How Drafted started
I started writing on Medium and was not consistent. The limits I kept running into were the platform's, so I built a place of my own.
True story
10 posts
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.
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.
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.
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.
RSS is enough
No email list, no likes. Just feeds, done properly: full text for every post, series and topic, in three formats.
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.
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.
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.
Symptoms That You Should Pursue Coding
A substitute teacher, a first webpage on localhost and a bug I celebrated with a dance: how curiosity quietly pointed me at code.