Got a website? Why the hell not?

Intro

If you have something to say, i would suggest that relying on social media is not the only place you should be saying it since, ultimately, you have no control over your content. All mainstream social media platforms, and many alternative platforms, will happily shadow-ban, de-list, de-monetize, de-platform, demote or delete you or anything you post which they are critical of, regardless of whether it breaks the wall of text agreements they call their terms of service. or they may simply dry up and disappear overnight. Either way, all of the writing you've invested so much time in is at risk of being delegated to a black hole. Furthermore there are limitations as to how you can format your content.

I've also noticed a disturbing trend as social media and smart devices gained traction, in that many people have either stopped using email or fail to provide a method to contact them outside of whatever privacy-hating social media platform(s) they use. This is particularly annoying for those of us who want to contact such people while not wanting anything whatsoever to do with the likes of these criminal, data-mining mega-corporations like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTiok, Reddit, etc..Having your own website can be very inexpensive and fun, plus you'll have far greater control over how your content is presented and what you wish to write about.

If you'd like to explore setting up a website of your own and this is all new to you, and you want to pursue the route of least resistance, then shared hosting may be the answer. With a shared web hosting provider you can easily keep the cost down to a few bucks a month and still have a great website with good support. Another alternative is to host your website yourself using your internet connection, however doing so requires a reasonably high degree of technical prowess. This can even be done using something like a Raspberry Pi.

Pitfalls

While there are several potential pitfalls with shared web hosting, if you decide to pursue that path, there is one in particular you'll really want to avoid when choosing a host and that is utilizing any company owned by Endurance International Group (EIG) a.k.a Clearlake Capital Group a.k.a Newfold Digital, a.k.a whatever they'll change their name to next. As of 2022 these ultra-shitty corporations own approximately 60-70 web hosting companies, including many web hosting "review" websites, and the complaints about their rotten service and support can be found everywhere. To make matters worse, many of the companies they gobble up do not advertise their affiliation with EIG/Clearlake/Newfold and so avoiding them can be a bit difficult. The following is a list of some of the companies known or thought to be affiliated with EIG/Clearlake/Newfold:

One nearly universal lesson i've learned over the years is to avoid large companies that plaster their ads all over the place. Often their service, support and security practices suck and data breaches are common. This is especially true of VPN providers for example, but that's another story.

Personally i gave up shared hosting long ago since my needs are greater. In the interest of full disclosure, i wrote the article, Why shared web hosting sucks, but understand that the article is geared more toward those wanting to up their game and extend beyond the limitations of shared hosting and this requires a greater degree of technical knowledge than what is outlined here. For those just starting out, or who just want a small, personal website for private or business use, shared hosting can be fine and it is one of the least expensive and easiest routes to building a website.

Content management

The choices as to what software you want to use for managing your website is practically limitless. On the more popular side are full-blown content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, ClassicPress, Joomla, Drupal and many others. While such publishing platforms make it rather easy to get up and running, they also tend to be bloated with widgets and wing-dings you may never use and they require server-side infrastructure including a database server and PHP. Most of these publishing platforms add a lot of bloat to your web pages in the form of unused CSS styles, 3rd party resources and JavaScript, the latter two of which not all your visitors may appreciate. They also consume valuable server space and resources and they increase the attack surface for the script kiddies out there. If you're going to go with a mainstream CMS, WordPress is apparently the most popular, however i might suggest ClassicPress instead which is essentially a leaner version of WordPress without the new "block" editor which many people detest. While these big content management systems make publishing your content easy, they don't teach you the fundamentals of HTML however.

None of the above publishing systems are strictly necessary. All you really need to create a website is a text/code editor, a basic knowledge of HTML and, optionally, a basic knowledge of CSS if you want to make your content look pretty. Beyond that you'll need a way to upload the files you create to your web server which can usually be done securely right from your operating system's file manager.

Having used WordPress for a long time, and then ClassicPress after WordPress got "woke", one of the more serious issues i've found with these platforms is the plug-in market. One can easily extend the functionality of most any CMS by adding 3rd party plug-ins but the problem, at least with WordPress and ClassicPress, and probably most others as well, is a lack of regulations regarding what a plug-in developer may and may not do with their code, as well as a lack of security oversight. Vulnerabilities in plugins often lead to all kinds of trouble from data mining to unwanted advertising to critical security vulnerabilities that can result in your web server being compromised and configured to pump out spam email all day long. I once suggested in the WordPress support forum that more stringent rules be adopted in order to rein in the Wild West of unethical plug-in developers who exploit the system and my post was immediately locked and buried by a senior moderator before anyone had a chance to reply. What does that tell you about the ethics regarding plug-in security at WordPress?

If you're wanting to keep things really simple and you don't require a dynamic website, i'd suggest avoiding all of the popular server-side CMS solutions and have a look at Publii instead (also see, Publii: The good, the bad, and the uglii). Unlike the aforementioned products, Publii is an open-source, offline content management system and static site generator (SSG) all rolled into one that you install locally on your computer and this has several key advantages. First of all, you can edit and preview your website off-line and publish at your convenience. Secondly, Publii generates static websites which alleviates need for a database, a database server and PHP, thus greatly reducing the attack surface for the script kiddies. Furthermore, content generated with Publii, or most other SSGs, often eliminates the need to expose yourself and your visitors to potentially malicious, insecure, or privacy invading JavaScript and 3rd party resources. Finally, having to make backups of a database and your website files, which many people fail to do anyway, is less of a concern since you'll always have a local copy of the very latest version of your site.

Having a static website is not without its disadvantages however. For example, selling stuff can be problematic, unless you utilize 3rd party services, and incorporating a self-hosted comment platform can be tricky, especially if you don't want a database server, but it is doable.

In light of the ad-riddled, CDN powered, JavaScript infected shit-hole that the modern web has become, static websites and site website generators have made a significant comeback and though there are a plethora of them to choose from, Publii is currently the only one i'm aware of that is oriented toward newcomers and does not strictly require any knowledge of HTML or scripting languages. Anyone who is comfortable with a CMS such as WordPress will immediately feel right at home with Publii and anyone who isn't can easily learn it.

Recommendations

• STAY AWAY FROM ANY COMPANY OWNED BY ENDURANCE INTERNATIONAL GROUP (EIG) a.k.a Clearlake Capital Group a.k.a Newfold Digital !
• When searching for a hosting provider include "independently owned" in your search query.
• Make sure the company has been in business for at least 10 years or more. It seems many start-ups are looking to be bought and you want to avoid those.
• Beware of companies advertising unlimited resources, such as unlimited disk space and bandwidth. I assure you that attempting to start something like a video hosting platform on a shared server with "unlimited" resources is going to get you kicked out right quick. Storage space and bandwidth are expensive.
• Make sure they provide free SSL certificates. All websites nowadays should be served over an encrypted connection (https) and Let's Encrypt provides free certificates.
• Contact the company and ask them any questions you may have. Ask them where they are based and whether they employ their own support staff or outsource support, in which case you'll want to avoid them.
• Look for unbiased reviews for the host you're considering and be aware that many web hosting "review" sites are run by hosting companies themselves. If the primary focus of the website is to review web hosting providers it usually best to disregard it, though are exceptions.
• You generally get what you pay for, but even a good shared hosting provider will often cost less than $10 dollars a month.

Given that i currently do not use a shared web host, i'm not up to date with the brands and their services, however SiteGround kept making an appearance in my research. While they are a bit more expensive, they seem to get good reviews by what appears to be honest people and they are apparently not owned by EIG/Clearlake/Newfold. A2 Hosting also seems to be quite popular and well-liked. Another potentially interesting company is VeeroTech Systems which claims to be 100% independently owned. If you want my personal recommendation for a company i have extended experience with, i might suggest KnownHost. Their support staff, reliability and speed have all been absolutely excellent since i signed on with them in late 2019. One really nice aspect of KnownHost is that they do not have a tiered support structure; all of their support people are professionals and they are very fast to respond regardless of what day or time i open a ticket but, like i said, you get what you pay for and KnownHost is on the expensive side.

There are many honest and ethical hosting providers, it's just a matter of doing some research and LowEndTalk is a good starting point if cost is an important factor. Their forum is only lightly moderated and if a hosting company is crap, believe me, you'll discover this very quickly. LowEndTalk is affiliated with LowEndBox which offers lots of resources for cheap hosting services. Both websites are geared primarily toward resellers, however they are still good resources for learning about hosting providers.

I have a strong preference for small, independent companies which tend to offer better and more personalized service and support, however there are potential caveats to be aware of. Following is a little story about a very interesting experience i had with a VPS provider.

A short story...

I had no idea what the hell a "furry" was. As i would soon discover, albeit in a most peculiar way, a "furry" is someone who is obsessed with dressing up as a stuffed animal (think Disney) and attending parties with other "furries" (or is it "fairies"?). Simba Lion -- and yes, that was his honest-to-goodness legal name -- was a furry. Simba ran Pride Tech Designs, a small company that sold fully-managed Virtual Private Server space. The company was so small that Simba apparently employed only one person at Pride Tech Designs; himself.

"Furry" equates to weirdo (and potential pedophile) in my book, but Simba's personal life wasn't my concern, at least not until it was. Fact is, i think he was pretty damn good at what he did and a paltry $15 bucks a month for a fully managed and decently outfitted VPS running on Digital Ocean infrastructure, from a guy who i saw as quite knowledgeable and ethical, was one of those deals of the century i don't think i, or anyone else, will ever find again.

12bytes.org went offline on December 12th, 2019. The site was virtually never down while i was with Simba and so it was a bit of a surprise, but i wasn't too concerned because i knew he'd dig his teeth into the problem right of way, except he didn't. Eventually i opened a support ticket and my mail was returned. That's weird. Then i visited pridetechdesign.com and it too was down. That's very weird.

On November 19, 2019, Simba Lion apparently got into an argument with some bug exterminators in his apartment complex and things turned toxic which led to the cops being called. The news said that Simba shot at the officers first, wounding one and, wouldn't you know it, they shot back! Simba died shortly thereafter. I was oblivious to all of this until December the 13th or so when i started searching the interwebs to figure out what the hell happened to my website and Pride Tech Design.

If you're in to drama and fluff, there's a long thread about Simba over at Kiwi Farms where some of the commentators are tugging at his tail. The Simba i knew was very different than the one described on Kiwi Farms. From my seat, he came across as a sort of a straight-laced and ethical guy who was professional without being impersonal. Maybe he was a weirdo and maybe, if we can believe the media, he was unhinged enough to play O.K. Corral with the coppers for no logical reason. Then again, maybe there's more to the story. Either way, as a web hosting provider, i'll miss the critter.

The moral of the story of course is that small is OK, but be wary of a hosting company which is too small.

Resources

• Endurance International Group - Wikipedia
• Seven Reasons for having a Personal Website (This dude has a lot of good information)
• Thoughts on Endurance International Group (EIG) Hosting - Linux Depot
• List of EIG Hosting Brands/Companies [Updated 2020] - WebProTime
• As Full As Possible List of EIG Companies and Brands With Details (Beware EIG Hosting and Newfold Digital!)
• Choose the best shared hosting in 2020 | Petronella Korb, Feb 19, 2020
• LowEndTalk
• Publii