Gregory's Server@simon it's especially frustrating now to see so many well meaning creators who actually have their own websites but still use Linktree, et.al as their profile url because "Link in bio" restrictions have made it so prevalent.
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16 comments
  @eb @simon @daniel no, the issue is that since you basically only have room for *one* link in your bio, you need it to point to some kind of hub where you can add and remove links on demand easily. Building your own is not hard but it’s not *zero* effort. (And some sites, like onlyfans, are penalized harshly, which some creators obviously do not like) @eb @simon @daniel there are potentially lots of reasons. A linktree is just a list of strings and hyperlinks on a webpage, but then, so is a fediverse profile really, and we don’t all self-host those. The presence of features around its purpose make it easier to work with than a custom page on a custom site, well worth the $5 to save a couple hours of maintenance a year for someone doing this professionally   The experience for an end user is pretty good. If you have used one, you are immediately familiar with the format. It feels like you are presenting the visitor with a menu of options. The creator can schedule when links show up and control the order to work well for new books, songs, products, etc. (2/3) I built my own Linktree clone (poorly, but it works) a few years ago and debated helping people host their own, but the few people I spoke with were largely happy with Linktree enough not to see why to use something more of a hassle to host themselves. 🤷  @offby1 I’d love to buy a week or two of a designer’s time to build something that scales better design-wise. I have multiple dozens of GitHub Pages hosted projects, which work well, but that’s less than an idea for the average person. I thought about a SaaS app that lets someone bring their S3, Cloudflare, or whatever bucket but that’s also really technical for them. @webology You've nailed it; one of the biggest gaps in the “self-host it!" Philosophy is the massive hidden technical skill set required to do so well and safely. Self-hosting is _a_ solution, but it's out of reach of a lot of people. Worse, if you try to offer a platform (any *aaS variation) you may find yourself coerced into becoming the next tool of deplatforming when CC processors cut you off for supporting sex work. (in conclusion, the real problem is the prudery of Visa and Mastercard :) @webology Great ! I've been looking for something like this, I'll have a closer look |
@daniel thank you, you just made that click for me! I had been baffled as to why the market for tools like Linktree even existed... obviously it's because of "link in bio"!