I decided to make a new personal website. The last time I did this kind of thing was before the pandemic, and I did it with WordPress before, so my first instinct was to try WordPress again. But WordPress seems to have changed a lot since then. Or maybe I just forgot how annoying it is? Anyway, I found an interesting-looking theme to start with, but building on it is really frustrating.

Style changes don’t apply throughout the site when it seems like they should. I can’t change the font in the footer even though there’s a place where you can supposedly do that (you can select a new font but it changes nothing). I can’t move design elements around smoothly in the block editor, and I can’t seem to get out of the block editor either (although maybe that’s just a theme issue?). I’d like to make the background different on different parts of the same page, but I can’t figure out how to do that.

Am I going about this the wrong way? Do I need a different theme? A plugin? Should I use something other than WordPress? I’m annoyed with all of the AI stuff WordPress is pushing at me anyway. Do I just need to bite the bullet and teach myself CSS or whatever, given that I don’t want to vibe-code this site? Advice please!

edit: also, if there’s a better Lemmy community for this kind of question, please point me there!

  • butWhatIfiCan@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    It will definitely have a blog. Probably some other projects eventually (TBD which ones, but I’ll at least want to display photos nicely). I also want to make the site colorful if possible, maybe a little offbeat-looking.

    • Victor@lemmy.world
      1·
      21 hours ago

      I respect a person who blogs, honestly. Put your thoughts into words and share with others for free. Love that sh—. 📝 Simple concept that can benefit so many.

    • stoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      Alright, so it has to be a dynamic page.

      Is there a particular reason for wanting WordPress?

      It will require some constant upkeep to keep is secure, a more lightweight alternative might be a better option.

      • butWhatIfiCan@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        1·
        18 hours ago

        Mostly just that I registered my domain through there. (It’s one I bought in the past but allowed to lapse, and then I was pleasantly surprised to find it was still available so I bought it again… in retrospect, I probably should have waited to play around with current-day WordPress some more before buying through there.) But I can still move my site with its domain name off WordPress, right?

        • stoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          8 hours ago

          Ah, if it is actually running on WordPress’s own infra, then updates and perfrormance should be less of an issue, I thought you ran it on your own server.

          The only suggestion I have then is that you make sure that you own the domain name, see if you can move it to an external provider (avoid GoDaddy, I have read that they are very annoying) and point it to your WordPress site.

      • zout@fedia.io
        2·
        24 hours ago

        Why would a lightweight alternative need less upkeep?

        To the OP: you might consider ClassicPress, which is a fork of WordPress without the block editor.

        • stoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          22 hours ago

          WordPress is so large and constantly attacked that there is a joke that it is a remote access tool for hackers that also as a side benefit also runs a decent web management system

          • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            21 hours ago

            While it is a constant target, you can also set it so that it updates itself, themse, and plugins automatically. I haven’t had a site successfully attacked in nearly a decade now, and at my height I was hosting more than 100 small business sites.

            • Upgrayedd1776@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              20 hours ago

              then you should be good, dont worry about criticism of others that might know what they are talking about; they look shifty to me and are probly bots

              • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                20 hours ago

                I’m confused by your comment, but as to others’ opinions of WordPress: In my humble opinion, they are not so much wrong, but out of date to some degree, and to another degree, there are lots of people that set up WordPress and don’t set it to auto-update, thus almost ensuring that at some point they will get hacked. So it’s ignorance - in the sense strictly of a lack of knowledge - not stupidity.

                By choosing WordPress, a person is choosing a larger target for hacks; but I believe setting it up correctly (which is not difficult) largely prevents that. Others may disagree, as is their right. :)