Links for Wednesday (4/13)

Your task, over Spring Break, is this:

1. Do some research, and poke around some web hosting or web template options for the site that you will be creating once we get back from Spring Break. Every hosting option, and every template, will have its own pros and cons. And different students will have different needs – maybe one of you will need an e-commerce solution, and maybe another one of you will want a looping video background for your homepage. Not every platform will have those options – you have to find the one that has the best collection of options you desire. You can google comparisons of platforms (for instance, looking at the results for a "blogging platform comparisons" search), though I've found it takes a little poking-around within the various options to really get a sense of what themes, options, and limitations each platform has.

Most of the hosting options have a "free" version  that usually has the company's branding in your URL (for instance, having your website URL be "byname.wix.com." If you're just making a website for the experience in this class, feel free to use one of these free, branded options (though I always prefer students create a site they will actually use after the class is done, just because ). But if you want your site to seem "professional," you'll need to shell out a little money for non-branded hosting and domain names (usually about $5/month).

2. By our return on Monday (4/25), I want you to have selected a hosting platform or template. And I want, typed and printed out, an explanation (of no more than three paragraphs) explaining why you chose the platform/template you selected. What were the features that seemed appealing? Were there any limitations to other platforms that steered you away from them?

Some hosting options for your website:

Weebly
Wix
Wordpress

Strikingly

Squarespace

Behance

Shopify (integrated eCommerce)

Some comparisons:

Cargo Collective vs. Squarespeace vs.WordPress

E-commerce platform comparisons

For those of you who weren't in the is Wednesday's class, actually sign up for a couple of these options, and being playing around with the webpage editor attached to them.

Hosting options, if you're creating a site from a template:
GoDaddy
Pair Networks

Templates:
http://www.free-css.com/free-css-templates
https://templated.co

And looking at ongoing FaceBook controversies:

Elizabeth's Warren's Anti-Trust Proposal:

https://medium.com/@teamwarren/heres-how-we-can-break-up-big-tech-9ad9e0da324c

Warren's anti-FaceBook ad taken down, temporarily, by FaceBook:

https://gizmodo.com/elizabeth-warrens-ad-saying-facebook-has-too-much-power-1833216732