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My old blog got taken down for a post about factory pollution in a small town, so I moved to a self-hosted site.
For about five years, I ran a blog on a free platform, writing about local environmental issues. Last fall, I posted photos and water test results from a creek near an old factory in Millford. The post was gone within 48 hours, with a generic 'violation' notice and no appeal. I was furious and felt totally silenced. So, I paid for web hosting and set up my own site on WordPress. The difference is night and day. On the big platform, my reach was bigger but I had zero control. On my own site, I own everything. It costs me about $120 a year, but no one can delete my words but me. The trade-off is smaller audience reach for complete editorial freedom. For people who have been censored, which is the better path: staying on big platforms to try and reach more people, or going independent where you control the content but have to build your own audience from scratch?
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casey9096mo ago
Wait, they wiped a post with actual water test results? That's messed up. Going indie is the only real choice when they pull stuff like that. Building an audience from zero is hard, but at least you can't get ghosted overnight.
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wesley1395mo ago
Yeah, building from zero is tough but focusing on a small niche helped me.
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aaron6776mo ago
Totally agree, that's why I went indie too.
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