What was durum.az?
durum.az was more than just a website — it was my first major project, and a digital home built with a vision: to connect people, especially within the Azerbaijani community, in a space that felt truly ours. It began with a simple but bold idea: create a local platform where users could freely share who they were — their thoughts, interests, media, and lives — without the influence or limitations of Western social media policies. I built it using pure PHP scripts, writing nearly every line by hand. For a solo developer, it was a massive undertaking, but I was driven by the dream. The site featured blogging, personal profiles, a shopping section, media sharing (photos, videos, documents, voice messages, locations), and more. Despite being complex under the hood, the interface looked clean and professional. I wanted it to feel like a premium platform — and for many, it did. One thing I was especially proud of was the lack of intrusive ads. Even users on the free plan enjoyed an ad-free experience. Premium plans were available, offering extra features, but nothing essential was locked behind a paywall. Everything was built with user freedom and respect in mind. At the same time, I enforced strict content guidelines. There was a smart moderation system in place to prevent gore, explicit, or pornographic material from being uploaded. This helped keep the environment safe and welcoming, especially for younger users. And it worked. The site was growing — fast. People joined, posted, interacted, and made it their own. For a time, it felt like I had created something real — something that mattered to people. But building something that big alone came with challenges. The server grew harder to manage. Maintenance became increasingly demanding. There was no team, no funding, and no sustainable infrastructure. Eventually, it became impossible to keep it all running. After nearly two years online, durum.az quietly faded away. The hardest moment came in April 2025, when I lost all remaining backup files and scripts. Everything — the code, the database, the content — disappeared with it. There was nothing left to restore. That’s why this blog now exists. Not as a replacement, but as a memorial. A story about what durum.az once was — and what it meant to me. It may be gone, but its spirit — the effort, the vision, and the people it connected — lives on here.
What happened?
It all ended in an instant. On the last day of April 2025, durum.az was permanently deleted. Without warning, the hosting server overflowed and began forcefully clearing data. The entire website — every file, script, and user upload — vanished within minutes. There was no chance to react. Even worse, the only backup I had — the one thing I believed would protect the project — was also deleted during the process. I don’t know if it was a system failure or a misconfigured cleanup, but it was irreversible. In a single moment, nearly two years of work were wiped out. I tried to recover it. I spent weeks chasing solutions, contacting support, and exploring every possible way to bring it back. But nothing worked. The heart of the site — the PHP scripts, the database, the content — was gone for good. At the time, I was also facing one of the busiest periods of my life: preparing for exams, applying to universities, and trying to manage everything else. I tried to make time for the site, I really did — but despite all my efforts, I could never restore it to what it was. Oddly enough, the Android app version of durum.az is still up on Google Play. But it doesn’t work. It was never a standalone app — it was built as a portal to the live site. Without the server, it can’t access any media, user data, or content. It’s just an empty shell now, a reminder of something that once existed but no longer breathes. durum.az didn’t slowly fade away. It was erased — instantly, completely, and without warning..
Why I made this
I wrote this section to tell the full story behind durum.az — not just as a website or a coding project, but as a reflection of my passion, vision, and growth as a developer and a person. durum.az was my very first major solo project, created from the ground up with pure PHP and almost entirely hand-coded by me. It was a monumental challenge for a solo developer, but I was driven by a deep desire to build something meaningful for the Azerbaijani community — a platform where people could connect, express themselves freely, and share their lives without the constraints or commercial pressures typical of large, Western social media. This part captures why I started durum.az: to create a digital space that truly felt local, personal, and safe. I wanted it to be premium in quality and user experience, but also respectful of users’ freedom and privacy. The site offered blogging, media sharing, personal profiles, and even an ad-free experience for all users, with optional premium features that didn’t gatekeep basic functionality. At the same time, I implemented strict content moderation to keep the environment welcoming and secure, especially for younger audiences. Writing about these details is important to me because they show the depth and care I invested into the project — beyond just coding, I was shaping a community and a vision. I also wanted to document the incredible growth and enthusiasm the site experienced, as well as the real challenges I faced maintaining it solo, from server management to scaling infrastructure without a team or funding. Beyond sharing my journey, this section was also meant to be a part of my portfolio to show universities and future collaborators the scope of what I was capable of. durum.az demonstrated not only my technical skills in backend and frontend development but also project management, problem-solving, and my commitment to creating something valuable from scratch. It’s a concrete example of my initiative and ambition, qualities I want to highlight as I pursue further education and opportunities in computer engineering. Finally, this part serves as a tribute and a memorial to durum.az itself. The project ended abruptly and unexpectedly when the hosting server overflowed and all files and backups were deleted in an instant. Despite my best efforts to recover it during one of the busiest times in my life, balancing exam prep and university applications, the site was gone for good. Writing this preserves the memory of what durum.az was, what it meant to me, and the community it connected. Though the website no longer exists, its spirit and the lessons I learned through building it live on in this story.