

Everyone Needs a Personal Website - ghostDancer
http://www.diiulio.org/technology/help/everyone-needs-a-personal-website/

======
kelukelugames
May I humbly recommend another option:

Github pages [https://pages.github.com/](https://pages.github.com/)

+

namecheap [https://www.namecheap.com/](https://www.namecheap.com/)

EDIT: shameless plug. [http://kelukelu.me/](http://kelukelu.me/) Though being
Asian, I don't think I will ever get on the first page of a google search
result for my name.

~~~
vertoc
Well one of the main points of the article is that you should have your own
website so your content isn't hosted on another service that could censor what
you write. Given the whole 'retard' fiasco at GitHub, I don't think it would
be the best place to host things

~~~
alialkhatib
I think since the premise of the author's article is that everyone should have
a place where they can take more deliberate care of their online presence,
it's pretty reasonable to infer that it goes without saying that one shouldn't
use pejoratives like "retard" except in cases where the word itself is under
discussion (like critiquing the use of the word in society, as we're doing
now). Even still, I'd consider that a pretty hazardous topic to write about
unless I were a linguist or in some field that made it appropriate to discuss
it intellectually.

Admittedly, it's not clear whether GitHub would take down such a
repository/site, but my hunch is that when it's deliberate and not casually
thrown around, people wouldn't have as much footing to complain about a
charged word. That being said, I'm not willing to test it, which says your
point has merit just by virtue of a chilling effect.

Nevertheless, a sibling comment mentions using S3, which (I think) would be
less likely to get taken down (although I've never heard of Amazon outright
refusing to take down such content, so maybe the request simply hasn't
happened yet).

~~~
vilmosi
>>> Admittedly, it's not clear whether GitHub would take down such a
repository/site, but my hunch is that when it's deliberate and not casually
thrown around, people wouldn't have as much footing to complain about a
charged word.

The point is, it's not your website if some moderator somewhere can search-
replace your content, probably without you knowing.

>>> use pejoratives like "retard"

Retard should not be a pejorative. It is a medical term.

~~~
alialkhatib
>Wait, retard is a pejorative now?

It's fairly well-documented[0], and the GitHub incident in particular has been
discussed on HN at length[1]. I think I gave the exclusion that if you're
talking about it in a context that's socially acceptable (e.g. critiquing the
use of the word, or as you point out discussing it medically), then I imagine
that's fine (but I don't know, and I'm not about to test GitHub on how readily
they'd censor content in a gray area).

This point about whether a site is yours or not is a red herring. For the
purposes of technicality, you could argue that you don't really own your
online presence unless you own the servers and the service providing access
(per example: Wikileaks used Amazon's S3 service until AWS dropped them[2]).
For the purposes of this discussion, however, it suffices to say that you
"own" your online presence if your front page (absent a personal site, your
profile pages on social networking sites) is determined by you rather than
potentially influenced by friends (e.g. tagging you in a photo at a party).

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_(pejorative)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_\(pejorative\))

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118)

[2]:
[https://aws.amazon.com/message/65348/](https://aws.amazon.com/message/65348/)

------
Animats
The author's key point: if you want a presence in Google, you need your own
web site.

Hostgator is much cheaper than his alternatives, starting at $3.96/month. He's
writing for a very low tech audience, though; people who think Markdown is
"technical".

It's interesting that "WordPress hosting" now costs 4x more than getting a web
site and installing WordPress.

------
bpatrianakos
Great suggestions for non-technical people in there but if a real concern is
ownership and control of content then the only real option is buying or
renting server space and putting up a website with maybe Ghost (the most
overrated blogging platform ever) or the open source Wordpress or just plain
HTML. All the other options listed still could potentially shut you down for
some weird TOS violation (like if you're a big KKK supporter or something). Is
it likely to happen? No. But isn't this where we post our overanyzed takes on
everything?

~~~
krapp
Really though, the only way to _own_ your own web content is to run your own
server, and physically control access to it. Even buying or renting server
space puts your content in the control of a third party.

------
mhurron
Why? Why does everyone 'need' a personal website? Reasons presented in the
article are why you would want one, and they break down to bragging.

~~~
alialkhatib
I was going to post something to this effect, but I'm glad you also brought up
the bragging point. I think it's safer to argue that everyone _could benefit_
from a personal site, and the arguments the author lays out are pretty
compelling in that context, but not much further.

I'd like to see a discussion over whether a personal website is a better
investment of one's time (and money?) than a LinkedIn profile on balance
(maybe for certain people). It may be controversial, but I imagine there are
good points on both sides (more detailed insight about exposure from google
analytics on someone's and better export affordances with personal sites; a
real network and infrastructure on LinkedIn's side).

------
charlesray
First off, no, you do not need a website. You are a high school student. Slow
your roll.

Secondly, what you really need is an editor, because damn your site is riddled
with misspellings.

------
diminish
"Everyone needs a mobile app"?

Are there any way someone can defend personal mobile apps for personal
presence?

