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Switching to Eleventy

I finally converted this blog from WordPress to a static site generator. After completing two full read-throughs of the novel I don't update this blog very often, and hardly anyone comments on it anyway. This way I don't have to keep up with WordPress and plugin updates on a site that might as well be static, it'll load a lot faster, and I can still add the occasional post easily enough.

WordPress

But since I was building the layout from scratch I was able to make it super minimalist. I can't get over how fast it loads even on a phone.

Some changes to keep things simple:

Tech Notes

I went with Eleventy. I used wordpress-export-to-markdown to convert the exported WordPress archive to Markdown (with images!), and built the simplest possible set of templates and styles.

Eleventy

wordpress-export-to-markdown

These articles helped me get started: Taking WordPress to Eleventy (Josh Can Help) and How To Migrate From WordPress To The Eleventy Static Site Generator (Smashing Magazine).

Taking WordPress to Eleventy

How To Migrate From WordPress To The Eleventy Static Site Generator

eleventy-plugin-rss adds a feed, and I looked at some functions from eleventy-base-blog to build things like the tag archives and understand how to convert dates.

eleventy-plugin-rss

eleventy-base-blog

It took me about a day to get most of it together, which went a lot better than the times I tried with Jekyll and Hugo.

With a minimal HTML template and simple stylesheet, the posts are just as slim as an AMP page would be - plus no issues with ownership, redirects, duplicate content, etc!

— Kelson Vibber, 2021-01-03. Updated 2023-02-26.

About the Project

Process

Site Tech

WordPress

Eleventy

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Re-Reading Les Misérables

Thoughts and commentary on Victor Hugo’s masterpiece.