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
I just did it like I would for a subdomain (with a CNAME).
Cloudflare does leave this little message though: CNAME records normally can not be on the zone apex. We use CNAME flattening to make it possible. Learn more.
Looks fine for your first website! I would change the colour of the text, though. Black on another dark colour is kinda harder to read. You can catch these problems by opening Firefox Dev Tools (F12), going to the Accessibility tab, and changing “Check for issues” to “Contrast”. It’ll list all the elements that have too low a contrast ratio.
Even without a static, you can use services like ddns.net to auto update if your IP address changes with their app. Pretty simple setup, free version too.
That’s what I do. Funnily though, I can’t remember which device is hosting the auto update client to update ddns. As long as it’s still updated right? Lol
Gotcha. I’ve got my router doing auto update - initiatally I thought you were referring to an auto update tool for the renewal you have to do every month with the free ddns that makes you do a captcha. I should probably just pay for the next tier up tbh
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)
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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It needs an “Under construction” animated gif
and nukes
Animated 90s 3d nukes.
Maybe paste the url here? Just saying… 🤔
ot6ewcgzioleglf2jp2iofludol3hw5gcaycaj7n5tolf6wcu7ofbzid.onion
For ip thing you should be able to use CloudFare Tunnel free service, works with dynamic IPs and without opening ports
That said do not ask me for help, I haven’t used it.
It’s great with subdomains, I don’t think it works on root Domains but it’s still extremely easy to set up.
I would recommend forcing HTTPS as well as creating a Page Rule enforcing strict SSL.
I can confirm it works on root domains.
How do you get it to work in root domains? I’ve only ever been able to get subdomains to work.
I just did it like I would for a subdomain (with a CNAME).
Cloudflare does leave this little message though: CNAME records normally can not be on the zone apex. We use CNAME flattening to make it possible. Learn more.
Thanks for the link, I had been trying for a while and one of my domains doesn’t even work now after I changed too many DNS records.
Looks fine for your first website! I would change the colour of the text, though. Black on another dark colour is kinda harder to read. You can catch these problems by opening Firefox Dev Tools (F12), going to the Accessibility tab, and changing “Check for issues” to “Contrast”. It’ll list all the elements that have too low a contrast ratio.
Done! I have changed the text color. this website is great to get color contrast. https://coolors.co/contrast-checker/d2e2f4-083445
Even without a static, you can use services like ddns.net to auto update if your IP address changes with their app. Pretty simple setup, free version too.
That’s what I do. Funnily though, I can’t remember which device is hosting the auto update client to update ddns. As long as it’s still updated right? Lol
What do you use to auto update ddns?
The auto update client, it’s halfway down this page on how to automatically update your hostname/IP.
https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgebase/dynamic-dns-ddns-troubleshooting-guide
Gotcha. I’ve got my router doing auto update - initiatally I thought you were referring to an auto update tool for the renewal you have to do every month with the free ddns that makes you do a captcha. I should probably just pay for the next tier up tbh
Yeah, it’s probably running as a service, no icon anywhere. Should be good.
But just to note, this doesn’t work if your ISP places you in a double NAT situation by using carrier grade NAT
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:
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 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’.
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.
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 would imagine it comes from the fact that you can generate electricity with potatoes
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.
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 🙈
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
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.
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.
Why is it on Tor tho 💀
Maybe he doesn’t have the money to rent a domain or VPS
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
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.
Cool but needs more contrast, it’s impossible to read for the visually impaired.
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This is great but also seeing the words “my first website” with links to services from post 2000 makes me feel ancient 😭
It’s beautiful. Plus FOSS services let’s go!