I've only just begun, so I'm still working out the kinks, but I believe I'll soon be moving to Squarespace. Squarespace allows you to create a unique website name, i.e., a "custom domain." I'll be going with bighominid.com when the time comes; the site name hasn't been taken yet. Stay alert: once I get the hang of using Squarespace's software and publish my site (which, if I'm not mistaken, I'll have to pay for, given the custom domain and all of Squarespace's services), I'll be alerting you to that fact. If Squarespace allows me to publish multiple blogs at that domain, then all future walk blogs will be found there. This marks a big change, but at the same time, I'm not too sentimental about it. If Google/Blogger insists on being a bastard about messing up a perfectly good interface (I've emailed their customer service twice, with no response), then I don't feel a bit bad about leaving Blogger behind. The Blogger blogs will still remain, and they'll still be mine, but any future activity will take place on my Squarespace blog. Stay tuned for more announcements. I anticipate being totally ported over to Squarespace before I leave for the coming walk.
[Actually, Charles has it right. If I'm not mistaken, his Liminality is entirely of his own making: he coded the thing from stem to stern, so he's not at anyone's mercy and doesn't have to worry about someone coming along and instituting change by fiat. Maybe I should take Hillary Clinton's advice and Learn to Code. That would be a step toward true online independence, and it's something I've thought about doing for a while, now.]
Liminality is indeed hand-coded. Like you said, I don't have to worry about people changing stuff on me. But there are also disadvantages, namely having to maintain everything. If something breaks, you and you alone are responsible for fixing it! So there are definitely pros and cons to it. Obviously I feel that the former outweigh the latter, or I wouldn't be doing it, but I'm not going to lie and say it's a cake walk.
ReplyDeleteFor me, learning to code would be a step toward independence, and therefore greater self-respect. I don't like being beholden to a large corporate entity for my cyber-existence. I might owe some Creator my life, but I don't want to owe some lesser being my blog.
ReplyDeleteCan you point me to resources for learning how to code, or should I just reach for a "For Dummies" book?
Other than changing bookmarks, is there anything the reader will need to do to find your new site?
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteI'll be sure that my final post here contains a link to the new blog.
I might also be looking at WordPress as a possible blogging platform. Squarespace has a ton of bells and whistles that I simply don't need, and the company is advertising itself as a "woke" operation fighting for "racial justice," which is a huge red flag.
Hmm. I don't really have any ideas for resources off the top of my head. I would probably just poke around on the intarwebs and make use of the many free tutorials and guides that are out there.
ReplyDeleteIt does depend on what you want to use for your back-end, but PHP + MySQL is a tried-and-true combination. (Full disclosure: Liminality is built in PHP, but I coded everything before I learned MySQL, which means it relies on parsing flat files as opposed to using a database. That's actually the one thing I would change if I were to ever overhaul the whole thing. Using a database would give me a lot more flexibility in terms of accessing and interacting with all the information.) There are some very in-depth guides and tutorials on YouTube that will probably be enough to get you started. From there, it's all about just getting your hands dirty and experimenting.
It won't be easy, but I think it will be fun. And you'll be able to design your site exactly the way you want it, with all the functionality you want and none of the functionality that you don't. Out of curiosity, do you have any experience with coding at all? Not that it is a prerequisite--everyone has to start somewhere, after all.
Man, just talking about this makes me want to go back and rebuild Liminality from the ground up.