Today is August 23, 2022. This rant is about the technical side of the website development environment. Several years ago I paid a premium for website development "software in a box". Now I'm taking a different direction.
It seems like a long time ago but way back when one could buy some software and it was yours. You could do whatever with it with very few restrictions. In some ways I grew up in a society that was honest and had respect for property rights. The purchaser of software had respect for the rights of the software author and did not abuse the author. Likewise, the software authors were more open than today. Things seem much different now.
Perhaps I will expand on the history of software intellectual property later but if you don't know this history you can research it for yourself. The situation at this time is when you pay for software the first rule is that you are buying a license, a highly restricted license, to use the "purchased" software. Ownership remains with the seller and any form of copying or replication is restricted. Also, production of derivative works is restricted.
That leads me to my rant on the current sad state of affairs. I can no longer use the software I purchased. I could not modify the website I created using it so I abandoned the website. These were my choices. I could pay the annual "fee" to continue to use the software or I could go my own way. If you were making this decision and asked my advice I would say "pay the fee" but you probably don't have the skills and time to do what I am doing. I am going to do things my own way merely because I can and I have the time to do so. Of course I could have paid the fee. I just chose not to.
That is, I say, a sad state of affairs. I am now coding the cythink.com website using HTML, CSS and Javascript. The get-numbers websites use mySQL and PHP. Goodbye frameworks and templates! Goodbye purchased software! I am paying for my domain names and hosting, email and a few other goodies but that is it.
In reality there is a world of open software that is inexpensive and able to do most things. I am taking a middle of the road approach. The open software approach is very technical and very demanding. I choose to make things easier than that for me. The "retail" approach is easy to use and therefore less demanding but does require a lot of learning from time to time. It is "technical" in its own way. I may say my way is middle of the road but it is only middle of the road for me.
I may come back and add to this thought in the future. As of now I am done. Last change date? 8-24-2022.
Consider this a blog post. It was prepared as a personal diary entry but is posted publicly in case it is of some value to someone else.