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Comment by methodin | Hacker News Reader

I think we all look back fondly to the early days of HTML sites where everything was pure, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking it was the best setup for things like blogs. If you want to be a purist, do so by leveraging newer advancements like web components. Suggesting people copy and paste HTML/CSS for every post is a really bad suggestion for anything that isn't a weekend project that you will never touch again.

And also, isn't a HTML IDE the equivalent of a static site generator except lacking any of the actual features that make generators appealing?

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What I take away from this is the idea of each post having its own identity and feel (each post with its own unique stylesheet). Contrast to a blogging platform like Wordpress or a SSG like Jekyll where every post is generally formatted and styled exactly the same way. The author's blog posts are now these unique time capsules.

Obviously a blog at scale isn't going to do this, but I do think there's value in what the author is trying- where each post is styled and formatted independently with care instead of unceremoniously dumped in with a one-size-fits-all stylesheet.

To what end? The inevitable outcome is that you have a hodge-podge of HTML and styles and if you want to replicate one you have to backtrack through a plethora of random posts to find the one that implemented it. I see zero value in a time capsule because it's not one. If he crafted every page from scratch - maybe, but to his own credit he's copy and pasting. That's nothing to aspire to.

The thing is, you don't just copy-paste stuff. You make it better every time you spend some effort. Consistency is way too overrated. Progress is what you should aspire.

I've redone this page several times because the plots for it evolved on other pages, and I re "copy-pasted" the code back then: https://wordsandbuttons.online/interactive_guide_to_homogene...

How will web components help with not copy pasting stuff around?

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