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Run Your Own Website

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Re: Run Your Own Website

#51

Post by icebraining »

coldpie wrote: post #35
superkuh wrote: post #33

Yup. People tend to assume running your own site is difficult but running a static webserver is dead simple. As long as you don't involve all the unneeded dynamic language and database it's secure and doesn't really need updating all the time either. 90% of people can run a static web server on their home connection and it would fulfill their every requirement (as well as solving almost all 'problems' that exist on t…

Mm, nah. Running a DNS server, choosing an HTTP server and keeping all the related software up to date is a lot to ask even of a techie. And that's not even getting into dynamic IP issues.

You don't need to run a DNS server, just some utility that updates the record when your IP changes. There are many, and are quite simple to use (basic text config, or simple GUI).

As for maintaining stuff updated, unattended-upgrades on a Debian or Ubuntu LTS system will keep your system patched for five years, and it's very rare that the infrastructure stuff breaks.

Re: Run Your Own Website

#52

Post by gbuk2013 »

melling wrote: post #46
gbuk2013 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without knowing your OS: a text editor of some sort and an FTP/SFTP client. Then just get shared web hosting account - there are lots to chose from and they are super cheap these days. You can go a long way with that without having to mess around with maintaining your own server (unless you want to - I do :)

One person with a simple text editor isn’t going to be nearly as productive as someone who chooses a modern stack with better tools. I left open my prior tools, etc so as not to bias the answers. I’ve done lots of Java, Python, Swift, some Go, etc but I’m willing to learn anything, so forget that you know that. I’m looking for a big lever.

No, it really is that simple, if you are taking about a “website”, not a “web application” or some sort of “platform”. Learn to do it by hand or you will forever be dependent on tools. VSCode or Atom is what everyone seems to be using but the more you are able to treat it as a text editor the better you will be.

But since you say you are comfortable with programming, then a static site generator might be interesting for you. Pick one in whatever language you prefer. Be prepared to spend a lot of time before you are as productive as writing it by hand.

Re: Run Your Own Website

#54

Post by icebraining »

gbuk2013 wrote: post #32
dvtrn wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

only supports static content, so personally I would not count that as “running my own website”. Curious: why not? Before WordPress and MoveableType websites were largely static HTML, where do you personally draw the distinction?

Simply because it is very limiting. Running your own site, even on cheap shared hosting, opens up lots of exciting possibilities. With a bit of PHP and SQLite you can build lots of cool stuff (just like before WordPress came and made everything boring). For simple sites, static is great, but if it becomes more complex (even just lots of pages sort of complex) then some sort of templating, even just through basic PHP…

I'm enjoying Netlify as a intermediate step: mostly static site, plus their Forms and Functions to add small interactive parts. I'm not sure it's easier for a beginner, though.

Re: Run Your Own Website

#55

Post by icebraining »

originalvichy wrote: post #7

The title made me hope for a quite literal way to run your website: using some kind of energy harvesting (bicycle?) used to power a small computer with a web server. This is an issue that is quite simple to solve. Many podcasters (espescially Joe Rogan) like to talk about being afraid of getting removed from a platform without having your own hosting set up. Most of the controversial big names of youtube and other pl…

If you just want to distribute content, you're better off sharing bittorrent links. The problem is that those podcasters want the visibility and the ad money of those platforms. Which is valid, but not something that is solvable by self-hosting at home.

Re: Run Your Own Website

#56

Post by marcosdumay »

melling wrote: post #12

Any opinions on what are the best software choices for a single person to use in 2019 to build a website from scratch? I’d be willing to learn something new if I knew in 2 years, I’d be extremely productive.

Pelican: https://blog.getpelican.com/

Statik: https://pypi.org/project/statik/

Re: Run Your Own Website

#57

Post by melling »

gbuk2013 wrote: post #52
melling wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One person with a simple text editor isn’t going to be nearly as productive as someone who chooses a modern stack with better tools. I left open my prior tools, etc so as not to bias the answers. I’ve done lots of Java, Python, Swift, some Go, etc but I’m willing to learn anything, so forget that you know that. I’m looking for a big lever.

No, it really is that simple, if you are taking about a “website”, not a “web application” or some sort of “platform”. Learn to do it by hand or you will forever be dependent on tools. VSCode or Atom is what everyone seems to be using but the more you are able to treat it as a text editor the better you will be. But since you say you are comfortable with programming, then a static site generator might be interesting…

You seem to not understand what I’m asking.

I have Atom, VSCode, Sublime, JetBrains, ... I know vi and Emacs. I’ve programmed websites in Perl, Python, Java, Go, ... I didn’t realize we differentiate between applications and sites these days.

In 2019, I’m one person who is willing to start with a clean slate. What current tools should I choose so, as one person, I’m most productive 6 months from now, once I’ve mastered the new tools.

The idea is to choose an above average stack:

http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

Re: Run Your Own Website

#58

Post by kr4 »

melling wrote: post #12

Any opinions on what are the best software choices for a single person to use in 2019 to build a website from scratch? I’d be willing to learn something new if I knew in 2 years, I’d be extremely productive.

You can use tools like Hugo to generate static sites. Basically such tools gives you power to avoid duplication of reusable components on the page, as well as to generate static lists automatically like related pages/recommendations. See this discussion on such tools: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16472395

Re: Run Your Own Website

#59

Post by slx26 »

icebraining wrote: post #51
coldpie wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mm, nah. Running a DNS server, choosing an HTTP server and keeping all the related software up to date is a lot to ask even of a techie. And that's not even getting into dynamic IP issues.

You don't need to run a DNS server, just some utility that updates the record when your IP changes. There are many, and are quite simple to use (basic text config, or simple GUI). As for maintaining stuff updated, unattended-upgrades on a Debian or Ubuntu LTS system will keep your system patched for five years, and it's very rare that the infrastructure stuff breaks.

maybe that's the difficult part, finding the uncommon path among all the current trends, clearly distant from these "simple" proposals.

it might be easy to set up if you understand how the web works, but that understanding generally comes from some real work/experience we already have, which might not be so easy to pick up.

having 1000 simple ways to run a website could be much more complicated than having 2 tricky ways to run a website. specially if you don't know whether any of those ways are simple or not.

Re: Run Your Own Website

#60

Post by Invictus0 »

cannonedhamster wrote: post #42
Invictus0 wrote: post #27

This type of post makes it to the front page pretty frequently, but I think the audience on hacker News vastly underestimates the difficulty of setting up a personal site for the general public. There is always the refrain of "but just use static HTML!", as if anyone even knows what that is, as if it's so easy to set up a domain and hosting, as if no one even wants a nicely designed site with images and JavaScript th…

So for most people that are in the situation you describe I'd say they would probably just spin up a WordPress instance, pick a theme they like, and start posting. A static html site? Even easier. There are tons of services out there that will let you host your own content for very little money or even free. You can set up a static site on a platform like 1mb.com for next to nothing and edit the html, css, etc. To yo…

Home Depot sells a service where you can pay $100 to have a professional handyman come to your house and knock four nails into your wall to install a shelf. People pay this because the level of complexity of using a hammer is too high. I have seen the light go out of the eyes of people with a non-technical background trying to explain even the most basic of engineering concepts (most recently, why I can't get a 10lb meterlong brick to magically lift itself out of its packaging). HTML might be the most simple language we have, but it's not simple in an absolute sense, and nothing about setting up a website outside of the platforms really is. Ask your non-technical friends: I bet most of them are not even familiar with the concept of hosting a site.
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