A security guy ripped my portfolio site apart and I'm actually thankful

Last month a redditor messaged me after I posted my design portfolio link. He pointed out I was loading Google Fonts and an analytics tracker from my personal site. He said any client with basic IT knowledge could see I was leaking visitor IPs to third parties. I switched to self-hosted fonts and a self-hosted analytics tool like Matomo. It took about 4 hours to fix and I lost zero functionality. Now I mention my privacy-aware setup when pitching to clients and it's landed me 2 projects. Has anyone else had a stranger's critique accidentally improve their whole workflow?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordan_young1mo ago

Getting a cold message from some stranger that leads to you rewriting part of your site is wild. Four hours of work to fix something you didn't even know was broken, and it turned into new business. That's a pretty good return on a random internet takedown.

terry_thomas1mo ago

Wait, somebody actually took random internet feedback and turned it into paid work just like that?

faithwalker25d ago

Not quite right to say it was a "cold message" though. He actually posted his portfolio on here first asking for feedback, and the security guy responded to that post. It wasn't some random unsolicited DM from a stranger who just happened to stumble onto his site. That detail matters because the whole thing started with him putting himself out there and asking for help, not just getting a random takedown out of nowhere. Still a great story about turning criticism into cash though.