Why we’re self-hosting our blog instead of using a fancy web platform

It’s about trust (or rather the lack thereof)

Most key internet platforms are run by for-profit organisations. Regardless of how cherished a platform is by its users and how their unpaid engagement (and content production) may have contributed to its success, sometimes the most profitable decision can be to sell the whole business to some wacky right-wing billionaire. And we all know what happens next.

Even if your favourite web platform still seems to be operating as usual – it might have long started selling user profiles and generated data to some random 3rd party to train its AI models. 😵‍💫

The list of issues goes on and on (big tech’s EEE tactics, reading private messages, forcing you to jump through hoops to opt-out of shady practices, etc.).

Thankfully, the legislators are catching up and there are some solid policies out there that are supposed to protect our rights — like the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA).

But instead of taking responsibility and complying with the law, companies try hard to find ways around regulations. For example, Apple basically requires companies to relocate their developers to Europe if they want to work on alternative web browser engines.

That way of thinking seems so deeply ingrained into today’s business practices that the EU even saw the need to launch whistleblower tools to report on bad practices.

Enter the open web

Honestly, the whole digital world seems to be in a mess these days. But we’re actually equipped to extract ourselves from (most of) the madness I just outlined earlier.

“The web doesn’t require commission payments, technology fees based on usage, or permission from platform rentseekers.”

As shiny and convenient they might be, platforms such as Medium or LinkedIn are not our only option. What if we just remembered how the web was a while a go? All of that convenient technology is still around!

Going back to proven, open technologies and standards allows us to create an independent but interconnected and resilient web that does not depend on big tech companies and allows us to focus on what really matters – sharing ideas and learning from others.

And this is just what we’re trying to do by

• using our own domain so the website is freely accessible and shareable to anyone.
• self-hosting the content on a platform only we can control.
• using OG web technologies like RSS feeds and Webmentions to connect to other publications.