This week I set up my own WordPress site. This was exciting and challenging because I have only used WordPress in cases where my professor has full controls of the inner workings of the site.
I can see myself using this site to compile all of the digital projects I have created and will create throughout college, as I hope to keep exploring new areas of the Digital Humanities. It would be convenient to have a single place to link all of my projects, so I can link that site on my applications.
I have found that there is a lot more freedom in creating your own personal site, rather than going through some other hosting service. The simplest thing I can think of that represents this is access to themes in WordPress. When creating this website I was able to install any new themes and customize them to any extent. In my Music and Movement in Atlantic World History class, however, if I wanted a new theme that wasn’t preinstalled I had to contact my professor to get it installed. I assume it is a similar process with a hosting service. There is less autonomy and convenience when you don’t have full control over your site.
On the other hand, there is always the possibility that I will delete something important on my site, or change it in ways that I don’t understand because I don’t have the expertise behind creating my own site. Using a hosting service or social media platform has the benefit of allowing you to focus on your content rather than the technological inner workings of the site. While hosting services have more limits, they give you the convenience of building on something that is already established.
