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Comment by mahastore | Hacker News Reader

Why can't someone simply go to any hosting service (like bluehost) and do a point and click webpress installation on their purchased domain to host their own website. Webpress also has a bunch of add-on modules for authentication. I just don't understand why this post is the top on HN ATM. I imagine there are bunch of more worthwhile posts. Or maybe we are just too obsessed now with big tech etc?

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This is like the classic DropBox comment [1]. The activities you describe seem easy to you, but are really hard for the average person. Authentication in Webpress? I imagine that is more than a 10 minute activity.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

To be fair, I think setting up a raspberry pi or an AWS instance isn't 'mom friendly' either. Still more friction than Facebook, which this is positioning itself against.

The real service is their hosting:

"If running it yourself is too daunting, we can host it for you on your own dedicated virtual server for as little as $5 per month."

It's more friction on the user's end too. My older relatives stay logged into Facebook. They have no idea what their passwords are, often not even what username / email address they used to sign up. I'm not sure that an approach that requires me to make an account and then send a username / password is going to work for people who needed a 20 minute telephone conversation for help unmuting themselves on a Zoom call.

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