underlap

2023-01-01 15:08:41

Bring Back Blogging

I'm sympathetic to the idea behind Bring Back Blogging, even though I find there's more inertia to writing a blog post than posting, say, on Mastodon.

But it's tricky to know what to do about hosting.

I potentially could host my own blog, but then I'd have the costs associated with a hosting service and renting a domain name. I'd be responsible for regularly upgrading the operating system and blogging software to avoid security exposures. If I wanted to split the cost of hosting with others, I'd have to provide them with some kind of support. Also, when I eventually stop hosting, my posts and those of anyone else sharing the service would cease to exist, so any important posts would need to be moved elsewhere first. Finally, if I hosted my own blog, that could be the thin end of the wedge and I'd be tempted to host my own Mastodon instance, etc.

The alternative to hosting my own blog is to use a commercial blogging site such as Blogger (which I used regularly over seven years ago), Medium, or WordPress. But I find the commercial aspect of these a little distasteful. Unless I paid to use them, and possibly even if I did pay, my writing would be exploited by these platforms by subjecting my readers to advertisements, promotions, or other visual clutter.

For now, I'll stick with wordsmith.social and try to find out who pays for it and whether I can contribute to their costs.

Reply via email

Bring Back Blogs! January 2023

^{bringback.blog}