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MVP out in the world

Coffee == code. There was a lot of learning along the way so I could set the project up for good SEO (I have a background in that) as well as robust code. At this point, there are still several issues to iron out with mobile, UX overall, and some basic abilities I've yet to add. However, it feels great to have it live! No learnings yet. What I'll mention are the main 'setup decisions' that I made so far that I think give me a good foundation:

  1. Setting up analytics (GA and GTM) from the get-go.
  2. Deciding to use an API (Unsplash) for images instead of hooking up buckets and letting users upload their own -- I just don't want to have to police images in the future.
  3. Getting mail setup and using mailtrap.io for testing way ahead of time
  4. Getting HTTPS ironed out for better security (& SEO via Google)
  5. Setting up slugging ahead of time, and using IDs as well, so I didn't have to try to write complex slugging rules when titles are the same

Things I Wish I Had Done Differently:

  1. Not used Amazon Route 53 for the DNS and domain registration. It's made the HTTPS and some redirect issues take more effort than it would have otherwise.
  2. Considered using a SASS template and not just writing everything from scratch. That said, since I'm a programmer, I also sometimes take on side projects with an eye to gaining a skill or two, and that's how this one started. Such is life.
  3. Taken care of more of the mobile UX along the way (not the end of the world)

Overall, I'm pretty happy with where I am, though I have an eye toward a number of additions and improvements.

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    And now I'm seeing the fun issues that didn't rear their head in local :)

    Alas, Nextjs and graphql -- you're making me work too hard.

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