I have been accessing the internet since 1998. It started with chatting on Internet Relay Chatrooms (IRC) on text-based Unix terminals. I have come a long way today, being online almost all the time through my mobile and laptop. Someday, I hope to document the journey to this point, but for today, I will focus on the key milestone of my online journey—my own space at jrr.digital.
After renting spaces online for email, blogs, microblogs, and photoblogs, I have finally come to realize the value of owning one’s own space in the online world where the content is mine, and I am in control of it. I am no longer subject to whimsical policy changes or the whims of site owners I rent space from.
I know I am a few decades late to this game of owning one’s own site. I consciously stayed away from it because of the costs and effort involved in running one’s site. Also, I’ve always felt that I have a lot more to learn and know, so what new could I actually add in terms of posts?
However, over the years, I have realized that learning is a continuous process, and it is better to learn in public. I used to be concerned about contradicting myself over the years. But I now realize that I am a work in progress and will continue to be one forever. In the process, we may never look at the same thing in the same way. It is no longer me contradicting myself, but it is just me growing into, or rather being who I am today.
As far as the costs are concerned, it is affordable for me now. I have been paying for my own email for the last couple of years, and at $50 a year, it gives me a lot of peace of mind and control over my email aliases. As for the website, I liked the idea of Wordpress and the simplicity of hosting your own place on the internet there. However, off late, I have been enamored by the principles of Indie Web and Fediverse. I find Micro.Blog a perfect fit for what I want today. It has everything I need—hosting a site, options for both long form and short form, photo blogging, cross-posting, etc. And all of this at $50 a year.
So here I am, taking the plunge of buying my own domain jrr.digital, hosting it on Micro.Blog, finding a new home for all my previous online posts (Instagrams and Tweets), and starting to share my thoughts here, beginning with this post.
I have a vague idea of how I want to organize this place—posts, interesting links, photos, books, etc. I hope to do this over time as I tend to this digital garden of mine. 🤞🏼