The Quiet Joy of a Plain Text Website

In a world filled with complex content management systems, plugins, and databases, there's a certain peace that comes from taking a step back. When I decided to create this space, I intentionally chose a simpler path: a static site generated from plain text files. This post is a brief reflection on that choice.

Simplicity and Focus The most immediate benefit is the lack of distractions. Writing in a plain text file, especially within a focused environment like Emacs, removes the temptation to endlessly tweak visual settings. The focus returns to what matters most: the words and the ideas they represent.

The core principles are straightforward:

Write content in Org Mode.

Run a simple script to convert it to HTML.

The result is fast, secure, and easy to maintain.

Future-Proof and Portable Plain text is the ultimate future-proof format. These files will be readable in 5, 10, or 50 years, long after current platforms have faded away. There is no database to migrate, no platform to update. My content is just a folder of text files, easily backed up, version-controlled with Git, and portable to any system.

Surprisingly Powerful Tooling Choosing plain text doesn't mean sacrificing capability. Org Mode is incredibly powerful, allowing for easy organization, source code integration, and project management, all while remaining fundamentally simple.

For example, embedding the Lisp code that builds this very site is trivial. It's a nice, self-referential way to keep track of the project's configuration.

Listing 1: The configuration that powers this site.

(setq org-publish-project-alist
(list
(list "org-site:main"
:recursive t
:base-directory "./content"
:publishing-function 'org-html-publish-to-html
:publishing-directory "./public")))

It even handles images gracefully, allowing me to link to visuals that support the text.

Final Thoughts This approach isn't for everyone or for every project. But for a personal site, where the goal is to share thoughts clearly and maintain a low-friction workflow, it feels just right. It's a quiet, humble corner of the web, built on a foundation that's as simple and enduring as text itself.

For anyone interested in the tool that makes this possible, I highly recommend checking out the official Org Mode website.* this is post 1 this is