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Self-hosting WordPress is a really bad choice in fact. Every self-hosted WordPress blog I follow in my RSS reader eventually becomes a content farm. The only wa

Self-hosting WordPress is a really bad choice in fact. Every self-hosted WordPress blog I follow in my RSS reader eventually becomes a content farm. The only way to not become a content farm is to use commercial hosting (WordPress VIP, WPEngine), but at that point, why are you using WordPress instead of Square or whatever? If you're a developer, just build a static site. If you're not a developer, you're going to have to pay.

rbritton 6y ago
What do you mean by content farm? I'd argue the opposite about using managed hosting -- a self-hosted WordPress site is more likely to outlast one on managed WordPress hosting for the sole reason of cost. Managed hosting is significantly more expensive, and justifying that ongoing cost may cause the owner of the site to discontinue it sooner than they would otherwise.
- mynegation 6y ago
  Content farm means that someone takes over the Wordpress installation via a vulnerability that the owner of the installation did not patch. Then they put their own material to extract the google juice for their links until Google catches up and penalizes the domain.
  - rbritton 6y ago
    Got it. I was leaning that way with my interpretation but wasn't completely positive. The biggest risk in all of the WordPress ecosystem are third-party plugins. Minimizing the use of those and installing something like Wordfence (free or paid) would go a long way towards mitigating that risk. It wouldn't be non-zero, but it'd be acceptably low.
- diroussel 6y ago
  They mean it gets hacked, and the attacker uses the website to install pages with many links to other websites for SEO of the target websites.
arkitaip 6y ago
Any tool turns into shit if not taken care off. Enable auto updates in wp-config.php. Limit login attempts. Use ManageWP to easily manage several WP installations through a single interface. Add a (free) security plugin like Wordfence. I've been running WP installations for years and never had a problem with them getting hacked.
simion314 6y ago
I have the cheapest possible hosting and a WP blog I never use, the hosting keeps WP update and I just get the email notification when the update happens. I imagine you might have problems if you use some weird WP plugin to integrate with some X feature. Most people that just want to blog are perfectly fine with cheapest hosting.
jseliger 6y ago
For a lot of people, I think overcoming inertial energy is among the hardest parts of starting to blog. For that reason, I think there's a strong temptation to start with wordpress.com, because it's a standard 30-second sign-up process. That's what I did many years ago, and I'm still there. Wordpress.com is easy and that's why it's big. (Note: this is not an argument against rolling your own. Do it if you want to!)
markx2 6y ago
> Self-hosting WordPress is a really bad choice in fact. Every self-hosted WordPress blog I follow in my RSS reader eventually becomes a content farm. Nonsense. I've been using WordPress since Jan 2004 and followed a huge number of sites. Not a single one has turned into a 'content farm'. Yes some have stopped blogging. A very very small number have switched to a different way of creating their site. But what you say is nonsense. >"The only way to not become a content farm is to use commercial hosting" Junk statement. It's the owner of the blog that determines the content, not the host. I would suggest that you followed the wrong sites. I still use WordPress
- earthboundkid 6y ago
  The wrong site is any site where the author steps away for a few years. Yes, if you keep running it, you can patch it, but left to its own devices, it will end up like (four hacked WP sites off the top of my head): - All Wrongs Reversed - 4 Color Rebellion - Egalicontrarian - Neojapanisme There are more but they only get and stay hacked if it’s been dormant for several years, so by the time I see the spam in my RSS reader, I have typically forgotten about the blog.
peeplaja 6y ago
Not true at all. I've been running my blog on WP since 2011, doing over 100k monthly readers since 2012. Not a since hack incident. It's the world's biggest CMS, its security has come a long way since the early days. Wordpress has a powerful ecosystem, great usability, and it's free. Hard to beat. I'm playing with Webflow for one of my other sites. Content editing capabilities and large scale content management is lightyears behind Wordpress still.
jjjbokma 6y ago
I created my own static blog generator. Example of how such a blog can look: https://plurrrr.com/ https://plurrrr.com/. The generator is available on GitHub: https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog

rbritton 6y ago

What do you mean by content farm? I'd argue the opposite about using managed hosting -- a self-hosted WordPress site is more likely to outlast one on managed WordPress hosting for the sole reason of cost. Managed hosting is significantly more expensive, and justifying that ongoing cost may cause the owner of the site to discontinue it sooner than they would otherwise.

mynegation 6y ago
Content farm means that someone takes over the Wordpress installation via a vulnerability that the owner of the installation did not patch. Then they put their own material to extract the google juice for their links until Google catches up and penalizes the domain.
- rbritton 6y ago
  Got it. I was leaning that way with my interpretation but wasn't completely positive. The biggest risk in all of the WordPress ecosystem are third-party plugins. Minimizing the use of those and installing something like Wordfence (free or paid) would go a long way towards mitigating that risk. It wouldn't be non-zero, but it'd be acceptably low.
diroussel 6y ago
They mean it gets hacked, and the attacker uses the website to install pages with many links to other websites for SEO of the target websites.

arkitaip 6y ago

Any tool turns into shit if not taken care off. Enable auto updates in wp-config.php. Limit login attempts. Use ManageWP to easily manage several WP installations through a single interface. Add a (free) security plugin like Wordfence. I've been running WP installations for years and never had a problem with them getting hacked.

simion314 6y ago

I have the cheapest possible hosting and a WP blog I never use, the hosting keeps WP update and I just get the email notification when the update happens. I imagine you might have problems if you use some weird WP plugin to integrate with some X feature. Most people that just want to blog are perfectly fine with cheapest hosting.

jseliger 6y ago

For a lot of people, I think overcoming inertial energy is among the hardest parts of starting to blog. For that reason, I think there's a strong temptation to start with wordpress.com, because it's a standard 30-second sign-up process. That's what I did many years ago, and I'm still there. Wordpress.com is easy and that's why it's big. (Note: this is not an argument against rolling your own. Do it if you want to!)

markx2 6y ago

> Self-hosting WordPress is a really bad choice in fact. Every self-hosted WordPress blog I follow in my RSS reader eventually becomes a content farm. Nonsense. I've been using WordPress since Jan 2004 and followed a huge number of sites. Not a single one has turned into a 'content farm'. Yes some have stopped blogging. A very very small number have switched to a different way of creating their site. But what you say is nonsense. >"The only way to not become a content farm is to use commercial hosting" Junk statement. It's the owner of the blog that determines the content, not the host. I would suggest that you followed the wrong sites. I still use WordPress

earthboundkid 6y ago
The wrong site is any site where the author steps away for a few years. Yes, if you keep running it, you can patch it, but left to its own devices, it will end up like (four hacked WP sites off the top of my head): - All Wrongs Reversed - 4 Color Rebellion - Egalicontrarian - Neojapanisme There are more but they only get and stay hacked if it’s been dormant for several years, so by the time I see the spam in my RSS reader, I have typically forgotten about the blog.

peeplaja 6y ago

Not true at all. I've been running my blog on WP since 2011, doing over 100k monthly readers since 2012. Not a since hack incident. It's the world's biggest CMS, its security has come a long way since the early days. Wordpress has a powerful ecosystem, great usability, and it's free. Hard to beat. I'm playing with Webflow for one of my other sites. Content editing capabilities and large scale content management is lightyears behind Wordpress still.

jjjbokma 6y ago

I created my own static blog generator. Example of how such a blog can look: https://plurrrr.com/ https://plurrrr.com/. The generator is available on GitHub: https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog