Can anyone recommend a website builder for dummies? Something my wife could use or anyone not in IT? Something that you can easily export and publish as a static site anywhere? 🤔 I guess it has to be easy to use, WYSIWIG in nature and having some 3rd-party integrations might be nice like Squire for taking payments, etc.
@prologic@twtxt.net Probably not the most helpful reply, but I posted my thoughts in a note. Websites are really complicated and there’s a lot that goes into making one. When you put too many layers of abstraction on it, you have to cut corners somewhere.
@mckinley@twtxt.net Thanks I’ll have a read! I’m sort of disappointed this space is so fucking hard and complicated 🤯 The worst part for me is watching those around me run a small business and use Squarespace or Wix to drive their websites! 😱 Both Squarespace and Wix are vendor locked-in SaaS platforms where you really have no control over your content nor do you really own it 🤦♂️
@mckinley@twtxt.net Your notes match my own experiences and frustrations 👌
@prologic@twtxt.net It’s true that the major players in the WYSIWYG-website-for-dummies industry not only function poorly but are also proprietary SaaS garbage. However, I don’t know if it’s really possible to make them function any better. HTML and CSS just aren’t made for that.
@mckinley@twtxt.net Well, one of the most basic requirements (this is for a local cafe for some good friends of ours that own/run this cafe) is placing an order for a coffee and paying. I found through this reddit article that you can use this service called Snipcart which is only HTML+JS that you can embed/use on any website, including (by the looks) a static site (no backend required!) This is pretty promising already because all the cafe really needs now is a basic (albeit swank looking) landing page with an “roder” form.
@prologic@twtxt.net That looks pretty nice. It seems like the pricing model is reasonable as well. They don’t try to nickel-and-dime you with features most people would probably need like others I’ve seen. Good luck with it.
I think Mobirise is still arguably one of the best offline-first, static website builders I’ve ever tried, I haven’t paid for all the fancy extensions/themes it has, but it is pretty good IMO 👌
@prologic@twtxt.net I maintain my opinion that’s it’s just not worth avoiding learning HTML, CSS.
Just like @mckinley@twtxt.net, I never found anything that I was remotely happy with. If the use case at hand diverges just the tiniest bit from what this thing was designed for, you’re just screwed. I always ended up throwing the CMS away and writing my own HTML and CSS, so I’m with @adi@twtxt.net. In the long run it’s so much simpler. 10-20 years ago I taught a casual aquaintance the basics of HTML in a bunch of lessons for her new job. She was not in IT at all, so it can work with patience and a will to learn.
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Sadly most people either don’t have the time or the willingness to learn 😢
Unfortunately, that’s true, @prologic@twtxt.net.