How often do you update VisitPaul.com? I don't have a set schedule, but I definitely plan to add and revise more content. I'm in college and have hobbies outside of coding and the internet, so I won't be adding something new every month.
How long did this site/hosting take you to make? Approximately eighty hours, but this is a rough estimate. I had virtually no help from others, but I did have some experience in various coding languages and command line setup beforehand. I took multiple IT networking college classes and studied HTML and CSS several times in high school and college, but I must emphasize how surprisingly unhelpful these were for this project.
I highly recommend avoiding self hosting, making a website is way easier and more fun anyway. The single worst thing about self hosting is the random, painfully difficult to find issues that pop up. You can check over everything, and it will all appear just fine, but something still won't work. You will also have to deal with making it live through your router, indefinite maitenance, and be okay with endless automated attacks. Of all the personal projects in my life, I truly had to muscle through this with personal willpower.
How long did XYZ on your site take to complete? Generally, making significant progress on any given aspect took me hours. There are a few exceptions, like simpler text-focused pages. Many elements required careful design to display properly, including size and placement. Almost every graphic had to be coded or designed, with the main exceptions being the background and email GIF. For anyone considering a coding project, never underestimate how long it will take.
What is your social media? I have a few, like LinkedIn and Facebook, but I'm not really an 'active' user. For professional communication or queries, message me via LinkedIn. Otherwise, visit my contact page.
Why aren't you active on social media? I used to be active on a few platforms on and off, but ultimately stopped for several reasons - the main ones being that I found it distracting and largely a waste of my time. There are other smaller reasons too, such as the privacy policies of individual sites. I do not judge anyone who is active on social media; it's just not my cup of tea.
Will you ever make a blog? I experimented with adding a blog section and even designed a pixel GIF for it. However, after some reflection, I realized that the posts were more like random musings rather than polished content. Instead, I invite you to explore 'Paul's Playbook' where I share my insight with a personal touch!
Website Design Questions...
Why HTTPS only? Short answer: It's more secure for everyone, especially for my host PC. This was especially valuable when I was self hosting, but I decided to keep the HTTPS requirement in spirit.
Long answer: HTTP is a bit embarrassing because browsers act like it's unsafe. Since I had already put in a massive effort into the website and hosting, I thought, "Why not?" The thing is, it doesn't really improve my personal security much, because a hacker could just access through HTTP anyway. So, I just disabled HTTP and preloaded HSTS so modern browsers know it's HTTPS only. As a personal website that doesn't get massive traffic, doesn't sell anything, or have any major security issues, VisitPaul.com is extremely unappealing to hackers. One of my long-term goals for my hosted site is to not be hassled, but even if my host PC is hacked, I have a backup.
Why not make a 'normal' website? My counter-question to you is, why would I? To spend a large amount of time on all this, and not have it stand out, would be a waste. There are countless drag-and-drop web builders, but HTML5 allows me to customize every single aspect. This site isn't perfect or super professional, but that's not the point. This website is meant to be more than just informational; it's an experience. VisitPaul.com is a celebration of web design and its various technologies. It's also a break from advertising, controversy, tracking, and more.
Why the space/blue/purple design? I think it looks great, stands out, and is easy on the eyes. Plus, it's nostalgic, which fits in with my original design goals.
What tools did you use to build the site? I used Visual Studio Code on Windows 11, along with the W3C Markup Validator for identifying code issues. GPT-4 was essentially my teacher and assistant throughout the entire process, helping me iron out issues. Had I done this without AI assistance, the final result would have been quite basic and outdated. I sought help on StackOverflow once when my HTML pages weren't being detected by my webserver, only to have my question passively-aggressively answered and then removed the next day, which was quite amusing.
I designed VisitPaul before people started making custom GPT's that convert screenshotted websites into code etc, so I do not have experience with those features, or know how effective they are.
Why did you use a Google Form for your contact page? For security reasons. I actually had a traditional, code based form early in site development - only to find out it was prone to a data injection attack. Thankfully I discovered this before hosting, but I still lost hours of work, and I do not think it is possible to code a solution as secure as Google Forms.
Click here for my about me page!