Some backend and implementation details about this site. Current as of .
- WordPress is used for the backend CMS, and has been since Nov. 16, 2006. CMS systems used prior to that point were (in reverse order): TypePad, MovableType, and NewsPro (which no longer has a web presence; its successor Coranto does, but doesn’t appear to still be in active development).
- Theme: GeneratePress.
- Plugins:
- Akismet: Comment spam protection.
- Classic Editor: Keeping it simple so I don’t have to use the new Gutenberg WYSIWYG editor.
- Classic Widgets: Again, avoiding Gutenberg.
- Disable Emojis (GDPR Friendly): Removes WordPress’s replace-emoji-with-images JavaScript bloat in favor of actual emoji.
- Docket Cache: WordPress-recommended persistent object cashing for improved performance.
- DX Out of Date: Displays an “out of date” alert on posts over a certain age (in my case, two years).
- Easy Markdown: Enabling Markdown support without JetPack.
- JournalPress: Enables automatic mirroring of my posts to a DreamWidth site.
- Last Modified Timestamp: Adds a shortcode to display when a page or post was last updated.
- Open Graph and Twitter Card Tags: Adds OpenGraph support so links to my site look pretty when shared on social media.
- Posted Today: Adds a shortcode to generate lists of posts published on a date in earlier years.
- Relevanssi: A more full-featured site search engine.
- Term Management Tools: Improves tag and category management options.
- VS Meta Description: Customizes the meta description tag for the site and individual pages.
- WP to Buffer Pro: Automatically sends published posts to the Buffer social media scheduling service which shares them to Mastodon and Bluesky.
- WP-Optimize: Improving performance with caching, image compression, and more.
- WPCode lite: Allows me to tweak the HTML meta tags without having to muck with the WordPress theme template files.
- Posts are written/edited and sent to WordPress using the following tools:
The Archives
My own personal WayBack Machine. I’ve been active online since 1991, when I first got access to email and command-line FTP and Usenet access through the VAX systems at the University of Alaska Anchorage during my first, abortive attempt at higher education, and have had my own website online since 1995, in the very early days of the web. Here and there as I redesigned or moved from one ISP to another I saved archives of my site at the time, and have kept those archives online as a testament to those early days.
Keep in mind, these sites were designed in earlier years for earlier browsers, so some aspects may be somewhat broken on modern browsers.
- February 27, 1996: “Netscape 2.0 Enhanced.”
- February 14, 1997: Redesigned. Featured one of the first incarnations of a Gigs Music Theatre site, though it’s just a single page here.
- April 21, 1997: A few months later. A little less content, as I started to focus on expanding the Gig’s page. Design is the same.
- March 30, 1998: Same design, but the Gig’s page has evolved into a full-fledged site by this point.
- July 5, 2002: Four years later, and the last time I did a full site archive.