TIL (Today I learned) that having static pages for your website is now called "Server Side Page Generation" and I feel a little sick inside.

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

TIL (Today I learned) that having static pages for your website is now called "Server Side Page Generation" and I feel a little sick inside. I would prefer to call it Classic Web, if it needs a new name at all. #NeedBeer

[oli@olifant.social]

@jwildeboer Server side page generation is the dynamic creation of .html pages. The application server is just about allowing you to edit the content and then 'publish' it to static html.

That's my understanding of it.

Posty basically uses server-side page generation to take your Mastodon archive and produce a zipfile full of HTML pages.

[kineticdiplomacy@infosec.exchange]

@jwildeboer i thought that was web 1.0 . Stupid huumans.

[pwloftus@pwl.farted.net]

@jwildeboer SFTP...

Server-Side File Transfer Protocol

(I'm sorry)

[bfordham@infosec.exchange]

@jwildeboer to me server side would be PHP or something, right? Heck even old school server side includes, which I’ve thought about for my personal sites. But currently mine are static, not being generated in the fly

Who is calling it this?

I also feel this is another indication that I’m in my “get off my lawn” phase and honestly I’m embracing it.

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

@kineticdiplomacy To me it's still The Web. URIs that lead to identical, reproducible content, ideally forever. Everything else is just sparkling HTML

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

My websites are TWAIWI. The Web As It Was Intended. Cheers.

[agowa338@chaos.social]

@jwildeboer

Actually you're behind the trend with that. "Server Side Page Generation" was what the kids called it in 2024 and 2025.

Now in 2026 they call it "post-framework"

[bkastl@mastodon.social]

@jwildeboer once… as I was writing every single html tag with my bare hands on my computer and then carried it byte by byte onto bare metal

You could basically hear this process *modem dialin noises*

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

@agowa338 Me, a week ago: https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/116357637405879003

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

@bkastl DancingBanana.gif

[sol_hsa@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@jwildeboer but it's.. not..

[sol_hsa@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@jwildeboer well I guess it technically is, in the same way that being in a car rolling downhill with engine off is driving a car.

[johnlogic@sfba.social]

@jwildeboer

Does "Server Side Page Generation" imply dynamic generation via server-side includes (SSI) or are the kids today using that term to describe serving static pages too?

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

@johnlogic It's static pages. Everything else seems to be a Web Application. Them kids.

[krono@toot.berlin]

@jwildeboer This must be how Mainframe and POWER people must have felt when PC people "invented" hypervisors.

[johnofrobotz@mastodon.girolab.foo]

@jwildeboer I think it's the post-CMS trend that wants the convenience of a CMS without the overhead and cost of managing it. Slight difference with page generation vs classic though: I'd consider classic web was sitting down at a text editor and start by punching in <html...

What's old is new again. We "reboot" everything.