@bw I've been compiling a list of #indieweb / #smallweb hosting providers here https://shellsharks.com/indieweb#hosting. Of this list, I’m not sure which would best meet the two requirements of 1. Being super-simple and 2. Being HTML-customization friendly, but I can say I've heard great reviews of omg.lol, Pika, mmm.page and Micro.blog.
@bw I haven’t heard of this being a real thing, but it would be amazing if someone could just write an email using a html composer, send it to an address like myblog@neocities.com and have it appear as your home page. Or attach a zip of files and have similar happen.
@bw honest opinion. Don't put your beginner HTML hobbyist site on the internet. Host it on your computer, and just play. Don't share with the public. There's no benefit. Practice on html training sites, also.
@patrixmyth@bw I strongly disagree. Part of the benefit is the joy of it being live. For the first time in your life, there's something in the Internet that you made, and you get to go and look at it on any device, anywhere!
That joy of seeing your creation come to life is reason enough in itself. But odds are you'll see things you didn't notice working on your computer and have further learning experiences ("wow, this is hard to use on my phone, I wonder what I can do about that...")
@sarajw@bw Yes, it is another thing to learn, but version management is perhaps even more useful for beginning developers since if they accidentally mess anything up, they know they have a copy of the previous state of the code.
@mikemccaffrey@bw oh for sure! But it's very abstract. That's definitely a while after "hey look hello world and it's in a browser! And now the whole world can see my hello!"
@sarajw@bw An underused feature of GitHub is you can actually just use the UI to directly add and edit pages in your repo/site. It completely bypasses the need for FTP clients and such, and ends up being much simpler overall.
@mikemccaffrey@bw also we're not talking about beginner developers necessarily. But someone exploring building a website. They don't have to become developers.
@sarajw Exactly this. I’ve been thinking about what a tutorial/resource would look like if it was aimed at hobbyists interested in tinkering but not necessarily becoming a professional developer. “HTML for people” or some such.
@sarajw Yeah so my original question was intended to help me figure out the best free host/service to use for this tutorial or whatever it ends up being. Neocities is definitely near the top of the list. It’s probably the right choice.
I’m inspired by the practical nature of this tutorial but want something even easier and not necessarily about getting into the field.
@bw that also all seems so many steps ahead like - no need for domains to be item 1! And hosting static sites is freeee in so many places.
I feel like the true beginner tutorial starts with making a index.html file, putting the bare minimum html in there (not even the standard boilerplate, just <html>Hello!</html>), and double clicking it to open it in a browser.
@bw it'll be beautiful though! Dooo eeeet I'm totally with you and would be happy to contribute. Also happy to just sit back and watch you do your thing :D
I think the hardest thing is helping the people who would enjoy a bit of HTML and benefit from such a tutorial to find it!
@sarajw Wondering if I could get your opinion on something.
What do you think about starting with Notepad/TextEdit vs getting a code editor first. I’m trying to limit the amount of setup but of course we all know editing a site with Notepad is Not Fun™.
@sarajw Yeah I was already envisioning an iterative process. So it’s like write some text in a file. Save it. Put it on the web. Boom you have a live website!
Now, add some things. Here’s a heading. Here’s a list. An image.
Update live site!
Now what? Text styling, colors, and so on.
So maybe at some point in there I could be like “We sure are pressing tab a lot!” or something and have them get an editor (VS Code? Sublime Text?).
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