[happyraul]

I accept that as a software developer, I have a myopic view on it, but it doesn't have to be hard.

- Get a domain name

- Get a VPS with an nginx image pre-installed

- Write a plain text file with the info you want shown (hours, contact info, etc...)

Yeah it's not sexy, but it's a start and it can be changed when time and interest allows.

[c1sc0]

How do I get a domain name? What is a VPS? What the hell is nginx? How do I write a plain text file in Word? I don't have time for this ...

[saghm]

> How do I write a plain text file in Word?

In college I was a TA a course that (among other things) was the first place students would usually encounter C and the CLI. To standardize how things were compiled and run, we would test everything from the assignments on the school's Linux server that everyone had ssh access to. In order to teach the students how to connect to and use it, we'd have a seminar going over the basics of the Unix shell, sshing, text editing, etc. Because every year there would inevitably be some students who got confused about the idea that Word wasn't a text editor, I started demoing during the seminar opening Word, saving a .docx file (the default by the time I was doing this), and then changing the extension to .zip and double clicking it to show that it was full of XML files under the hood.

I'm not sure whether it was fully clear how that worked to all of them, but it did at least seem to cut down on the number of students in office hours who were trying to write their C code in Word, maybe just because they remembered "oh that's the TA who was really adamant that I don't use Word for this".

[whattheheckheck]

And for the gap between that person and you there is another person talking shit about you and your gap between them

[JCattheATM]

That's why Squarespace and Wix exist. You have 30 minutes.

[pibaker]

Realistically, most people don't have the expertise of setting up HTTPS enabled web hosting on nginx (maybe Caddy will be easier.) There is just so much prerequisite knowledge for a non technical person to know. What they do instead is either

- Pay for a shared hosting plan on one of the big players like Dreamhost, Bluehost, Hostinger.

- Install wordpress in one click

- Do everything in Wordpress.

- Pray that no one ever hacks their Wordpress installation

Or

- Pay for an agency

- Have an IT professional — like you and me — make the website, and put a link in the website footer saying "website designed by XYZ Inc."

[geodel]

Agree.

From my personal experience I'd add a lot Director/Sr Director in relatively technical companies who manage scores of web application developers. So when you say most, it could literally be almost everyone.

[emaro]

> Get a VPS with an nginx image pre-installed

You probably already lost 90% of 'normies'.

Most people won't be able to or willing to do that on their own. They could learn it of course, but they don't bother.

https://xkcd.com/2501/

[autoexec]

The reality is much much easier. You just google "I want a website" or "give me a .com" and click links until you get some free website builder or a webhosting company who will take your credit card and give you very easy to follow directions to choose a domain name and then takes you right into their online builder where everything is super user friendly and not much different than leaving a post on a social media platform. Most people would absolutely be able to get a website. It might be the best way to do it, but it would get done.

[3form]

after

>will take your credit card

I expected you will go on with a joke how they will get scammed out of their money.

But then you went on and it made me think: people in question also trust these big name platforms. If they have just enough grit to try something on their own, they have, usually, enough of healthy view on themselves to know that they aren't sure how can they make this safely.

[rembal]

For a normal person, the only real words in this sentence are "get", "with", and "image", but the last one does not mean what they would think it means.

Even WIX needs some level of tech savviness, usually beyond 90% small business owners. And Instagram? Well, one of the main points of having a restaurant is to tell your friends about it, so the Instagram profile is more important than actually having a real restaurant.

[Torwald]

Make it 100%. I consider myself relatively "geeky", but I couldn't explain neither what a VPS or an nginx image is.

"Normies" are people who are not sure whether the photos they took today with their phone are "on the phone" or "in the cloud" or maybe on the laptop also? Or what?

Go from there to "nginx", I'll wait and don't hold my breath.

[stvltvs]

Or delete old photos because their phone is slow. Techies really overestimate the correctness of the mental models non-techies walk around with.

[wink]

Also lost 1/3 of developers who have no interest in self-hosting on the open net.

[silvestrov]

closer to 99.9%

[carlosjobim]

That's not realistic for non-developers.

However, anybody can easily get a website: Just send an e-mail or make a call to any of the myriad web design people in your local area.

[psini]

How are you going to convince your ie hair salon? Being cheeky but I imagine the conversation is going to go like:

- "What the heck is a domain name"

- "What the heck is a vps"

Probably going to doze off by the time you get to explaining an http server.

Don't get me started on the "plain text file". A website that looks like notepad.exe from '95?

It's worse than not sexy, most users would think the website got hacked or something. And I'm not teaching my hair stylist CSS

[wasting_time]

The VPS should just be their home router, and then have the ISP provide the domain name.

Uploading the web site could be a discovered Samba or NFS share.

Hopefully IPv6 can make self hosting viable again.