What is GeekSpy?
GeekSpy was originally a side project to create a phpBB forum with a retro ForumPlanet skin. To get a genuine look I put effort into retrieving ForumPlanet's original user icon collection, and worked to modernise them for posterity. They have character, and need a home.
With the forums now archived and my other hobby websites long gone, GeekSpy has now become my little corner of the web. It is my online garden, my binary bonsai if you will. While celebrating a place in time and cyberspace, it also serves as a platform for me to tinker with code and stay current with modern web technology - I don't get to do that in my day job anymore. Some of the basics on GeekSpy include:
- Semantic HTML 5 and modern CSS features such as popovers, view transitions, and dark mode.
- Modern AVIF images, providing efficient and high-quality transparent and animated formats.
- Current web security standards such as Content Security Policy headers and HTTPS-only.
- Performance optimisations such as edge caching, early hints, and image transforms.
None of the above is particularly special, but it does highlight how different things are in web technology compared to the old table-based layouts and busy designs from the turn of the millenium. You know, that look and feel which GeekSpy is seeking to recreate.
.net
Here are some key tools I have used to construct GeekSpy.net:
- Waifu2x upscaling, used to modernise the decades-old ForumPlanet user icons and 88x31 buttons, giving a cleaner look on higher-res displays.
- Mozilla's HTTP Observatory and Google's PageSpeed Insights to test against best practices in web security and performance.
- And of course, W3C's HTML and CSS validators to ensure my code is well-formed.
The site is hosted on Cloudflare, and makes use of many features on that platform including:
-
Pages & Functions
All hosting is on Cloudflare Pages via a connected GitHub repo. This leaves me with no server to maintain, and no recurring costs beyond the domain name. -
D1 Database & Workers
A daily Cloudflare Worker ingests various RSS feeds into a D1 database. A Pages function then inserts the news headlines when serving the front page. -
Image Transform
A simple transform feature allows me to serve remote images with automatic resizing and compression to greatly decrease file sizes using modern formats.
- Cyrris
The above features (and some CSS hacks) have allowed for a fast and JavaScript-free user experience, sitting on top of all the security and performance features that Cloudflare offers by default. While I'm wary of vendor lock-in, the current tech stack offered for free is simply too good a deal for the time being.