Starting the RitesDev Website

I’m finally building the RitesDev website!

I’ve had the idea for RitesDev for a while, and now I’m putting together the actual website. I want this to be more than just a portfolio. I want a place for information about RitesDev, a way for people to contact me, and a blog where I can document what I’m working on.

Using Astro

I’m building the website with Astro, which I already know how to use.

I like Astro because it gives me a structured and programmatic way to organize a website while still being pretty fluid. It’s kind of like the difference between Java and Bedrock Minecraft. Java gives you more to work with when you start modifying things, and I like having that flexibility.

I’m also building everything myself instead of using a website builder. Since this is my own business, I want control over how the website works.

Building the first version

I’m starting with the navigation bar.

It might seem a little strange to start there, but having the navigation figured out gives me a basic structure to build everything else around. After that, I’m working on the homepage and contact page, followed by the about page.

The first working version with an actual domain route is pretty simple:

I’m also working on the basic structure for the blog.

I deleted it

I watch a video about the first version of Facebook, and suddenly realize that my website looks a little too much like an old Facebook site.

So I remove it.

I keep the navigation because I actually like how it works, but I rework the rest of the site.

It probably seems a little ridiculous to remove a working website because it reminds me of old Facebook, but if I’m building this for myself, I want to actually like how it looks.

Things are getting complicated

The more I build, the more complicated the project gets.

A lot of that complexity comes from deployment, but I’m also keeping track of many different pieces. I’m still figuring out what my overall system for managing everything should look like.

I think once I get a good global system figured out, this will be much easier to manage.

For now, I’m still building.

There’s a lot more to do before RitesDev is ready.