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Comment by susam

6 days ago

> But you, Jeff and Susam have all tried to say that SSGs are generally better, easier, safer or faster.

I'd just like to clarify that this is not what I was trying to say. In fact, once a website needs server-side programming to support interactivity (comments, subscription, etc.), I don't think SSGs are necessarily better. I think we both agree there to an extent. I think there are tradeoffs.

There is a certain inherent complexity in addressing concerns like performance, portability, etc. that, as waterbed theory suggests, just gets pushed to different places depending on whether we choose an SSG-based solution or non-SSG-based solution. What I have been trying in my other comments is to explain my reasons for why I made the arguably questionable choice to use an SSG for content pages while relying on server side programming for comments and subscriber forms.

I certainly see the appeal of serving the entire site, including both content pages and comment forms, using server side programming. It does simplify the 'architecture' in some ways. However, since I maintain my personal website as a hobby, I need to make the tradeoffs that feel right to me. I realise this is not a very satisfying answer to the question of whether a hybrid solution like mine (SSG plus server side programming) has merits. But I was never trying to argue its merits in the first place.

This is all entirely fair, thank you, I understand, I didn't mean to misrepresent.

> However, since I maintain my personal website as a hobby, I need to make the tradeoffs that feel right to me. I realise this is not a very satisfying answer to the question of whether a hybrid solution like mine (SSG plus server side programming) has merits. But I was never trying to argue its merits in the first place.

Hey, I'm a firm believer in the idea that the best solution for a personal website is the one that's the most fun for the owner to maintain! The reminder that it's not all about technical merit makes yours one of the more satisfying answers - thanks again for the considered responses:)