HTTPS fixed and comments enabled

Did you see the new comment box at the bottom of the page? Or tried to visit Otzarri.net through HTTPS? Those are the new features Otzarri.net implements this weekend to increase privacy and two-way communication.

SSL certificates are generated by Let’s Encrypt with no cost, so if you have a web hosting with SSL support, this is a great option for you. If you don’t, in Gitlab Pages you can host for free a static site generated with Hugo, as I did. During this implementation I found two very useful blog posts [1, 2] explaining how to create and deploy SSL certificates in GitLab Pages with an auto-renewal system using GitLab CI. My implementation has some pending fixes and improvements so I’ll wait until completing them before publishing related documentation.

I was thinking a lot about installing a discussion tool or not because I don’t like to host private data in third-party no-cost services, but anyway, these are just public comments. I tried with Disqus, the most popular, but Pingdom Website Speed Test showed that response time raised from 290ms to more than two seconds. I searched around and found Talkyard, a Free Software (GPLv3) based comments system for static pages with a hosted service which has no cost for websites receiving less than 100 new comments per month, more than enough for me. It’s lightweight and page load speed was increased only to 360ms (+70 ms). And they also say that they don’t track anyone! Great news!

With these last changes applied, Otzarri.net is production-ready now. Anyway, more improvements are coming. Until then, have fair winds buccaneer.