Building Drafted
How this site was made, one decision at a time: what I chose, why I chose it, and what broke along the way.
- 01
Where Drafted began
The brief I started with: a calm place to read, one strong idea about images, and a promise to write down every decision.
- 02
Why Drafted has no images
I wanted type and layout to do the work a picture usually does. That one rule shaped the whole site.
- 03
A blog that is just files
Why Drafted is built once and served as plain pages, and why the build only runs when I ask it to.
- 04
Comments that are private conversations
I started by wanting an AI to moderate comments. I ended up with comments nobody else can see, and nothing left to moderate.
- 05
Save now, sync later
A blog needs a database for almost nothing. Here is the one small document per reader, and how it avoids losing anything.
- 06
No Google sign-in, no admin password
Accounts on Drafted use an email and a password, nothing else. And the author is whoever owns one verified mailbox.
- 07
Locking it down before writing a word
Before the first real post, I sealed the site: a strict browser policy, default-deny data, and three things that broke on the live site.
- 08
RSS is enough
No email list, no likes. Just feeds, done properly: full text for every post, series and topic, in three formats.
- 09
Search that lives in your browser
Press / anywhere and search every post and series. There is no search server and no search history.
- 10
Bookmarks that follow you
Save a post, close the tab, come back on another device. How bookmarks and reading progress work, signed in or not.
- 11
A series remembers where you stopped
Series pages show how many parts you have read and where to go next, so a multi-part series is easy to come back to.
- 12
Light, dark, and readable by everyone
Drafted follows your system theme, remembers your choice, and is checked for contrast and keyboard use before every deploy.