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Domains are super cheap and easy to get. Everyone should have one (especially anyone who calls themself a hacker). Ideally you would also self-host your servers

Domains are super cheap and easy to get. Everyone should have one (especially anyone who calls themself a hacker). Ideally you would also self-host your servers, but having your own domain is the most important thing, because you can always change your hosting provider, whereas it is impossible to go back in time and rewrite all of the links to your old (now deleted) medium.com blog. "Owning" a domain just means you get to route DNS lookups for that domain to any IP address of your choosing, which can be your own IP, Amazon's IP, GitHub's IP, or any other IP. GitHub Pages (or GitLab Pages, if you prefer) will host your website for free. You don't even have to know HTML to make your site look fancy, just basic Markdown; GitHub will run your Markdown files through the Jekyll static site generator by default (this can be disabled by adding a blank ".nojekyll" file to the root of your repository). Assuming you have a GitHub account and that you only need to serve static (HTML/JS/CSS) files, launching a site with your very own domain name is as easy as: 1. Buy a domain from the registrar of your choice 2. Create a repository called "<yourusername>.github.io" and a "index.md" or "index.html" at the root 3. Go to https://github.com/<yourusername>/<yourusername>.github.io/settings/pages https://github.com/<yourusername>/<yourusername>.github.io/s..., select the "master" branch as the publishing source, and enter your domain (excluding the "www.") under "custom domain" 6. Go to your domain registrar's website, and find your DNS settings. Create four "A" records pointing to GitHub's IP addresses: "185.199.108.153", "185.199.109.153", "185.199.110.153", and "185.199.111.153". Create a "CNAME" record pointing "www.<yourdomain>" to "<yourusername>.github.io" Then if GitHub decides to block/censor/ban you, all you have to do is switch to a different provider (or potentially self-host). If your registrar blocks you, you can transfer your domain to another one.

justaj 4y ago
> but having your own domain is the most important thing, because you can always change your hosting provider What if your hosting provider or authorities seize your domain?
- browningstreet 4y ago
  Authorities and locked platforms aren’t the same problem. But definitely don’t buy a domain through a content platform. Buy it from a registrar and manually link it to whatever hosting/content platform you’re using. Preferably hosting with offsite backups that can actually be used to reconstitute a site elsewhere.
MasterYoda 4y ago
What type of sites can be hosted on github pages? Can github pages be used free by anyone for any site? Can I have a blog under my own domain (with ads and make money) where I write about random stuff not relatade to any github project? Feels like there must be alot of limitations, like not for profit, limited bandwidth/pageviews per month, and must be github project oriented etc or?
- NotPractical 4y ago
  According to GitHub: > You can use GitHub Pages to showcase some open source projects, host a blog, or even share your résumé > GitHub Pages is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web-hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service (SaaS) > In addition, your use of GitHub Pages is subject to the GitHub Terms of Service, including the restrictions on get-rich-quick schemes, sexually obscene content, and violent or threatening content or activity > GitHub Pages sites have a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month https://docs.github.com/en/pages/getting-started-with-github-pages/about-github-pages https://docs.github.com/en/pages/getting-started-with-github... There are certainly better hosting options out there that provide more freedom, but GitHub Pages is nice for someone who just wants to get a personal site up and running without much fuss.

justaj 4y ago

> but having your own domain is the most important thing, because you can always change your hosting provider What if your hosting provider or authorities seize your domain?

browningstreet 4y ago
Authorities and locked platforms aren’t the same problem. But definitely don’t buy a domain through a content platform. Buy it from a registrar and manually link it to whatever hosting/content platform you’re using. Preferably hosting with offsite backups that can actually be used to reconstitute a site elsewhere.

MasterYoda 4y ago

What type of sites can be hosted on github pages? Can github pages be used free by anyone for any site? Can I have a blog under my own domain (with ads and make money) where I write about random stuff not relatade to any github project? Feels like there must be alot of limitations, like not for profit, limited bandwidth/pageviews per month, and must be github project oriented etc or?

NotPractical 4y ago
According to GitHub: > You can use GitHub Pages to showcase some open source projects, host a blog, or even share your résumé > GitHub Pages is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web-hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service (SaaS) > In addition, your use of GitHub Pages is subject to the GitHub Terms of Service, including the restrictions on get-rich-quick schemes, sexually obscene content, and violent or threatening content or activity > GitHub Pages sites have a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month https://docs.github.com/en/pages/getting-started-with-github-pages/about-github-pages https://docs.github.com/en/pages/getting-started-with-github... There are certainly better hosting options out there that provide more freedom, but GitHub Pages is nice for someone who just wants to get a personal site up and running without much fuss.