Why bother having a personal website in 2025? I mean, it is a bit of a dated concept. I’ve had a website online since 1999 (see the timeline below). Back then I was just a young woman, trying to carve out her own space in the universe (now I’m a middle-aged woman trying to do the same).

Long exposure captures dramatic star trails above a tower in the night sky.

There was a time where I was such an evangelist for social media. I had such a hard time finding like-minded people in real life; social media opened up a new level of potential. It was more dynamic and drew a larger audience than a stand-alone website.

However a personal website stand more and more like a tried and trusted digital tool the older I get. Social media has taught me some hard lessons. Some of which are:

  • Someone else owns the platform; and they can change the rules on what and how you consume anytime that they want to
  • The barrier to entry is so low, there is no vetting and there is a ton of misinformation and bad behavior out there
  • I’m not built for the 10-30 second attention span that a lot of the content caters too
  • Social media crafts a pretty inaccurate view of reality

I am not saying that creating, maintaining and paying for a personal website is the ideal. To be honest, I do this as much as for me as I do for anyone out there who may stumble on my site.

So yes, I have a personal website in 2025 and will continue it going into 2026, IY’H.

Jan – 2000

First personal website

I made it using MS Frontpage and I am pretty sure I had it up on Geocities. I don’t remember the URL but I remember what it looked like! It was definitely online in January 2000 because I used it to host a student survey for an English course I took in the Spring of 2000.

Jun – 2004

Rude Awakening

Not sure when I left Geocities to go to Tripod. But I had the URL to this site in my email signatures as early as 2004. What is absolutely crazy is that this URL still works! (How is that even possible?)

Screenshot 2025 11 30 at 11.18.12 PM

Because it is still a working site, it is a hoot to click through. I was so young and I bet I had no idea that I would end up where I am today!

Jul – 2006

Shona’s Porch

This was the very first time I used a content management system (XOOPS) to make a website.

The domain was definitely up until 2009. And then it was hacked. There is kinda a dark period between 2009 and 2012 when rishona.net was up. I vaguely remember that I had a site running off of Joomla before making the (definite) jump to WordPress in 2012.