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@molly0xfff @gadgetgav Easy migration is a key factor here. Migrating from e.g. Twitter is very costly because you lose many (most?) of the contacts. Migrating from hosting provider is much easier if you did your homework.

@gadgetgav @molly0xfff

As an ISP, let me chime in: No, not necessarily. Just avoid any form of vendor-lock in (eg: onepage, wix, ...). Given your question, I assume, you are not overly tech-savvy.

you are also fine running a cheap virtual host or virtual server. It's also OK, if you use the hosting-companies SQL-Server for your CMS (I suggest you do, so no hassle for you with patching, upgrades and security stuff). Important is, that you have means to 'dump' the stuff and move it somewhere else.

Point is: use your own (domain-) name, so u can move your emails and or content somewhere else, with a limited amount of hassle.

So: No vendor-specific stuff. They will prey on u, as they can guesstimate what a move will cost you, and calculate from there how to extract the maximum amount of money from you.

Hosting with a hosting-company is perfectly fine, as long as you don't use their special-sauce, which will run exactly only on their servers.
And if you are using CMSs - by the love of god, limit the amount of plugins. The ideal amount is 0, for that matter, and before you ask.

@gadgetgav FWIW, there are loads of small hosting providers who are much better than Zuck or Musk

@gadgetgav @czauner @molly0xfff I'm a bit hesitant to suggest Wordpress with the drama Matt Mullenweg has created around it, but it's one of the most popular platforms for running a small website and there are plenty of providers offering various levels of managed hosting solutions. Also, exporting and moving on should be facilitated by the huge plugin ecosystem.

In general, picking an open source platform with fully managed hosting but with an option to go self-hosted is a good starting point.

@gadgetgav @molly0xfff

Sorry, im on a train, and only on my cellphone. So ... I'm not overly competent when it comes to the US ISP market.

But GoDaddy is a larger player, and from what I know they offer basically everything from a naked VPS to a hosted WordPress.

Generally, this boils down how much of your time you want to invest in kindling your stuff (updates, etc, ...).

And, as I don't know you - and what you are intending to do, sorry, I can't give you solid advice.

SBDY should make a decision-flowchart, or something like this.

But if you are for instance talking WordPress: If you have SBDY who sets that up for you, and helps you decide for a holster, you should be fine.

If you keep the plugins to minimum, enable anything with auto updates, and have aforementioned person to check once or twice in a year, that should do it (major updates, like switching php-releases).

Sone Hosters and ISPs also offer WP setup and basing maintenance as a service, so there's that too.

@czauner @gadgetgav @molly0xfff

Don't use GoDaddy.

They either sold, or allowed to be hacked, my email with them. After that I got a steady stream of phishing spams demanding payment for a non-existing domain. Also continual adverts from 3rd party web services.

@gadgetgav

It’s a valid concern. Ultimately you *can* still be shut down. But it’s a lot harder. There are many DNS providers out there (And GoDaddy is frankly one of the worst IMO). There’s only one Facebook provider.

You *can* move your own website to other providers for a long time before you run out of options.

@czauner @molly0xfff

@gadgetgav @philip
My preferred domain-name provider is gandi.net - I have been using them for decades. What is also important to note in these fraught times, is that they are in the EU, and thus have better laws protecting your privacy etc.

@czauner @gadgetgav @molly0xfff I think most important part is having your own domain. What and how you host something on that doesn't matter, but having it on your own domain means you can move it, change it whenever and however you want.

@czauner @gadgetgav @molly0xfff

Never trust any company offering a free domain name registration.

Or at the very least when choosing a domain through a supplier check who they register the domain owner as. (Most will quietly register *their* ownership of your desired domain, and then charge you an arm and a leg to release it to you if you ever try to move. The lock-in is tight.)

@gadgetgav @molly0xfff that’s the route I’m going. If I can touch it, have root and anything going external is encrypted… that seems safest.

@gadgetgav @molly0xfff One thing I'd strongly caution you against is using the same provider for your host and your backups. It's a good idea to back up any websites you run to a machine at home, so in the event of a problem with your hosting company you have everything you need to port them somewhere else. An off the shelf NAS appliance from eg Synology is a good place to start, and can also be used to back up your desktop/laptop/whatever.

@gadgetgav @molly0xfff Talk to www.mega.nz

@gadgetgav @molly0xfff It keeps going doesn't it? Like how can you trust the hardware? Should you build your own? Etc

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io I always talk about data governance and sovereignty and my friends look at me as if I were some kind of prepper nut job. I hope this is a wake up call

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io this is why i prefer the Fediverse when it comes to choosing a social media over the mainstream internet.

@molly0xfff deleted my Twitter account the day, Musk took over the platform. My Instagram Account is set to be deleted 01.02.

@molly0xfff I built https://lmno.lol with portability in mind (entire blog in a single file). You don't have to rely on lmno.lol domain. I'll soon offer custom domains.

For example: https://xenodium.com now backed by https://lmno.lol/xenodium

@molly0xfff Tiktok was also controlling the online space. They got caught suppressing LGBTQ content, or any content they didn't like as well as boosting any message that fits their own agenda. It wasn't an open or fair algorithm.