I'm one of those stubborn bloggers persons who like to blog. Why? Because getting things off my chest is a liberating feeling. Or sometimes I have a "deep" insight that I feel the universe, or at least posterity, should be able to look back at. One of my blogs is mostly tech focussed, and sharing tips and tricks is as much a service to the Congregation (shout out to all my fellow fans of Alastair Reynolds' Ness-sisters) as to my future self. I can't remember the number of times that I had to look at my own blog posts to find the exact FFmpeg commands that I need.
Everyone has their own reason(s) to blog. But the reason I kept at it is mainly because it is almost free. That it is (or can be) free is a coincidence of history as much as anything else. You see, since about 2003/2004 I've been blogging on platforms such as my own site hosted by my provider. But when I switched from Sun-web (or was it Surf-web?) to HCC-net, and then to XS4ALL, I felt tired of Ftping over my files and telling all my friends about a new domain name once again. I needed a static web address, or better yet, my own domain name. So Janromme.com was bought.
I also needed a hosting solution that would just work. Blogger.com was big at the time, and appeared to be free as well. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that my beloved website was infested with banners for random advertisements. You see, I've been using Nextdns and add blockers for decades now, so I never realized the garbage that people who don't use these tools see on the internet, including on my own beloved website.
"If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold". I've recently decided that I want to switch over from blogger.com to another hosted solution. Blogger's way to make money is to show my readers adverts. I don't want that any more. So I've been looking into different hosting providers like Montaigne, Ghost, Pica.page, njump.me, Picapods, Alto, Micro.blog, Blot.im and EX0Text.
I accept that I will need to pay for hosting. But since I want to set this up and forget about it for another decade or two, it will have to be both ridiculously cheap and durable. I know that nothing lasts forever, but a service that is too cheap will go bankrupt or be acquired by another party that will stop its services. It would also be really nice if I could upload my posts as Markdown files. That way, switching over to another platform in 20 years time will be easier.
I guess this graph (I've got permission to use this picture, the original version is hosted here) illustrates my point nicely: the cheaper and easier the hosting is, the more likely it is that a blog will be actively used and will stand the test of time.
So I am currently in the market for a new blogging platform. The minimum requirements are in no particular order:
- Custom domain name support
- RSS support (I've got no clue how many people read my blog through RSS, and that is a liberating feeling).
- File hosting included (for pictures and video's)
- Close to free (I am willing to pay $50 per year) but that's only about $4 per month. Only Picapod comes close to this pricing. Blot was $4 when I signed up, but for new customers it's already pricing at $6 at the time of writing.
- Easy posting/uploading. The way I use Blogger is by sending an email to [mysecretaddress]@blogger.com and the email with pictures included is just posted at my blog. Blot is quite easy too. I just save a markdown file in my Dropbox folder, and voilà, it becomes a new blog post.
- Easy to set up and forget. This is where Pica falls flat on it's face: you are renting a VPS, which requires attention.
- Cheap to maintain for the builders. After all, if the company or person quits tomorrow, I'm bereft of a good hosting solution once again.
- I want to be the customer, not the product, so no inserted advertisements.
If you have any tips, mail me or comment on HN.
