Friday, May 26, 2023

Discussion - My Self-Hosted Experience

This Week's Topic

My Self-Hosted Experience

I have now been back on Blogger for a month, and I thought with some time and distance, I could reflect on my self-hosting experience. 

The Good


There were quite a few positives to moving my site. I did have a bumpy start when I tried to do it on my own, but once I found a host that gave great support, the transition was not too bad. 
  • Migration - My wonderful host took care of this for me, but I did wish I had not been fooled by all those articles I read telling me how easy it would be. Look - I am cheap and will always try to do things myself if it will save me money. I am also sane, and if it becomes too much of a headache, I know when to cut my losses and get some help. 
  • The Editor - I actually loved the block editor. The reason being that when I wanted to alter the mark-up, it was so nice and tidy. When I build a post in Blogger in compose mode, the mark-up generated is a mess. I have since created new templates for my Blogger posts, and it's going really well. 
  • The Commenting System - I have always liked the way Wordpress' commenting system worked. I liked the ease with which I could approve and reply. In Blogger, I have to approve the comment then go to the post and reply from there. It's a little tedious. I also liked the way I could follow a conversation. I simply got a notification and could reply. If something like this exists in Blogger, I haven't found it. I tried subscribing to the comment, but then I was notified every time a new comment posted and not just replies to my comment. That was annoying. I hated Disqus when I tried it, and I am pretty much put off with installing a commenting system. 
  • New Followers - I did pick up some great new followers who have since abandoned me when I moved back. I guess since I don't show up in WP reader, they think I am gone. I sort of knew this would happen.  


The Bad


I know a lot of you are aware of my struggles. They started pretty early after my migration, and I spent so much time trying to fix the issue. It was becoming really unhealthy for me. 
  • The Commenting - That Nonce error was the bane of my existence. I am having flashback. *shudder* The thing that bothered me was that I notified my host several times, and when I was leaving, they asked why. I told them, and they were like, "we can help if you like." I did reach out several times in the past and gave up. I know some people who self-host said they did not use Jetpack (which I think was where my issues began), but to me, I wanted the functionality. I wanted people to be able to comment via Wordpress and to subscribe and be able to read my posts in Wordpress reader. 
  • The Plugins - I only installed two plugins, Jetpack and UBB. I loved the functionality of UBB, but had no idea I would need to rebuy it each year. It still functioned, but I could not get any updates. I think this may have been part of my issue too. It's something to think about when you use a plugin to build part of the site. For me, I only used it for the reviews, but once that plugin was gone, so was that part of my reviews. That was one reason why I couldn't bring myself to deactivate it. I had two years of reviews. It was overwhelming thinking about redoing them all PLUS the backlog reviews I had slowly updated. 
  • Missed Posts - I write all my posts on the weekend and schedule them for publishing. I had so many missed posts when I moved to Wordpress. I tried changing some settings, manually clearing the site cache, but my posts kept failing. I had to start manually pushing them out every day. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was inconvenient, and I never had a missed post in all my years on blogger.  
  • The Future - When you stop self-hosting, your site is gone. I don't think I thought that far into the future. It was actually my daughter who was a bit disappointed to think all the stuff she created would be gone. She liked knowing there was a little piece of the internet with her thoughts out there. I kind of agree. My site was too big to migrate to free Wordpress or most of their priced plans. If I stopped blogging, I couldn't see me paying for hosting forever. 
Although my personal experience with self-hosting gave me many headaches, I know a multitude of people who have no issues. Overall, I am happy to be back where I started. I am slowly reposting reviews from earlier this year which I have to reformat. Glad to say, it's almost done, and my faithful blogging friends still come and give me a visit which I appreciate. I am sad that I did lose a lot of posts, but I have had no anxiety generated by the blog these days, and for that, I am grateful. 

Now it's your turn!




Do you have any reservations
about self-hosting?
Let us know in the comments!

17 comments:

  1. The cost and feeling like I need to know more about blogging/computer stuff in general always put me off from self-hosting. It was never even really a consideration. I feel like Blogger makes it very easy for me, and I appreciate that.

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    1. Blogger is definitely much easier, and I am not looking for world domination. I think during lockdown everyone was doing it, and I didn't want to be the last one on Blogger. After my experience, I don't care. You know what? Most of those people who migrated to self-hosted aren't even blogging now.

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  2. I bet the UBB thing may have played a part. I use a plugin for scheduled posts after having one miss. I have fears about my blog going away when I'm done blogging, but all of my reviews are on GR, so maybe when I'm done I'll just be done. It was good to read all your experiences. Sorry it was a rough go for you.

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    1. I know everyone loves all the plugins when they move to self hosting, but I only had two. I think it's ridiculous you have to use a plugin to make sure your scheduled posts go live. I also post all my reviews on Goodreads, but I would lose other content (discussions and whatnot)

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  3. Yay for feeling okay enough about it all now to do this post to share your experience! I'm honestly just so thankful that you didn't give up on blogging. You'd have been so missed!!

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    1. It took a while to get over it, but it's a relief to not have to hear about people having issues with my blog. Thanks for saying you'd miss me

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    2. I'm sure it is. I thought that dreaded "N" word was going to drive you crazy.

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  4. I really didn't like WP. All the MH issues on top of the WP issues certainly didn't help me when I had my brief flirtation with switching but I would have probably switched back to blogger anyway. It just suits me even with its annoyances. :)

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    1. It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. I am not usually one for FOMO, but I got caught up with my regular crowd all seeming to migrate. Maybe I felt left behind? And my daughter had wanted to switch for years as she wanted to utilize plugins (which were probably my downfall). I guess it's all about how much energy you have to dedicate to it, and all those little bumps sucked me dry. It's been smooth sailing since I came back to Blogger.

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  5. Honestly Sam I am self hosting because I have my husband to help me! Otherwise, I don't think I would have...

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    1. I think I might have made it through with more support, but I was over it. You would like to think I could handle a blog after writing banking software for years, but nope.

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  6. Wow, I'm so sorry you had so many problems! I have self-hosted for years without any of these issues. You got exceptionally unlucky I think!

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    1. There are lots of self hosted sites out there that have been functioning for years. Just unlucky

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  7. I've always self-hosted and while I don't regret it overall, there have definitely been a couple of times where I've had to pay someone to do something because I got in over my head. These days I very much operate on 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' because I know I'll just make it worse if I start messing around with it. The nonce thing you dealt with was particularly frustrating though because I tried to research it and as I'm sure you saw yourself, there didn't seem to be any real consensus on what caused it and no one had a definitive answer on how to resolve it. First time I've come across that since I've been blogging. Usually I can at least find a solution even if I can't figure out how to implement it myself, haha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The nonce thing is like every medical issue I have - no real answers or solutions. I tend to abandon things that make me miserable unless it's worth digging in for. I just didn't feel that way about self-hosting.

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  8. The nonce thing was cruel and evil, frankly. I still don't understand what the heck it was, and no amount of searching would help! I fully agree with your above comment about the medical issues, that is exactly how it seemed! (Also why are medical professionals so incompetent? I suppose that is a discussion for another day, but still, the frustration is real!)

    I am so sorry you had such a hard time, but glad that you are feeling better about it now! I have not had many issues at all- and luckily my host has been able to fix the ones I have had! I am lucky that she is wonderful, tbh. Because you are definitely NOT the only horror story!

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    1. I did get the nonce error on other people's sites myself, but there was no clear cut cause, so their fixes didn't work for me. I am over it. I don't mind blogging for free, and I won't have to worry about my site disappearing. LOL. I have been waiting 7 weeks for an ultrasound so we can figure out why my foot hurts so much, so I am super bitter about my medical issues right now.

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