>All of these let you use a custom domain, which you should do. Buy yourname.com. It costs ten dollars a year and your writing will live at an address you control, regardless of what happens to any particular platform.
I used to tell this to anyone who would listen. I changed my mind.
For an individual, renting and managing one's own domain is a costly PITA that gets you less than nothing in return. I've done it for a quarter of a century. The UX of DNS hasn't improved (it's still impossible for normies). Registrars' prices haven't dropped. The security hazards of artisanal hosting are more real than ever. And even if you take the hosting package, your custom domain still carries a fatal weakness: stop paying and it goes away in short order.
And for what? Your blog will be indexed by search engines wherever it is. Moreover, it will be archived by the Internet Archive wherever it is, and - let's be honest - the IA is where your writing is going to survive if anywhere at all. Custom domains are not just vain, they're ephemeral. Certainly more so than, say, the domain of a blogging platform that's managed by a non-profit.
A domain represents an ongoing maintenance commitment and cost. By definition, such things are better managed by groups than by individuals. For the purpose of a personal blog, where no financial interests are at stake, there's only one possible reason to get a custom domain: vanity.
> The security hazards of artisanal hosting are more real than ever
How could this possibly be true? It's not at all rocket science to create a static blog and serve it via a production grade web server (nginx, etc).
> The UX of DNS hasn't improved (it's still impossible for normies)
The UX of DNS sucks but we're talking about a single A record. Is that not within reach of a normie in the age of AI?
> Custom domains are not just vain, they're ephemeral. Certainly more so than, say, the domain of a blogging platform that's managed by a non-profit.
I can't think of a single free blogging platform that has stood up to the test of time. Depending on centralized resources, particularly when you're not paying for them, is the recipe for ephemerality. If you're going to pay for it why can't you afford a domain?
> A domain represents an ongoing maintenance commitment and cost.
There's no maintenance if you go with a hosted solution with custom domains like Squarespace, Wordpress.com and the like. Just as there is for everything digital, from a computer or a phone or internet service. A domain costs a lot less than any of those other prerequisites.
I agree DNS UX is absolutely terrible, but web hosting, SSL and redirects aren't trivial things so I understand why it is the way it is.
> For an individual, renting and managing one's own domain is a costly PITA that gets you less than nothing in return.
A counterpoint: When I see someone trying to sell me professional services, and their email is some @gmail.com or similar domain I immediately think they are less professional. Getting a domain for your blog or business is useful in certain regards.
Sure thing. On the other hand, workers, families, do not run on free water. For any venture to be more than a nighttime hobby, it needs financial backing.
Are we any better for the impacts of social media and closed platforms? The owners of said platforms are richer, but I’d argue society is often worse off.
I think youtube has been a net good. The content today is far greater than the content in 2005 or 2008 mostly due to the financial incentives.
The barriers to advertising have been lowered and we've seen a ton of small business growth from social media platforms like instagram, tiktok. Sure there are some cringe trends but to me they pale in comparison to the millions of people that have been enabled to make a living doing what they genuinely love.
Back in the early eighties people would go to a shop and buy "a VisiCalc". What they were actually getting was an Apple Ii pre-loaded with VisiCalc software. But to them, VisiCalc was the computer.
> Search engines still index blogs far better than social media posts.
For a lot of people, social media is the internet. They don't discover things on search engines, they are guided to them by engagement engines in walled gardens.
And increasingly what they're bwing guided to is commercial, mimetic slop. Most people are, unfortunately, not interested in the fairly high-minded content that the article's author is referring to. I wish it were otherwise.
I've had a blog for twenty five years. I try to do the right thing, and I get no views. Thats because blogging as an artesian activity is dead. Which is its great strength.
> Most people are, unfortunately, not interested in the fairly high-minded content that the article's author is referring to. I wish it were otherwise.
We who grew up with the internet are waking up and a bit disillusioned, coming to terms the idea that it was always this way. But fear not - for the interested minority, the tech lets you find the interesting stuff and each other. And it’s better than it’s ever been for curious kids.
Maybe in the future there will be “Ozempic for the mind” to break the masses’ addiction to endless scrolling.
> For a lot of people, social media is the internet. They don't discover things on search engines, they are guided to them by engagement engines in walled gardens.
Sure, this is true -- but there are also many (though nowhere near as many) for whom the opposite is true. I think it's important to remember that there's value in speaking to a community like that even if it's not the whole world listening.
> When I write a blog post, I'm writing for an imagined reader who has arrived at this specific URL because they're interested in this specific topic
to me, this is the key point. it often gets conflated with whether the blog has "real time" readers who subscribe to the feed and read the articles as they come out, but I think there is real value in just having a blog engine be your static site generator and/or cms.
>All of these let you use a custom domain, which you should do. Buy yourname.com. It costs ten dollars a year and your writing will live at an address you control, regardless of what happens to any particular platform.
I used to tell this to anyone who would listen. I changed my mind.
For an individual, renting and managing one's own domain is a costly PITA that gets you less than nothing in return. I've done it for a quarter of a century. The UX of DNS hasn't improved (it's still impossible for normies). Registrars' prices haven't dropped. The security hazards of artisanal hosting are more real than ever. And even if you take the hosting package, your custom domain still carries a fatal weakness: stop paying and it goes away in short order.
And for what? Your blog will be indexed by search engines wherever it is. Moreover, it will be archived by the Internet Archive wherever it is, and - let's be honest - the IA is where your writing is going to survive if anywhere at all. Custom domains are not just vain, they're ephemeral. Certainly more so than, say, the domain of a blogging platform that's managed by a non-profit.
A domain represents an ongoing maintenance commitment and cost. By definition, such things are better managed by groups than by individuals. For the purpose of a personal blog, where no financial interests are at stake, there's only one possible reason to get a custom domain: vanity.
> The security hazards of artisanal hosting are more real than ever
How could this possibly be true? It's not at all rocket science to create a static blog and serve it via a production grade web server (nginx, etc).
> The UX of DNS hasn't improved (it's still impossible for normies)
The UX of DNS sucks but we're talking about a single A record. Is that not within reach of a normie in the age of AI?
> Custom domains are not just vain, they're ephemeral. Certainly more so than, say, the domain of a blogging platform that's managed by a non-profit.
I can't think of a single free blogging platform that has stood up to the test of time. Depending on centralized resources, particularly when you're not paying for them, is the recipe for ephemerality. If you're going to pay for it why can't you afford a domain?
> A domain represents an ongoing maintenance commitment and cost.
There's no maintenance if you go with a hosted solution with custom domains like Squarespace, Wordpress.com and the like. Just as there is for everything digital, from a computer or a phone or internet service. A domain costs a lot less than any of those other prerequisites.
I agree DNS UX is absolutely terrible, but web hosting, SSL and redirects aren't trivial things so I understand why it is the way it is.
> For an individual, renting and managing one's own domain is a costly PITA that gets you less than nothing in return.
A counterpoint: When I see someone trying to sell me professional services, and their email is some @gmail.com or similar domain I immediately think they are less professional. Getting a domain for your blog or business is useful in certain regards.
For a business, yes absolutely.
for individuals too. if you host your site on your own domain i have more trust that you are serious. (after weeding out squatters with fake content)
Blogs over networks, protocols over platforms. Decentralize as much as you possibly can.
I used to preach this for years,... but no one cares. Why? There is no financial upside.
Well, yes, but that's also part of the appeal. Introducing a financial incentive often ruins things.
Sure thing. On the other hand, workers, families, do not run on free water. For any venture to be more than a nighttime hobby, it needs financial backing.
Perfectly fair — I’d argue in favor of modest, sustainable goals and no lock in, but I imagine that’ll scare off backers.
It just as often improves things
Are we any better for the impacts of social media and closed platforms? The owners of said platforms are richer, but I’d argue society is often worse off.
I think youtube has been a net good. The content today is far greater than the content in 2005 or 2008 mostly due to the financial incentives.
The barriers to advertising have been lowered and we've seen a ton of small business growth from social media platforms like instagram, tiktok. Sure there are some cringe trends but to me they pale in comparison to the millions of people that have been enabled to make a living doing what they genuinely love.
Back in the early eighties people would go to a shop and buy "a VisiCalc". What they were actually getting was an Apple Ii pre-loaded with VisiCalc software. But to them, VisiCalc was the computer.
> Search engines still index blogs far better than social media posts.
For a lot of people, social media is the internet. They don't discover things on search engines, they are guided to them by engagement engines in walled gardens.
And increasingly what they're bwing guided to is commercial, mimetic slop. Most people are, unfortunately, not interested in the fairly high-minded content that the article's author is referring to. I wish it were otherwise.
I've had a blog for twenty five years. I try to do the right thing, and I get no views. Thats because blogging as an artesian activity is dead. Which is its great strength.
> Most people are, unfortunately, not interested in the fairly high-minded content that the article's author is referring to. I wish it were otherwise.
We who grew up with the internet are waking up and a bit disillusioned, coming to terms the idea that it was always this way. But fear not - for the interested minority, the tech lets you find the interesting stuff and each other. And it’s better than it’s ever been for curious kids.
Maybe in the future there will be “Ozempic for the mind” to break the masses’ addiction to endless scrolling.
> For a lot of people, social media is the internet. They don't discover things on search engines, they are guided to them by engagement engines in walled gardens.
Sure, this is true -- but there are also many (though nowhere near as many) for whom the opposite is true. I think it's important to remember that there's value in speaking to a community like that even if it's not the whole world listening.
What is your blog?
Link is in my profile. But it's really nothing special.
I really like your photographs here:
https://andyjohnson.uk/blog/2025/03/17/eigiau-walk/
Thank you!
> When I write a blog post, I'm writing for an imagined reader who has arrived at this specific URL because they're interested in this specific topic
to me, this is the key point. it often gets conflated with whether the blog has "real time" readers who subscribe to the feed and read the articles as they come out, but I think there is real value in just having a blog engine be your static site generator and/or cms.
I'm still blogging. I'm still reading blogs. A lot of us are. Good points against social media. But that's still how people find bloggers these days.
What is your blog? Which do you recommend?
This is my blog: https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/
It’s got a recommendations list on the right rail. But I can also maybe offer recs based on your interests.
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