project description:
it’s been a while since I last had or updated my own portfolio website, so now is as good of a time as any to make a new one.
for my new portfolio site, I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and build it using a non-traditional content management system. this portfolio site is being hosted through Neocities, which allows people to create their own static websites for free. for those who were around on the internet back in the late 90s and early 00s, you might recognize it as a nod to and spiritual successor of GeoCities, which also allowed people to create their own low-end websites for free.
Neocities does not have a built in content management system like Wordpress, Squarespace, or Shopify to allow its users to edit pages easily - everything has to be coded from scratch. to fill that CMS void, I found and learned how to use Hugo, which is a content management system that lives on your computer, rather than online. with Hugo, you still have to build the majority of your site with code, but it helps to fill in a lot of the gaps using templates and layouts so you can spend more time focusing on the creating content for your site.
“why do all of that, though?” you’re probably asking. there are a couple reasons why I chose to go this non-traditional route for my portfolio site - one reason being I wanted a bit of a challenge and to try to something new, but the primary reason being cost. while building and editing a site Neocities is not exactly easy or user-friendly, it is very affordable compared to the other options out there.