Saturdays Rabbit holes

Leaning in the Deep End: Adventures in Building My Site

Well, what a weekend it’s been! From tackling reCAPTCHA to navigating email exposure risks, it seems that every step I take to get my site live brings me to a new layer of learning.

I promised myself (and maybe a few others) that my site would be live last Monday, but here I am, discovering that each "final step" opens yet another rabbit hole!

Learning on the job has been a whirlwind—nothing like diving into the deep end!

New Skills and Lessons of the Day

This afternoon was packed with new discoveries and essential security checks:

• Cloning Repositories from Gitpod: I spent some time figuring out how to efficiently clone repositories into Gitpod. It’s amazing how small workflow tweaks save time and reduce potential setup errors.

• reCAPTCHA and Honeypots: Bots can be persistent, so I concentrated on reCAPTCHA setup and learned about honeypots—a sneaky but effective trap for bots that adds an invisible field to catch out automated form fillers. It’s one more layer of protection to keep spammy signups at bay.

• Email Spoofing Protection: Who knew that a shiny new website would come with risks of email exposure? I discovered how important it is to protect emails to prevent spoofing. The lesson here is to keep personal and business emails as protected as possible—luckily, I’m catching this early!

• The Concept of “Now” Pages: I stumbled across nownownow.com and was inspired by the idea of a "Now" page. It’s a simple way to keep readers updated on my current focus and goals. A future addition to my site, perhaps?

Lessons to Share

Yes, all of this is probably "stuff I should know," but I’m grateful to be discovering these details now. Building in these layers of protection and functionality in the early stages means a more secure, reliable site for both me and my future users.

So, my site might be a few days late, but each “delay” is packed with valuable lessons. If you’re in the same boat—juggling security, setup, and endless tweaks—know you’re not alone! Here's to learning, even if it means finding a new rabbit hole at every turn.