I have a website!
Overall, the process went well. It took me a bit to figure out how to log into the WordPress admin account from the server management screen, and it also took me a few minutes to find where to put custom CSS. But after some googling I was able to make the title for my About page a nice orange color:
Compared to a DIY server, this process was incredibly smooth. I wish I’d known about it before sinking hours into trying to setup servers for projects I’ve done in the past…
That being said, there are still a lot of advantages of using something like this over an off-the-shelf website builder. For one, you have complete control over your server, so if you decide to add things like interactivity and other features, you can do that without starting from scratch. WordPress also allows you to make pages using pure html and CSS if you’re into that, so you don’t lose much customizability that you’d have with doing a completely DIY build. It also comes from a service backed by the school, so you have troubleshooting help if you need it. And you own everything that you post to it; Zucc can’t come and take down your content because you’re criticizing his tech empire.
It is definitely more work to setup that posting something to Instagram, and when something breaks, it requires a lot more troubleshooting to fix it. But I’d say the costs are worth it for your own little piece of the internet. I might use this site as a portfolio for work I’ve done in other classes.
Alistair, I agree that I like the customization you can do with a WordPress site. I was a little nervous to add my own CSS for customization, but I’d love to use those features as I become more comfortable with HTML and CSS. Also, I like the theme that you chose! Great job!
Agree with everything in your post. The customization aspect of WordPress is really great, and it’s much more than I anticipated I would get. I also really liked your point about the website and any content you put on it being your own. Hosting one’s own website seems much more freeing than using another platform, and it’s definitely something I’m considering using for my portfolio as well.