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Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

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Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#101
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for others, but one reason why I'd use something like Medium is precisely to ensure that I don't manage anything by myself except for the content production part. I have a long list of attempts at setting up my own site, but because it's mine I wanted to get it just right. And so down the rabbit hole I go: making sure my server is super-secure (because it's important hey I'll learn in the process!), fin…

Self control is an amazing skill mate.

Self-control is mostly just arranging your life to avoid situations that are known to cause problems.

Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#102
post #49
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for others, but one reason why I'd use something like Medium is precisely to ensure that I don't manage anything by myself except for the content production part. I have a long list of attempts at setting up my own site, but because it's mine I wanted to get it just right. And so down the rabbit hole I go: making sure my server is super-secure (because it's important hey I'll learn in the process!), fin…

I've had largely the same experiences. Recently I decided to challenge myself to instead keep it simple, rather than treat the whole thing as a "learn some new thing along the way" type exercise. The end result is I actually have a blog I'm actually writing on that is absurdly easy to maintain, rather than the usual (for me anyway!) 75 percent complete side project in some new technology I'll never get around to fini…

> cloud flare for CDN duties

Unless you're pulling a lot of traffic this isn't necessary

Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#103
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My advice: Publish on your own domain, syndicate to Medium (and LinkedIn, and whatever) shortly after. Always import the story[1] so that Medium adds a rel="canonical" link, and link back to the canonical version (e.g. "Originally published at XXX" in the text of the story itself. [1] https://medium.com/p/import

Any idea how to get code formatted properly? https://medium.com/@mcguire.crsr/applied-formal-logic-brute-...

If you type ``` on a new line, Medium will switch to code input mode.

If you forget, Control/Command-? brings up keyboard shortcuts help, and the 2nd page has the shortcuts for code formatting.

Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#104
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use HTTPS to secure many things, not only login details. Not least of all, the privacy of your users/readers. There's also integrity of your site, and many more future proof reasons. These days, there's no reason _not_ to use HTTPS, really. https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/security/encr...

Except for the difficulty of managing and keeping up to date with TLS (I'd have to upgrade my RPi's OS for example, to do it well), and the fact that it actually reduces performance for small simple sites with local readership, even with HTTP/2 for example. http://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-carbon-cost-of-CDN.html Edit: I note that I got downvoted, though no reply with reasons. I accept that it is currently widespread…

The one thing that HTTPS provides on non-sensitive, or even non-interactive sites is privacy; it hides the request URI from prying eyes (ISP, government etc.) That's worth a lot to me.

Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#105
post #73

About the dickbars: 1) I uBlock them on my phone and tablet. Unfortunately there are plenty of random sites on Medium with their own domain. I don't follow any of them and get there from HN or similar sites. Blocking all of them doesn't make sense because I'll probably never get back to that domain. I agree with the author, the button in the middle of the page really sucks. 2) On desktop, the button and the dickbar n…

In case you're not aware, NoScript also exists for Android: https://noscript.net/nsa/

Not quite as functional as its bigger brother, but an option nonetheless.

Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#106
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which blog system should we use? Hosting your own WordPress site? It's simple and easy. Why did anyone ever want to be on Medium in the first place? Most likely for the name association and the visibility that comes with it. I think we have a responsibility to promote self-reliance as part of technological culture. If we want people to move away from centralization (which I do), we have to teach by example (which I…

"Hosting your own WordPress site? It's simple and easy." I would think that, for at least 90% of those publishing on Medium, that's neither simple nor easy. Even ignoring that, hosting your own Wordpress site means taking responsibility for keeping it up to date, security-wise. That hurdle alone probably makes most bloggers use some third-party blogging provider.

It's just an example, there are many choices, some of which are presumably even simpler.

But yes there will be some responsibility involved, I think that falls into healthy technical culture as well. It's the difference between taking care of something and getting someone else to take care of it. At the end of the day, someone has to do it, and we shouldn't always simply trust others with it just because it's easier.

Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which blog system should we use? Hosting your own WordPress site? It's simple and easy. Why did anyone ever want to be on Medium in the first place? Most likely for the name association and the visibility that comes with it. I think we have a responsibility to promote self-reliance as part of technological culture. If we want people to move away from centralization (which I do), we have to teach by example (which I…

Wordpress is for sure powerful, has a huge ecosystem and is for teams a safe bet because of very good and battle-tested workflows. But sorry, I don't want to setup a stack I did 20 years ago. However, I haven't looked into Wordpress for years. For simple personal blogs I like DB-free SSG blog systems. But I am still wondering which one is the best. Just Hexo (Node) and Hugo (Go) come to my mind.

As I mention in my other reply, I meant it as an example. The issue to me is more "self-reliance" versus "paying others to do it". I'm certain that an increased trend of self-reliance such as hosting your own blog would go a long way towards demystifying the internet and therefore getting people more interested in the very real political issues behind the tech.

Re: Why I left Medium and moved back to my own domain

#109
post #6

I don't understand why people write programming blogs on Medium. I think that managing a live website with its own server (rather than only working on other people's projects) is a very important skill. If you don't want to manage WordPress, try a static site generator like Metalsmith: https://github.com/segmentio/metalsmith Deploy on Digital Ocean or Linode for $5/month. Free hosting options include Github Pages and…

I use Medium because I think their blogging software is superior to their competitors (WordPress). If there was something out there as good as Medium that I could install on my own servers I might do that. This seems to be the hierarchy of blogging software to me: Medium > WordPress > Blogger

I'm sure there are some other really great options out there that I've never heard of. And I'm sure if you spend a great deal of time looking you can find kickass WordPress themes. But the default WordPress themes are pretty weak, and Blogger is really weak.

So anyway, that's I use Medium to host my blog, because their blogging software simply kicks ass.

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