Hello,
This is my first website and I want some feedback from you guys. It’s very basic and I haven’t added much. just wanted to host something so I threw invidious and whoogle instance there.
My ISP doesn’t provide a static IP so I had to host it on tor :(
what else do you think I should host there?
server spec: 15 year old computer with i3 first gen cpu.
Edit:
Here is the URL if you want to visit the website: ot6ewcgzioleglf2jp2iofludol3hw5gcaycaj7n5tolf6wcu7ofbzid.onion
Plain old static HTML is fine, and you can host it on a potato! Here are some design tips to keep it easy to read. None of them are objectively correct, and you are already doing some of them. They are just some suggestions as you move forward:
Don’t use dark-on-dark fonts. Use near-black on off-white or at least something high contrast.
Break up content using horizontal rules <hr> and various headers <h1 to h6> You can style both of them in css. This keeps things easy to find and read.
Generally, do not center-align text if it is more than one line. If you need to display blocks of text side-by-side, put each in a container then left-align the text within those containers.
Use a bigger font than you think is strictly necessary.
My preference is to use sans-serif fonts. Google makes some good free ones. Sometimes I’ll go back and make titles serif only.
Resize and compress your images. A bit higher resolution than you need but with lower quality is usually better than the reverse (for jpegs)
I have seen multiple references to running software “on a potato” in the last hour. What in the world does it mean to run something on a potato? (Like… pickle electricity? That’s all I’ve got.) Please advise…
Surprisingly, I can’t find that made as an actual usable font. I would have thought someone in font design would jump at the chance just for the fun of it.
They’re hosting on tor, they probably don’t want internet hosted fonts from Google. There are tons of CC licenses fonts available that are very useable.
For the IP issue: You can look into some service which automatically updates your domains DNS. It’s been a while but back then one of those was DynDNS, not sure if they still exist, but others surely do.
I forgot to mention that I am also behind CGNAT. I bought a VPS for a while but couldn’t keep with the cost.
Right now the cheapest way of hosting a website for me is through tor.
They have a free plan that’s all I use. Go to cloudflare.com and register a free account. Point your dns/name servers to cloudflare. Then on your dashboard in cloudflare is a section for tunnels. It will walk you through how to install the tunnel. Then you should be good.
Have you factored in your power costs? I never do :P buuut with older machines you get closer and closer to burning enough power to justify a hosting bill.
If it’s just going to be one page with thinks to other things, an idea for making it look nice is to have 4 semi transparent background squares with border radius, with an icon and text description of the service in the square. It could adapt to screen size so the squares would either be in a row, a column, or a grid.
Of course, if you already had a vision I don’t want to interfere with that.
But yes, this is the easiest free way to stand up a solid website. Only other thing I’d add is to put sites and services behind a reverse proxy. Typically I’ve used Nginx but I’m quickly becoming a Caddy convert.
FreeDNS requires you to log in to their website once a month or so to keep your DNS name active or they will revoke it. DuckDNS doesn’t require that. It’s free and it works. I set it up forever ago and never have to touch it, with FreeDNS I was risking losing my name or having my services go down if I missed their nag email.
I had this problem once, Pagekite.net is made for exactly this. There are also some VPNs that provide static IPs - one in my part of the world is Franciliens
I had this problem once, Pagekite.net is made for exactly this. There are also some VPNs that provide static IPs - one in my part of the world is Franciliens
If you use cloudflare, there’s a docker container to update your sites DNS records to your current dynamic IP (also cloudflare is good ddos protection) https://github.com/oznu/docker-cloudflare-ddns
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Why is it on Tor tho 💀
Maybe he doesn’t have the money to rent a domain or VPS
Wait… hosting on tor is free?
Hosting is free if you supply the internet connection and the computer. Sounds like they’re just hosting it to TOR from their local network.
Plain old static HTML is fine, and you can host it on a potato! Here are some design tips to keep it easy to read. None of them are objectively correct, and you are already doing some of them. They are just some suggestions as you move forward:
I have seen multiple references to running software “on a potato” in the last hour. What in the world does it mean to run something on a potato? (Like… pickle electricity? That’s all I’ve got.) Please advise…
A potato is a very slow computer. Usually old and / or low quality. I’ve got no idea where it comes from though.
I would imagine it comes from the fact that you can generate electricity with potatoes
Ah, I convinced myself that I was wrong to think that. I know you can get electricity from lemons, and thought I’d mixed them up 🙈
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/SOsE5ECH_IM
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
It originally referred to a camera, so a meme to draw attention to poor quality pictures–“camera is potato” and then “potato quality”
Ah, that makes sense, thanks :)
Just happy when my long internet history can actually contribute something.
I don’t want to question your aesthetic choices but I think it hurts readability.
Surprisingly, I can’t find that made as an actual usable font. I would have thought someone in font design would jump at the chance just for the fun of it.
Haha, you got me there. So I guess you could more correctly say ‘a font with serif for titles only’.
They’re hosting on tor, they probably don’t want internet hosted fonts from Google. There are tons of CC licenses fonts available that are very useable.
i disagree with the color of the text. too much contrast. may I suggest it being dark blue?
I like my users to have an interactive experience where they have to select the text in order to read it
Change the select colour for even better experience like some sites do! Now you are left with inspecting the element in your browser :)
I prefer to encourage active reading, by forcing them to move the mouse along as they read.
https://www.stefanvd.net/images/totlmousespotlight.png
deleted by creator
The single biggest improvement from here is to increase the contrast so the text is readable. https://contrastrebellion.com/
For the IP issue: You can look into some service which automatically updates your domains DNS. It’s been a while but back then one of those was DynDNS, not sure if they still exist, but others surely do.
I forgot to mention that I am also behind CGNAT. I bought a VPS for a while but couldn’t keep with the cost. Right now the cheapest way of hosting a website for me is through tor.
What about using cloudflare? You can setup a tunnel on the hosted server so cloudflare dns knows where to find you without your IP
I had no idea this was a thing. Do they charge a lot for this? What’s the service called?
They have a free plan that’s all I use. Go to cloudflare.com and register a free account. Point your dns/name servers to cloudflare. Then on your dashboard in cloudflare is a section for tunnels. It will walk you through how to install the tunnel. Then you should be good.
Have you factored in your power costs? I never do :P buuut with older machines you get closer and closer to burning enough power to justify a hosting bill.
Shut it off for a month and use the savings to buy a low power Pi!
Dark mode?
If it’s just going to be one page with thinks to other things, an idea for making it look nice is to have 4 semi transparent background squares with border radius, with an icon and text description of the service in the square. It could adapt to screen size so the squares would either be in a row, a column, or a grid.
Of course, if you already had a vision I don’t want to interfere with that.
You could get a free oracle cloud instance https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/
Free dns https://freedns.afraid.org/
Then use letsencrypt to get free SSL certificates
Then you’ll have a site that is secure and validates correctly with almost all web browsers.
You could run services in oracle cloud, or use ssh or OpenVPN to proxy traffic to your home server, or other providers free tier machines
No matter how many times I authenticate with my card, it never works and their support is rather frustratingly low quality.
I’d recommend Duck DNS over Free DNS these days.
And Wireguard over OpenVPN.
But yes, this is the easiest free way to stand up a solid website. Only other thing I’d add is to put sites and services behind a reverse proxy. Typically I’ve used Nginx but I’m quickly becoming a Caddy convert.
Why?
FreeDNS requires you to log in to their website once a month or so to keep your DNS name active or they will revoke it. DuckDNS doesn’t require that. It’s free and it works. I set it up forever ago and never have to touch it, with FreeDNS I was risking losing my name or having my services go down if I missed their nag email.
Well if you can, a monero node.
I had this problem once, Pagekite.net is made for exactly this. There are also some VPNs that provide static IPs - one in my part of the world is Franciliens
I like aesthetics!
I had this problem once, Pagekite.net is made for exactly this. There are also some VPNs that provide static IPs - one in my part of the world is Franciliens
Cool but needs more contrast, it’s impossible to read for the visually impaired.
If you use cloudflare, there’s a docker container to update your sites DNS records to your current dynamic IP (also cloudflare is good ddos protection) https://github.com/oznu/docker-cloudflare-ddns