Matthias OttNov 12, 2022

I wrote this three years ago:

“One day, Twitter and other publishing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Medium will indeed die, like so many sites before them. And every time this happens, we lose most of the content we created and with it a fair amount of our collective cultural history.”

Own your content.

Publish on your own site.

https://matthiasott.com/articles/into-the-personal-website-verse

Into the Personal-Website-Verse · Matthias Ott

Matthias Ott is an independent user experience designer and developer from Stuttgart, Germany. Besides design practice he teaches Interface Prototyping at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Kiel.

Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer
Show threadVictoria ElliottNov 12, 2022

@matthiasott whilst I agree with the principle of owning your own content; social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter provide an almost universal ease of use which alternatives struggle to compete with.

This then leads to an inequality between those who do and do not have the inclination, confidence, or skills to master a new platform which isn’t intuitive to use (such as Mastodon or having your own website).

Show threadVictoria ElliottNov 12, 2022

@matthiasott People go for the happy path.

Ease of use has undoubtedly been a significant contributor to Twitter’s success. The shadow side of this is that alternatives are less appealing and so therefore the options in real-terms are limited.

You could even go as far as saying that effective design can be an enemy of the good due to creating a monopoly effect. It’s hard to find a meaningful alternative to Twitter if the options aren’t as usable.

Show threadMatthias OttNov 12, 2022
@vce_elliott Yes, I fully agree! I remember a vivid discussion about this at one of the first IndieWebCamps I attended. There is a barrier to owning your content and publication platforms are trying to make it as easy as possible to publish inside their walled gardens and to give us immediate gratification for it, so that it is convenient to just write and hit publish there. On the other hand: it is as easy as ever to get a website online that fits your personal level of technical skills.
Show threadMatthias OttNov 12, 2022
@vce_elliott Just as an example, you could start on wordpress.com and later move on to your own server. Some hosters also offer one-click installations of CMSes etc. And I still believe that over time more good design will flow into the alternatives so that they eventually are getting easier to use.
Show threadDoug HoltonNov 12, 2022
@matthiasott @vce_elliott Yeah I've run my own sites for years, but it can cost money & upkeep that make it inaccessible to most, even w/1-click installers. WordPress.com is a good compromise since you can always export & transfer your site if you want or if the service discontinues. The only alternatives in the works that I can see might be govt-provided Solid Pods (data stores) https://solidcommunity.be/ or decentralized peer-to-peer hosting such as IPFS https://ipfs.tech/
Solid Community – Solid Community

Show threadTheRealRolandNov 16, 2022
@dougholton @matthiasott @vce_elliott I think that not all people have something to say (or write). If they think that isn't their case, they can spent little money to do it. Twitter has been (and is, again) an important platform for me, but there's too many noise, like other social platform. It isn't anymore a microblogging platform
Show threadVictoria Elliott

@dougholton @matthiasott @WineRoland

For me, having a personal website means I have a place of my own to publish longer form content. It’s also a hobby where I can learn more through tinkering.

But as I use a website builder with only a handful of custom CSS, if I suddenly needed a more advanced skill set to do this, I’d be really put off.

I’d like to learn more over time, but it’s not going to happen overnight!

Nov 16, 2022 at 10:25pmWeb
Show threadTheRealRolandNov 16, 2022
@vce_elliott @dougholton @matthiasott true. But maybe if someone wants only to write down their thoughts, they need not so much CSS, something like Livejournal, Typepad, or Blogger. But in this way the blog isn't really your... Right, I read your point
Show threadVictoria ElliottNov 16, 2022

@WineRoland @dougholton @matthiasott

Maybe just a plain notepad would be sufficient 🙂

Show threadTheRealRolandNov 16, 2022
@vce_elliott @dougholton @matthiasott or a typewriter 🙂 slow writing, so the thoughts have time to move from soul to hand and acquiring a body