more technically, taking the web pages that are generated on the fly (for me, mostly posts), and turning the whole process into static web pages. Straight up, simple, easy, quick, basic HTML output.
For astrofish.net, that would be something like 1,200 posts at 1,000 to 3,000 words each, plus over a 100 “pages” which are more static website text.
I signed up, there was no mention on the site as to the price, and it wasn’t until I was at the point that the software was going to — apparently — totally take over administration of the site that I hit the price point. Looks like it started at $35/month.
First, I wanted to try it before I bought, and that price point, it is way to steep for my cheap-ass blood.
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With taxes and associated fees, the cheapest alternative is just shy $500 per annum. On top of that, I still pay registration, hosting, and assorted other costs.
What was advertised, and I didn’t explore it deeply, was the the entire site would be set up as static text files, and that would be based on the server’s speed, nothing else.
It’s like, the image for me, my site on one side, on a conveyor belt, fed into a funnel-like opening, then machinery grinding away, and spitting out on the conveyor belt’s other side, basic, static pages.
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One problem is that basic static page is dependent on a style sheet to properly define what the elements mean, and the other, adjunct issue, is compatibility across various platforms. How much is just looked at on a phone’s screen, and can that be the same as the landscape tablet, or a pair of 24-inch monitors?
Occam’s Razor suggest we keep is as simple as possible, as the simplest solution, no matter how outrageous, might be best.
The imagery of web pages on an assembly-line-like conveyor belt, more metaphorical than real? Still, as an image it describes what happens, but at the end? Is that much different from what the basic WordPress motor does, in the first place?
Yes and no, as that — originally is was merely a blog motor, it just grabs data from database and spits it out in a pre-determined format, as posts, or pages, with styling determined by the individual “themes,” and while it is more dynamic that a static display, it’s still a pretty rock-solid delivery system.
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The idea of a static display of data is really quite appealing, as it offers a more solid foundation, and the inner-nerd loves its various aspects. But from an administrative point, while technically sound, and the various bits are appealing, is it worth that kind of a price? Short answer is, “No. (Not for me).” Carefully taking it out and licking the software around reveals a few flaws, and while an excellent idea, and if I ran a different kind of site, I think it might work, but the price? A little too steep for me. I always worry about value, the old question of price versus cost.
