LeKrocK has a new website, and it isn’t only about the looks.
For me, this new website is a turning point in my artist’s “career”, because I didn’t code it myself. It may not seem like a big deal but as a former programmer, when it comes to anything IT related, I like to do things by myself. So coding the website was a necessity for me. But the problem is that I am not doing it as a job anymore because I hated it, so I’m not that up-to-date with the latest tools and methods as I used to be, especially concerning security and design. I still have no trouble getting around writing Python scripts and coding some C++ but only to my own standards. This becomes a problem when building a website, because everything changes so quickly that you constantly have to adapt to those changes. Not that I have anything against learning and bettering ourselves and our techniques, but it’s just that this particular subject is not my cup of tea. I like coding desktop applications rather than coding for every existing web browser.
So what made me switch from a self-made PHP website to a WordPress one? Security is a big factor in this decision. For the same reason I decided to pay for a hosting service instead of hosting the website on my own home server. I don’t have enough knowledge on the matter to provide a safe environment for the users. I know the basics about password hashing, SQL-injection, GET/POST methods, HTTPS, firewalls, etc. But what about everything else that I don’t know about that are standard in the industry? Some people make a living out of learning and applying those concepts while I would have to spend a great amount of my free time learning about them only to clumsily apply them on my own website and server. Such time that I wouldn’t have to perfect my craft. So I decided to trust that these people will do a better job than I would, which I’m sure they do. I am well aware that WordPress is widely used on the internet, which makes it an easy target for malicious people, although I consider that it still is light-years ahead of what I could possibly make by myself alone.
An other factor in my decision, as I mentioned above, is that I can spend less time managing and more time creating. Coding and testing a website (or any kind of computer program) is a long task. Diving back into your code six months later to make an update can also be quite long and fastidious. Adding a new feature can also be long, depending on the complexity of the said feature, especially if it involves understanding the old code and changing it in addition to actually creating the new feature. And testing it all once done will also take some time. So now, all this coding and testing time can be invested in drawing more, writing more and making more music.
A factor that will make the most difference for the actual users, is that the website will provide the basic features of any modern website: the ability add comments, filtering options, a good looking design, efficient navigation, etc. Such things that I decided on not providing for the old website just to save time.
The last reason is that, to save time, I also didn’t add any admin features, which means that every time I wanted to upload something to the website, I had to interact directly with the server’s filesystem and the website’s database, which is not the most efficient workflow.
So here it is, the new website, that will hopefully make your experience and mine a lot better than it was.