nannnsss🌱🏴Mar 5

The #11ty rebrand is taking more space in my mind than I expected. Truth is, I'm super stoked for Zach and 11ty getting the recognition it deserves. I know this project has come with challenges and pouring his heart into it. I'm grateful for that. I 💖 11ty and the people I've met in the community!

But, I'm also disappointed. Rebuilding the Font Awesome blog to build credibility and promoting "11ty", while witholding transparency around the upcoming transition feels icky. I lost trust. And that bums me out. I also can't stomach the new name. 🥴

I feel hesitant to rely on something that was transitioned this way. And I was shocked to hear that people who have built MAJOR pillars in the 11ty community also had no idea about the change. It feels disrespectful to the community. I'm still going to let all this simmer for a lil.

Show threadnannnsss🌱🏴Mar 5

I will add... my understanding is that new 11ty (er... Build Awesome) will remain free with the features we all know and love and that "premium" features will require the new pro subscription. I appreciate that.

And despite my reservations, I truly wish Zach and new 11ty all the best.

Show threadd3v1an7Mar 5
@nannnsss this is fair! imo, secrecy around a launch is rarely due to malice or poor planning, but a healthy (or unhealthy?) dose of paranoia. if you frame the secrecy as a response to a threat model: lots of competing products/platforms in market with more money and engineers to throw around. suddenly the secrecy makes a bit more sense. again, I have nfi about the actual reasons here, just working through it myself XD
Show threadnannnsss🌱🏴
@d3v1an7 Absolutely. The points you offer make total sense. And I'll admit, I'm not in that world, so it's difficult to imagine how things could have been handled differently - if at all. Maybe I'm being naive, but I did want to name it. Thanks for sharing.
Mar 5 at 4:34amWeb
Show threadd3v1an7Mar 5
@nannnsss I don’t think that’s naive at all, and your feelings are valid! I had a pang too when I saw Bob initially react to the news.
Show threadTomMar 5

@nannnsss @d3v1an7 I've also had some mixed feelings about it. I've been building with and recommending 11ty for years, no idea if and how that's going to change.

But I keep telling myself: everything I've ever built with it stays perfectly functional without new features, and releases etc. - I can simply pin the version to the status quo, and never think about it again - we use 11ty to render static sites, after all, so none of the toolchain stuff, like outdated versions of xyz, really matters to the resulting HTML.

Show threadnannnsss🌱🏴Mar 5

@ttntm I keep coming back to that conclusion with my rational mind, too.

I think I’m also holding two truths: glad Zach found a way to support himself and his family meaningfully and feeling like I want to distance myself from the “Awesome” universe - which has never really resonated with me.

I think, in time, it won’t be that big of a deal. It has been fun promoting 11ty, but I can see a future where I simply use it as a tool.

Show threadPhilipMar 5

@nannnsss @ttntm Yep, this resonates from both of you. I have a bit of concern with stagnating at a version and dependencies dropping off, but that’s sort of always a risk, even with stuff that is active. At the end of the day I have rendered HTML I can easily work with.

I think porting to some other system that isn’t 11ty might be a bit of a challenge, but that would mainly be the templates which is far fewer files than the content which is just in markdown, not some weird proprietary format (except maybe for the front matter)

Letting it simmer is a good way to put it.

Show threadTomMar 5

@mez @nannnsss simmering it is.

Astro's always an option (for me), but they've recently been acquired by Cloudflare, so it's also a bit weird re: their future.

Show threadnannnsss🌱🏴Mar 5

@ttntm @mez I've always liked Astro... but I think I have an adversion to large companies being in control of things I use, maybe? Does that make me an unsavory open source project supporter/denier? haha ack.

Is it too much to ask for the good things to stay good foreverrrrr?! 🙃😅

Show threadTomMar 5
@nannnsss @mez sadly it seems like it's too much to ask for these days :/
Show threadChristian AlderMar 5
@ttntm @mez @nannnsss I’ve heard folks talking about Lume a fair bit, I’ve not tested it myself but it’s said to be inspired by 11ty and features a whole bunch of tempting languages out the box (vento and njk 🥳)
Show threadTomMar 5

@hejchristian @mez @nannnsss I've also heard of it. No idea how the Deno ecosystem compares to what's already available in Node, but I've just seen there's some kind of compatibility: https://docs.deno.com/runtime/fundamentals/node/

Would be interesting to give it a try, and to compare results, maybe I'll port a template site at some point to give it a try :)

NB: no idea if/how the big CI/CD platforms support Deno in their build pipelines these days, which might make things a little complicated.

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