How to host and promote a website with educational resources?
How to host and promote a website with educational resources?
Hello
In my free time I like to translate Marxist educational materials to my native language by adding subtitles to lectures, translating infographics and the like. Even though there are not many people who interact with it, It is my preferred way of "bypassing" attention problems and I learn a lot in the process.
I used to host them on YouTube with links to original materials and share them on Reddit, but I think about moving to other platforms. I think it would be good to have my own small website - I have some limited experience with GNU/Linux, HTML, CSS and Javascript, so I don't think that I would need any additional software to make it all from scratch. I think it's a good opportunity to learn some web development and share some notes with recommendations to make it easier to access other authors and resources.
There are few questions that I'd like to ask before I even consider this project. I do not expect answer to all my questions, but any suggestion is welcome.
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What resources would be useful in learning on how to host a website properly? Could you recommend any services that don't break the bank and let host a small site without ads? Is there some Linux software that you like to use personally to manage that?
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Is it better to host videos directly to the website or use some other services? If so, what alternatives to YouTube could you recommend?
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I don't touch books or mainstream materials to avoid copyright claims - all I do, I do with respect for the creators and I provide all original resources. Should I be aware of any potential problems with coprygith claims? If so, it would be a bummer, as I enjoy doing this and I think that knowledge should be shared, but I am ready to reconsider this undertaking and find another way to work for the community.
Cheers
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1 - I'd recommend namecheap (approx USD1.50/mo) for your host, as I would assume it'll just be a static site without any dynamic content (databases, accounts, etc.). Most likely all you'll need is a text editor and a webserver that you can use on your local machine (apache, nginx) for testing. Feel free to ask me any questions on the development side of things, I've made some decent sized web development projects.
2 - I'm not personally familiar with it, but you could try hosting your videos on a peertube instance.
3 - I don't think it should be an issue, but study up on the copyright laws in your country and the exact licenses that the media that you'll be posting carry.
Thanks a lot for the reply and suggestions. I will look that up and try to refresh my memory on the technical side of things, if that works out I might torture you with additional questions if they arise.
Absolutely! I'm open to any and all questions, I don't have much of an outlet for this sort of stuff these days, so I'm happy to contribute.
If you have any concerns about the design/UX, send those over as well, I can pass them along to my partner who works in that field.
It will take some time, because I am more invested in translating right now to actually have some more materials to upload, but I will get there eventually.
I already practiced making a simple html/css document and I struggle with making it responsible (suitable for devices with different resolutions). Would you suggest learning Bootstrap or similar library for this purpose or invest some time in learning responsive web design from scratch?
I am a big proponent of using UI libraries. I started with bootstrap after learning it from scratch, and I'm glad that I did, since you will certainly need to make tweaks and you should know what's going on in the backend of what's being obfuscated to be able to make those adjustments.
So I would say yes, at least learn a bit of it so you're not trusting it blindly. In terms of pragmatism and ease of building it, definitely.
I would take a look at
material-uias well, I personally think it looks better, but it's up to you.