@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ Firstly **do NOT follow mainstream tutorials on making website** -- these are ab
- **Static site hosting** to store your site on, which will server the site to clients. You have several options here:
- There exist free static site hosting services, e.g. those on many [git](git.md) hosting platforms like [GitLab](gitlab.md) or [Codeberg](codeberg.md) (even [GitHub](github.md), but avoid that one if possible), on [pubnix](pubnix.md) servers such as [tildetown](tildetown.md) or sites like [neocities](neocities.md). Here you may still encounter some censorship, but it can be a good start. Just search their site for details on how to host a site there.
- You may host your site at home, typically using [Raspberry Pi](rpi.md). This doesn't really cost anything as the weaker Raspberrys (e.g. 3B) consume negligible amount of electricity, and for non-extreme traffic you won't even need a super high speed connection (especially considering you will make a very tiny, efficient website). This is a very good option as practically no one will be able to censor you (only police and ISP), but it's also a tiny bit more difficult to set up because firstly you need to set up a webserver ([Apache](apache.md) is usually installed on any GNU/Linux distro though, it's really easy to do) and secondly you NEED A PUBLIC [IP ADDRESS](ip_address.md) (as typically you will be behind a [NAT](nat.md) so that computers from outside can't reach your server): you will probably have to ask your [internet provider](isp.md) for it (maybe you already have it, maybe they will give it to you for free, maybe you'll have to pay some small fee; just ask). Then you will also need to set up port forwarding on your [router](router.md) so that the requests from the outside are redirected to your web server computer (Raspberry Pi) -- this is just done in router settings by entering the IP address of the webserver computer somewhere.
- You may also pay for a [VPS](vps.md) (i.e. a server computer a company runs for you and which you access remotely) which has the same advantages as having your own home server (i.e. being able to host game servers, dynamic websites, [gopher](gopher.md) sites etc.), but we won't cover this here. Renting a VPS in some obscure country may be a good option to host a very controversial site. Also VPS may be expensive compared to mere static site hosting. { NOTE: **Check out this cool host**, it looks pretty based: https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/. They try to be as cheap as possible, you only pay for resources you use, so with a tiny site it may be almost free, and they don't censor content as a rule. Also their site is pretty suckless. An issue may perhaps be when someone DDOSes you and wastes your resources, draining your money pool. ~drummyfish }
- You may also pay for a [VPS](vps.md) (i.e. a server computer a company runs for you and which you access remotely) which has the same advantages as having your own home server (i.e. being able to host game servers, dynamic websites, [gopher](gopher.md) sites etc.), but we won't cover this here. Renting a VPS in some obscure country may be a good option to host a very controversial site. Also VPS may be expensive compared to mere static site hosting. { NOTE: Here is a hosting that looks OK, advocates free speech and is kind of suckless: https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/, however watch out, IT MAY ALSO BE A SCAM; their business model could just be this: you host your site and pay only for what you use, so they just keep downloading your site from their 3rd party computers and draining your resources, transferring money from your pocket to their own pocket :) So just be careful I guess. ~drummyfish }
- Optionally buy a domain name (search web for domain registrars), for example *mycoolsite.party*. If you are using a free hosting service, you will get a subdomain for free and don't have to care about this (but can still also use your own domain if you have it and want to). If you have your own home server, you probably want to buy a domain because otherwise people would have to connect to your site by literally typing an IP address to the browser. Once you have the domain, you want to edit the [DNS](dns.md) records of your domain to point to the IP address of your server (i.e. you want to add an "A record"): how exactly to do this depends on the registrar (they will have some kinda online system to edit the records).
For starters try to go the easiest way: use some free static site hosting without a domain name. Later, once you get comfortable, you may transition to self-hosting with your custom domain.
