A website to destroy all websites
Henry Desroches makes the case for building and maintaining your own, personal website, rather than publishing one a few of the monolithic platforms of the web.
Monolithic platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Medium, and Substack draw a ton of creators and educators because of the promise of monetization and large audiences, but they’ve shown time and time again how the lack of ownership creates a problem. When those platforms fail, when they change their rules, when they demand creators move or create a particular way to maintain their access to those audiences, they pit creators or their audiences against the loss of the other.
I care deeply about (independent) online publishing, though I need to improve my own presence and make proper use of Webmentions and POSSE. However, Henry’s essay resonated, and I think will provide a great place to start, or a great reason why to start, for many.
Whatever you do, don’t use Substack.