Dylan Clements

After hosting my legacy Laravel based personal website for several years, I decided it was time for a complete refresh. This decision wasn’t made lightly, but my primary motivation was reducing the ongoing maintenance required to keep a full-fledged Laravel web app running, updated, and secure.

My goal for the updated website was to retain the core functionality of the legacy site while minimizing dependencies, reducing security risks, and simplifying overall complexity. I wanted a space where I could quickly and efficiently share my side projects. With this in mind, I approached the project with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) mentality, ensuring that I could expand and improve it over time as needed.

This project was my very first attempt at creating my own website and blog to showcase my side projects. I built this website from scratch as a way to demonstrate my growing technical abilities while I was still in college. The development began in late 2016, with the bulk of the feature buildout occurring in 2017.

Creating this project was an exciting experience, as it allowed me to experiment with various new technologies. In hindsight, I may have gotten a bit carried away with the number of features I included compared to the ones that were actually used. Nonetheless, I am proud of what I accomplished with minimal professional experience, driven solely by a passion for learning and a few online tutorials.