SeanFenlon.com has been redesigned, rebuilt and relaunched. By my count this is the fourth version of the site since 1999, and the first one that was designed for the phone in your hand.
Here is how it got here.
1999: NetObjects Fusion
I registered seanfenlon.com on May 26, 1999. That date comes from the registry’s RDAP record, not from my memory.
The first site was built on my own computer with NetObjects Fusion, desktop software you installed locally. It generated the pages and you uploaded them. The earliest copy in the Internet Archive is from November 30, 1999, and its source code still says so: <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="NetObjects Fusion 4.0 for Windows">.
The title was “Welcome to the home of Sean P. Fenlon - Music, Business, Personal, & Internet.” It had a gold background, image rollover buttons, and a menu of Personal Pages, Music Pages, The Limo Biz, ListenSmart, Web Portfolio and Contact Sean. It was 1999.
The early 2000s: a rebuild I half remember
The archive’s captures from September 2000, September 2001 and August 2004 all show the same holding page: “Sean’s site is undergoing modifications and updates. Please check back soon. In the meantime, please visit ListenSmart.com.”
By January 2005 a rebuilt site was up. It was still NetObjects (the generator tag says “NetObjects Fusion 7 for Windows”), with a white layout and the structure this site still uses today: Sean the Person, Sean the Musician, Sean in Business and Recommendations.
I remember a rebuild and relaunch on 1and1.com around then, but I can’t remember the details, and the archive can’t settle it. The server headers it saved point to Affinity Internet as the host in 1999 and 2001, and most likely still in 2005. There’s no trace of 1and1 in any capture. So 1and1 is my memory, not the record.
2013: WordPress, and a blog
Around 2013 I had the whole thing rebuilt on WordPress, this time with a blog. The archive puts the switch in late October 2013: the old NetObjects home page starts redirecting on October 29, 2013. The first WordPress copy (December 29, 2013) ran a stock theme called Canvas. By 2014 it had its own custom design.
That design started with a contest on 99designs.com. I said so here in 2014, in Announcing the Re-launch of PatMethenyMusic.com: “I used the same process … that I did to re-build SeanFenlon.com… 1. Create a design contest on 99designs.com.” The header was one collage of my favorite life photos.
Before DoublePositive changed its website, I copied all my posts from the DoublePositive blog over to this one so they would stay online. They’re still here, starting with the very first one, Welcome (March 1, 2007): “Welcome all to the new DoublePositive Corporate Blog.” A couple of others: Three Pillars of Lead Generation and my LeadsCon 2008 coverage.
In the fall of 2019 that one collage became seven. Designers from 99designs.com created seven collage header banners from my favorite life photos, and they rotated in sequence across the top of the site. The archive pins the timing: the rotating header isn’t in the October 2, 2019 capture and is in the December 2, 2019 one. That October I also wrote about the photos in SeanFenlon.com Highlights Photo Gallery.
The mobile problem
That WordPress site was one of the last sites ever built without mobile in mind. To make it viewable on a phone I used a WordPress mobile plugin, WPtouch (it shows up in the archived pages). It worked, technically. Very slow loading, very awkward navigation. By 2020 the site was hosted on Bluehost, and it stayed there.
That was the site until now.
2026: mobile first
The new site started with GPT-6 Astra, which invented the mobile-first experience and the architecture behind the scrolling photo background.
Grok Bot took that architecture and completed the rebuild. I now use Grok Bot for maintenance and updates going forward, including posting this post.
All the photos from those header collages became an animated background. Beyond the photos from the original collage header banners, I added several more pictures from my life events from 2013 through 2026. Every picture in the scroll is of epic importance to me. The images scroll slowly upward, and each one rotates subtly clockwise, then counterclockwise. That background is now behind every page on the site except the blog. The content sits in the foreground, where it’s easy to read, above the moving photos.
If you want to see every photo, tap The Pics. It opens a gallery of all 43 scenes, holds them still, and puts each one’s description beneath it. “Back to the story” takes you back to where you were.
What else is new
- New home. The site moved off WordPress to Cloudflare Pages, where it’s served as fast static pages. The old WordPress site is kept as a backup.
- Search. Use the magnifying glass in the menu, or press “/” (or Ctrl/Cmd-K) on a keyboard. Results show as you type.
- One continuous blog. The blog is a single page, newest first, with a thumbnail for every post. It keeps loading as you scroll.
- Faster. Google’s Lighthouse scores the blog 100 for performance on desktop.
- Same addresses. Old links still land on the right page.
Twenty-seven years, four versions, one domain. Thanks for reading, on whatever screen you’re using.