Difficult Web Host Decision - Neocities vs. GitHub Pages

[neoratz]

i recently bought a domain, but this has lead me to a difficult decision... host on Neocities or GitHub Pages?
Neocities doesn't allow custom domains unless you are a supporter! this is out of the question for me due to my current financial situation. luckily, i was told by my much more programming-inclined friend that GitHub Pages has all of the features i want from Neocities supporter for free. however, if i moved to GitHub, i would miss the social aspect of Neocities! 

if i had supporter (which i may be able to afford in the future), this would not be a concern because i could use both websites OR just Neocities. but i am not sure what to do at the moment... the recommendations i have received are:
1. host on GitHub, make my Neocities site redirect to the new domain + post major updates on my wall (i am unsure if this is allowed)
2. host on both, just put a banner on my index page linking to my new site + only update my Neocities site when i have made a significant change

so i have come here to ask for more opinions... what would you do in this situation?

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I'm not even sure if 1.) is possible; does Neocities allow redirects?

You could use Github to host a frame containing your page hosted on NeoCities. Just make sure that all external links are on target="_blank". Its not a clean solution, but allows you to use your domain and to stay connected to the Neocities community without having to maintain two pages.

[Melooon]

I would suggest you stay where you are, get NC supporter for one month, set your custom domain and then cancel Supporter the next month. As far as I know there is no code in place to actually remove Supporter features from accounts that once had them; its more or less an honor system ~ so with that in mind, its reasonable for you to pay only when you can afford it!

That said I would add a big caution flag to say; if you can't afford hosting ~ do you think you will be able to afford your domain again next year when the price goes up? or the year after? Or every year for potentially decades? Domains are a slippery slope and once you start using one its really hard to stop without breaking everyone's link to your site - that's a much more important choice than where your site is hosted 

There's nothing wrong with hosting on GitHub; but it is owned by Microsoft, its very programmery, and I think the whole ethos of it as a platform is really not the vibe for creative homepages ~ so, it might be a wise logical choice, but I know from personal experience that logical choices often lead to creative decay; and your site is very neocitiesy!

Alternatively you could always spin up a smaller alternative site if you wanna play around with GitHub and use your domain ~ that way its less of a major choice. @lulu kinda did that in reverse when she moved off NC and its a fun way to try out new things! https://beatnik.neocities.org/

I could be TOTALLY wrong about the NC supporter thing, maybe they have changed it ~ but it seems like its worth a try! 

ost on GitHub, make my Neocities site redirect to the new domain + post major updates on my wall (i am unsure if this is allowed)

From what Iv seen; this wont get you banned; but it could get you shadow banned from the public website list ~ its not the best practice 

[Cobra!]

You know what they say: If something is free, that means you’re the product.
GitHub is owned by Microsoft, and they haven’t had the best track record in regards to privacy.
Based on that alone I would go with Neocities.

[DiffydaDude]

You know what they say: If something is free, that means you’re the product.
GitHub is owned by Microsoft, and they haven’t had the best track record in regards to privacy.
Based on that alone I would go with Neocities.

I dont think that quote applies here, they're just looking for a good web hosting solution. I think that quote goes more for youtube than web hosting on github

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Imho, the whole point is not out of place: Github was obtained by Microsoft that wanted to get its users and their code as assets; they are already mining it for their "Copilot" program.

However, Neocities is also no welfare-charity (judging from his website pic where he poses with the neoliberal "Whole Earth Catalogue", the admin might be pretty much in the same political camp as Jobs, Gates, and most other Silicon Valley tycoons), and has aspects that I find unpleasantly close to a social network: Followers, messages, "Walls" - things that, in my opinion, brings the risk of luring people to interact more with the platform and to adapt to its norms, than being practically creative themself. But this might be just me.

I'm however not sure how much these aspects are relevant for the OP.

[DiffydaDude]

@ThunderPerfectWitchcraft actually id rather we not have some sociological debate in some thread where some guy really just needs help with hosting. i couldnt care less about what the neocities founder guy does and what books he likes anyways.

[Eunice]

I'll be awkward and say I wouldn't go with either. X10Hosting offer free hosting and you can have three subdomains/domains. You do have to log in once every month to keep the account up though. And then of course, there isn't a community.

Or you could simply redirect your domain to your Neocities site through your domain registrar's dashboard. And then tell everyone to use the domain rather than the Neocities url.

[neoratz]

thanks for the advice everyone :-) i am considering all of these! another of my friends told me that i can use a vscode plugin to easily publish updates on my Neocities site all at once, just like publishing commits on GitHub. i thought that Neocities would not allow this, since webdav uploading is a supporter perk... i'm going to look into it more just to make sure before i do anything wacky >~< if it's allowed, this would be a great solution for me to use both!

Alternatively you could always spin up a smaller alternative site if you wanna play around with GitHub and use your domain ~ that way its less of a major choice. @lulu kinda did that in reverse when she moved off NC and its a fun way to try out new things! https://beatnik.neocities.org/

i think i like the idea of doing something noncommittal like this if nothing else is working out. i'll play around with some different options, but this would definitely be less scary hahaha.

if you can't afford hosting ~ do you think you will be able to afford your domain again next year when the price goes up? or the year after? Or every year for potentially decades?

right now it's only $15 yearly so it's very affordable for me :-D i am wary of future price increases, but i think i'll be fine when/if i can land a solid full-time job. and then i would ideally be able to pay for Neocities supporter too! if it increased to something like $300 yearly, that would be a different story... but i wouldn't say you didn't tell me so :P

GitHub is owned by Microsoft, and they haven’t had the best track record in regards to privacy.
Based on that alone I would go with Neocities.

Imho, the whole point is not out of place: Github was obtained by Microsoft that wanted to get its users and their code as assets; they are already mining it for their "Copilot" program.

However, Neocities is also no welfare-charity
[...]
I'm however not sure how much these aspects are relevant for the OP.

issues with Microsoft and Neocities are unlikely to factor into my decision. i am resigned to the fact that most platforms i use will have practices/ideologies/staff i dislike on some level (e.g. i still use Tumblr despite the ongoing issues with Automattic). of course, the context and extent of any issues like that are important to me, but i am personally not opposed to using GitHub on that basis (even though i dislike the practice). i don't mind discussion of it though, i am still interested in the issue! especially since mindful use of online services is a common theme of discussion in this forum. and the question posed in my original post was "what would YOU do" after all i just hope that doesn't sound ignorant, hahaha. i really do appreciate getting other perspectives.

I'll be awkward and say I wouldn't go with either. X10Hosting offer free hosting and you can have three subdomains/domains. You do have to log in once every month to keep the account up though. And then of course, there isn't a community.

i haven't heard of this service before, i'll look into it thanks! :-D

so far, i am thinking i would like to continue publishing updates on my Neocities site like option 2 of my first post. if the tutorials suggested to me are within Neocities' rules, i will happily do that. if not, i am not looking to break their rules or engage in rude practices, so i will just do it manually. in the event i prefer GitHub, i think i will make an effort to continue posting to Neocities regardless. i don't see myself at risk of creative decay from a web host switch, but i definitely don't fit with the ethos of GitHub as Melon stated thanks again everyone!

[Cobra!]

However, Neocities is also no welfare-charity (judging from his website pic where he poses with the neoliberal "Whole Earth Catalogue", the admin might be pretty much in the same political camp as Jobs, Gates, and most other Silicon Valley tycoons)

Have you got a source for this? It's not that I don't believe you, I just want to see where you read this.

and has aspects that I find unpleasantly close to a social network: Followers, messages, "Walls" - things that, in my opinion, brings the risk of luring people to interact more with the platform and to adapt to its norms, than being practically creative themself. But this might be just me.

Yeah, that part I don't like about it...
But from what I understand, Neocities is pretty clean when it comes to user privacy. Some privacy watchdog sites even use them as a web host.

Though even as a "social network", it doesn't feel like it's engineered to be addictive like other social networks are, but I don't really use it.

issues with Microsoft and Neocities are unlikely to factor into my decision. i am resigned to the fact that most platforms i use will have practices/ideologies/staff i dislike on some level (e.g. i still use Tumblr despite the ongoing issues with Automattic). of course, the context and extent of any issues like that are important to me, but i am personally not opposed to using GitHub on that basis (even though i dislike the practice). i don't mind discussion of it though, i am still interested in the issue! especially since mindful use of online services is a common theme of discussion in this forum. and the question posed in my original post was "what would YOU do" after all i just hope that doesn't sound ignorant, hahaha. i really do appreciate getting other perspectives.

That's fair enough. You do what you feel is best, then.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Have you got a source for this? It's not that I don't believe you, I just want to see where you read this.

Go to his Website, and open his image.

This magazine promoted progress by technology rather than social development or progressive politcs, that were widely despised as dysfunctional. Instead, it featured texts by Ayn Rand and Buckminster Fuller as well as Cybernetic ideas to reshape the world

Jobs was a big fan, and the Whole Earth Catalog had great influence on the first generations of Silicon Valley Tycoons and personal computer/internet pioneers; great parts of the internet and its applications were designed with ideas spread by the WEC in mind.

There is a full media-analysis available at Jacobin.de, unfortunetaly only available in German language.