I get it; YouTube is essentially a social media platform as much as a video-hosting platform, and has been for a long time. It’s essential for the livelihoods of “influencers” and “content creators”. Because video is not natively formatted online, it’s an easy and cheap way to host and share videos on websites.
TikTok … no thanks. Too much slop.
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn … I still know a few people who use SnapChat!
There’s a problem with hosting any of your content externally. You have to abide by another platform’s ToS; it’s all too easy to get flagged and get your content unlisted, demonetized, deleted—and if social media provides a major source of income for you, your income get, restricted, livelihood affected.
I’m blogging for fun, as a hobby. I post on social media to keep connected with friends and family. Even if this blog had hundreds or thousands of followers, I’d still be doing it for fun. I work full-time, which doesn’t allow me the flexibility to create content on the side for additional income. As a hobby, I don’t see myself competing against other bloggers or other content creators.
(I tried daily vlogging for a week—not something I want to do ever again. The amount of energy just going into editing videos is far more than what I want to do, compared to simply writing and revising.)
Part of me wishes I jumped onto the YouTube bandwagon two decades ago—my attitude about being an online persona would be different today. It was easier back then, when there weren’t so many people competing for attention and ad revenue, when advertisers didn’t wield the power they have today, when creators had far more flexibility than they do today, when being out and trans was far less common. Becoming a “d-list celebrity“, if you will. But 4 months in Missoula, Montana working for DFTBA records, getting to meet members of the crew who make SciShow—nah, I’m good.
I risk deletion hosting on WordPress, but it still has its benefits over hosting myself. I want to blog, discuss, host content without worrying about all the issues of hosting.. There is still the constant fear of another party reprieving my stuff, as LGBT content is too often flagged for being “mature” or “controversial”. and then going through the constant hassle of trying to contact them to no avail.
Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t mind linking to or embedding external content. If something adds value to a post, I think it makes to include such content in my post; they would have to open another tab or visit another page, before coming back, a major inconvenience to them. (Mind yourself about third-party cookies, though!) It adds a nice visual component, adding a bit of interactivity and variety.
I blog to write down my thoughts for others to read. My blog is about my thoughts and life navigating this world after living almost 15 years as “trans”. About technology. About my community. About what I see on the news. Basically, whatever comes to mind, regardless of what my blog stats say is popular or not. (The only things I’ll restrain myself on are anything professional or people I know personally, to mind their privacy.)
It’s easier for me to write and edit, than to record and format. I do not feel comfortable in front of a camera—but the audience are more about video today. Blogging may not be as popular as it once was, but the community still exists. Because I don’t network as I should, I don’t expect to have much of an audience.
I used to be all about self-hosting, but other than some backend DNS management, I just want to pay for a service that cares for most of the backend, so I can focus on my content. However, if you damn well know your 💩 is that controversial—it’s not that hard or expensive to host yourself anymore. Who knows, your personal project might become a platform for the bigots to join, and make you wealthy. 🙄
Charleigh Copley 