From Jack Baty:

The problem I have with publishing a static site is that creating and editing content is too far removed from the actual rendered page.

I fly pretty fast and loose with my writing. I publish things I’m interested in and am eager to share. I’m impatient. If I had to write three drafts of every post before putting it out there I’d never publish anything. This is why I like using WordPress.

Using WordPress makes me feel like that boy at the Type-In. I feel like the words are going right onto the paper. Sure, the metaphor is a little thin, but the point is that when writing with WordPress (or any CMS, really), the distance between what I’m typing and what I’m publishing is very short. The only thing closer is editing HTML directly on a live page, but that’s something only crazy people do.

On the other hand, publishing a static site is like sending a document to a printer. I have to make sure everything is connected, that there’s paper in the machine, and then wait for the job to finish before seeing the output. If something needs editing, and something always needs editing, the whole process starts over.

So I struggle with choosing publishing tools. I much prefer the idea of statically rendered websites, but in practice I’d rather use WordPress.

I’ve been struggling with this back and forth for about two years and have never been able to put it so succinctly. (Thanks, Luke Harris!)

It’s my eternal struggle when it comes to blogging. Having markdown files safely stored on my machine, with all of the code and everything else that makes my site run seems, to me, to far outweigh any inconvenience from actually writing a new post. Plus, I’ve done some things to make just a tad bit easier.

But still, nothing is as nice as opening a browser window, typing some words in a big blank text area, and then hitting publish. Plus, the fact that WordPress lets you highlight text and then automatically link to other posts on your blog is an insanely nice feature that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

But WordPress and other site builders still limit what you can do. They either limit it expressly, by making certain areas of functionality closed off, or limit it implicitly by making it extremely difficult to do certain things.

With all of the WordPress drama going on lately, I’m happy to have my site not relying on their technology–or anyone else’s (except Vercel). But, I still resonate with Baty’s well-put observation.

To quote him, brb, gotta check the printer.