What factual information can the SD provide about these “free” build your own website? Surely, there’s a catch! Does one really get assigned a unique web address? Are they taking advantage of the allure for an unsuspecting lamb like me? What are they NOT saying? What should one look for in a “free” build-a-website?
They’re usually ad-supported. They’ll usually give you a subdomain like yourwebsite.theirwebsite.com, not yourwebsite.com directly. They’ll try to convince you to upgrade to one of their paid plans for additional features.
If you go with one of the bigger providers, that’s pretty much all there is. It’s a business model as old as the web itself; GeoCities, Angelfire, Tripod, etc. all did this back in the 90s. These days there’s SquareSpace, Google Sites, Weebly, Wix, Wordpress, etc.
There isn’t really much of a catch. It doesn’t cost them much to host your personal website among thousands of others. Go to town.
For personal use, really you should just find something that looks visually appealing to you and is easy enough for you to learn.
There’s a free-for-everyone Unix system called Super Dimension Fortress, home page http://sdf.org/, that apparently (I think) anyone can sign up for. I got my account along with an entire programming class at a local community college.
I mentioned it once before, and someone here tried it and said there was some problem (like, it’s only for college students in a class, or something) and quickly gave up. Still, there’s a link right near the top of the front page that says “To create your own free shell account click here” so give it a try.
You get a Unix account and access to a login. Use telnet or ssh to log in. There are some steps to do to create your own web site, but I think the instructions are there.
My account name is doggie and my web site is doggie.freeshell.org – it contains a log of all the sysadmin activities I did in my sysadmin class. At least one user on this site (IIRC it was covered_with_bees) found it very useful, since I blogged a great many sysadmin activities in great detail. I’ve also occasionally linked to a sub-directory there, where I’ve posted pictures, screen shots, and stuff like that.
Thanks for your thoughts!
One thing that is often overlooked is to keep a copy of anything important that you put on your web site. From Geocities to Verizon, this type of service tends to disappear with little or no notice. Remember, “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”
What’s to stop someone from copying the source code and using the website someone else made on a different server?
Nothing. But that’s not related to the amount you pay for hosting. I could completely duplicate any page on Amazon right now by copying their code.
The non-javascript functionality is where one gets stuck. You can’t copy-and-paste that.
But any HTML, CSS and Javascript is up for grabs. If your site is all HTML, CSS and Javascript it can be copied wholesale to another location.
There is always a catch.
You will sharing a webserver with hundreds of others. You won’t get a unique IPv4 IP address and it could easily end up on a blacklist if one of the other sites has content that is deemed risque. It will be restricted to ensure that your code does not hog any resources. It may be restricted to just serving, HTML/CSS/Javascipt - static websites. Often they require you to use one of their templates. Most of all, they want to know who you are to set up an account. Sometimes they want your banking details and then target you offers of ‘upgrades’ to their paid for services - search engine optimisation, security certificates, support services, email that works, domain names…that sort of thing. They may well be selling your contact information on to third parties and your website will be obliged to carry their advertising. They have no obligations to you and can pull your site at any moment and probably have a clause that says anything you put up there, belongs to them.
Some of these same disadvantages apply to paid-for shared hosting companies, that allow dynamic websites and server-side code.
You are better off buying a cheap VM and building the site yourself.
These freebie website generators are really just a marketing device to get contacts.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.:dubious:
I don’t disagree with any of the factual negatives you put forward, but I still disagree that this is a valid confusion for the overwhelming majority of people who might want a Web site. There’s actually remarkably few cases where this would be prudent.
What should one look for in a “free” build-a-website?
It really depends on what YOU are looking for. If you want a site to play with and post pictures of your cat, then a free website is fine. If you have a business and you want to establish a web presence, then a free site is definitely not for you.
I’ve seen ads on television for services that build the whole site “for free” (and they do) but if you decide to not enroll in their service, it comes down.
There’s really nothing especially tricky here - read the fine print and you’ll see what you’re getting.
I’ve used Weebly for a small business site and had no problems at all. Sure, I could do all the same things from scratch, but the whole drag and drop UI is very convenient and easy to use, and yet they do allow you to edit the html and css if you want to. They will let you point your own domain name to the site, and will remove their ads, which only displayed at the bottom of the pages anyway, for a fairly small fee which can cover multiple sites. I didn’t have any obvious problems with SEO either (using my own domain name).
There’s two separate issues I think.
(1) getting a server and domain name.
(2) getting software to help build html, etc.
You can get a server and domain for just a few dollars per month. (For example, Lunarpages.com offers excellent service, but there may be better or cheaper options.)
Hosts like Lunarpages may provide free tools to help you create pages. Such tools will be much friendlier than the tools that came with, say, Geocities, which focused on getting ad revenue for the host rather than enpowering you.
A friend in Thailand just graduated from a university with a degree in web programming and is now working as a web developer for just $470/month 
. Any Doper who wants to help him find moonlighting work may send me a PM.
There’s no free lunch, but it’s more like a free sample. “Liked the free sample? See how easy it was to use our service to make a basic website? Upgrade now to remove ads/have your own domain name/access these additional features!” They’re not really all that shady, and many don’t even ask for a credit card for the free plan. They’re not scams, either; a lot of work actually goes into creating their templates, editors, etc.
As someone who’s been coding websites since the early 90s and still does it professionally, certainly nothing can match the power of bare code, but for many home users and small businesses it’s overkill. You no longer need (or perhaps even want to) know HTML to put up a basic website with some pictures, contact information, maybe a blog, etc. It’s sort of Facebook-like in that regard.
There are some instances where you DO have a very complex idea that you’ll have to create a completely custom webpage for, or at least build it up from a framework, but for other basic sites and shops, some of the ready-made solutions could work just fine and would involve a lot less hassle and maintenance.
You could spend a few months/years learning DNS, *NIX, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, blah blah blah… or just use a pre-built service, deploy your site in a few days, and then maybe eventually pay them $10/mo if you really like their product. There’s nothing wrong with either method, depending on your needs. “Website as a service” is a very real, growing market that’s not all bad.
Many of those services abstract all that. You don’t have to worry about any DNS or software or HTML, just tell them what name you want and drag and drop everything into place.
Is that $470 working in Thailand? Seems to be a lot of money compared to the median wages there.
What about eLance or 99designs? They’re usually better for the buyers than the developers, but if he’s desperate for work…