Free and open, but for different reasons
This past week I experienced two different instances of the free and open web. The first was my doing. I removed the subscription and paywall from Coywolf Pro, making all articles, guides, interviews, and downloads freely available. The second was an experiment with IPFS, also known as InterPlanetary File System, and part of the decentralized ecosystem or Web3.
Coywolf Pro is now free for everyone
After I started using Memberful in 2015 to manage my neighborhood’s HOA site, I became interested in using Memberful for my own membership site. In October 2018, I launched Coywolf Pro and used Memberful to manage subscriptions and control access to content. It started well, but I ultimately couldn’t produce enough content and dedicate enough time to it. My full-time job, which I love, has always taken precedence, while Coywolf has been and continues to be something I do in my spare time.
I made the decision last week to end the subscription. I gave every subscriber (to whom I will forever be grateful) a pro-rated refund and made all content and downloads publicly available. I will continue to write articles, publish and update guides, and interview interesting people. The difference is that it will all be done without the unnecessary stress of worrying about whether or not I’m producing enough content for paying members. If you’ve never been a member, I encourage you to check out the now freely available content. Here are some things you might find interesting:
- WordPress Performance and Speed Optimization Guide (Major update coming soon)
- How ‘Core Web Vitals’ focus on UX will directly impact the future of site strategy and development
- The importance of disambiguation for increasing visibility on Google
- Embracing the block: Why it’s finally time to switch to Gutenberg
- Semantic HTML elements that are rarely used but should be
- How to leverage Cloudflare Stream for high-availability and low-cost video streaming
- Coywolf Starter Theme for WordPress (Download)
IPFS Distributed Web
I discovered something that’s six-years-old but new to me. It’s called InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). IPFS is a peer-to-peer (P2P) hypermedia protocol designed to make the web faster, safer, and more open. It creates a distributed web, which copies data across a network of computers and serves them in a decentralized way.
I was intrigued by IPFS because it enables you to serve files on the internet without having a centralized hosting provider. As I researched IPFS more, I discovered you could host a site with a custom domain on it, and you could run it through Cloudflare.
I successfully moved my site etiquette.fyi to IPFS and was surprised at how it’s performed. If you’re interested in learning more, check out this guide on how to leverage Cloudflare and IPFS to host a free high-availability site.