A 3-Part Series on Retiring Legacy Websites, Modernizing My Stack, and Launching a New Ecosystem
For years, I’ve worked professionally to build, maintain, and modernize web platforms.
But like a lot of developers, my own sites had quietly fallen behind.
Some dated back to the late 1990s. Others were built on aging PHP code, outdated JavaScript, and older hosting environments. By late 2025, it became clear: several of these sites—and the server supporting them—had reached end-of-life.
This series documents that full journey.
From shutting everything down…
To rebuilding with modern tools…
To launching a new, focused ecosystem of live sites.
What You’ll Learn in This Series
- How to recognize when legacy websites need to be retired
- The risks of outdated PHP, JavaScript, and infrastructure
- How to modernize your development stack
- What it takes to rebuild across multiple environments
- Lessons learned launching a modern personal web ecosystem
Part 1 – Letting Go of My Legacy Sites and Server
This is where it started. A realization that several long-running sites had become outdated, difficult to maintain, and increasingly risky to keep online. This post walks through the decision to finally shut everything down—and why that decision wasn’t as easy as it sounds.
Key Topics:
- Legacy web development
- Outdated PHP
- Technical debt
- Server retirement
- Security risks
- Sunsetting old systems
Part 2 – Rebuilding My Web Stack with Modern Tools
Once everything was offline, it was time to rebuild. This article covers getting up to speed with modern PHP (8.x), JavaScript, MySQL, Linux server management, and cloud hosting. It also dives into working across multiple environments and how tools like ChatGPT and Copilot played a role.
Key Topics:
- PHP 8
- Modern JavaScript
- MySQL
- Linux administration
- Cloud hosting
- Dev workflows
- AI-assisted development
Part 3 – The New Ecosystem – What’s Live today
After the tear-down and rebuild, this is the result. Part 3 introduces all of the new live sites—from my blog and consulting page to creative projects and larger platforms like SimLeaguesPro.
- Web site launch
- Personal blog
- Consulting
- Web comics
- Music
- Modern web presence
Coming May 4th!
What you’ll get from this series
This isn’t just about code. A lot of developers have old projects sitting around somewhere—old domains, experiments, side projects that still technically run.
And sometimes those projects still mean something.
They represent where you were at the time. What you were learning. What you were building toward.
Letting go of them isn’t always easy.
But sometimes clearing out the past is the only way to build something better.
That’s what this series is really about. Enjoy!