Eventually this blog will be lost. Just like all other digital media. I have been looking around at alternatives to host these webpages.
One day I will stop writing. For a couple of reasons.
- I don't want to follow the internet content marketing trends.
- I can't maintain this website forever beyond a basic blog Wordpress can get very heavy.
- I may lose interest in blogging and have a lack of time to do it.
Can my blog live on for a 100 years?
The idea of owning a corner of the internet still appeals to me if not better than posting to social media. You control your content and what you publish.
It is something not thought about but if yo want to have your story and ideas live on we might need to take steps to preserve and archive.
A 100 years might seem a long stretch but its really not that long just 2 generations.
Some thoughts on why to keep your blog around for 100 years.
I want to own my words and story. Maybe someone might read it
I don't want someone else to manage it or pass it on to my children?
I don't have expectations of making money online with a blog. Maybe with a game but not a blog.
Here are some options I looked at to archive this blog:
Jekyll, Gatsby host on Github Pages
I heard of these two frameworks Jekyll and Gatsby JS (Which is React JS Based) being able to generate static pages and hosting on github which would cut down my hosting cost. They are very popular in the Tech and Dev world its a good option to use one of these two if you plan to host your wordpress website on Github in static format you don't have to worry about hosting issue cost and just need a static domain name.
But I doubt I would want to do that as it takes quite a bit of time for not-techies to grapple with Git, Commanline and HTML editing.
I am fine with it but I like having tools and editors to help generate content and not deal with code all the time.
Wordpress.com
Wordpress.com not to be confused with Wordpress.org that is what I am currently using to manage and host the blog on Siteground.
Wordpress.com started off as a free blogging platform back in 2006 and I still have my old blog archived. It comes with 3GB of storage space.
I believe this project will last for at least 100 years, it has grown over the years despite the rise of social media.
One good thing about wordpress.com is Wordpress themselves own their hosting servers and software.
You don't have to manage hosting and you have the option of the professional paid services like themes and SEO plugin if you so choose if you start paying.
Most of the texts will be saved except for some of the images since there's a limited space option.
I've thought of by exporting my wordpress blog that wordpress.com as an archival place of sorts when I eventually stop.
Archive.org
Archive.org has been periodically categorizing and archiving webpages for many years but you have to manually do it if you are running a static site or a website with little traffic like mine.
Thankfully there is a little plug-in that you can choose to download, and use it automatically archive all your pages and posts.
One good thing about this service is that you can search for your old domain name and it will display all the past archived pages.
Other Places to publish:
Unfortunately these platforms have no way to do a mass import of your blog you wuld have to manually publish each article best to start doing it now as you write.
Steem and Publish0x
These are newer blockchain base platforms that are similar to medium but there is not way to auto publish (besides Steemit).
My interest in blockchain is that it does not restrict the types of content you can post, whether it's good or bad. There is a chance for it not to be deleted since it's not on the centralized server.
But this technology is still too new, and not many may hop onto it to try to use it, unlike the regular WordPress blog which has many support and tutorials on how to manage it. But I believe blockchain publishing maybe the future.
Facebook Profile Notes
Despite the problems surrounding facebook with the hacking and usage of buying voters. Facebook is one viable option to post content there. Only thing it needs to be don concurrently and you can't Import your blog post to it.
Your own Facebook profile is sort of a blogging platform in itself. While I haven't gone totally out of social media like Cal Newport I have come up with my own strategies to deal with it and minimize using it.
I do think I could post a couple of my popular or articles I want to archive here on my facebook profile. I know Facebook does not delete profiles as long as you behave well and it can be a good memorial down the road.
I do believe Facebook will be around for the next 100 years.
Well that's some of the recommendations I can think of, I've trying to archive and keep your little website of life for the next hundred years, assuming the robots in the sky that don't get to kill us yet ha ha Ha.
What kind of archiving options do you use for your website or do you even have a website? Maybe you might be on social media instead? Whatever it is having our website or digital presents now is so simple and have many options to choose from. Hopefully some of these options will still be around in 100 years.
Links:
https://blog.webjeda.com/why-jekyll-over-wordpress/
https://dev.to/healeycodes/what-if-i-want-my-website-to-last-for-100-years-1nld
https://seety.co/migrating-from-wordpress-to-gatsbyjs
https://www.taniarascia.com/migrating-from-wordpress-to-gatsby/
https://daveceddia.com/start-blog-gatsby-netlify/
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://williamteh.com/keeping-my-blog-for-100-years-someday-moving-off-wordpress/