I've found it worth doing. My blog (xeiaso.net, formerly christine.website) is the main way that I get employed at this point. It also helps that people link it here a lot. After 100 articles or so writing got a lot easier and now people rely on my blog for a lot of things. I think it's worth it, but I've also been exclusively self-hosting it. I currently have the code (and writing) open source on GitHub (https://github.com/Xe/site) but I'm considering moving the writing to either a private repo or a SQLite database because people keep copying it, slathering it in ads and rehosting it.
EDIT: also because independent personal blogs are a rarity now, having a decent one means that you can really stand out from the crowd.
> My blog is the main way that I get employed at this point.
I don't use my blog (https://medium.com/@parttimeben) to get employed, but it has helped me organize and document my thoughts. For example, when setting up a new machine, I've always needed to keep track of what I installed before, what worked and how I got it to work, etc. Sure, I can google this stuff again, but just writing about my experience helps a lot.
Hey I read your blog a lot and it's definitely one of the more impressive I've seen, I don't write much (yet) but the structure and style of xeiaso.net is something I admire and would like to emulate
I am talking about option B yeah. It's less frequent after I stopped using Dockerfiles to build the blog, but it happens sometimes. Sending a "can you don't" message to the person and their hosting provider usually gets them to stop though.
Oh wow. This reply came at a great time as I've been at the beginning stages of grappling with the benefits of having a publicly available personal blog. I've always had starts and fits but never really gave it the time of day it deserved.
I think I'll want to commit to it at this point. Best way I can think of achieving that (via Atomic Habits) is just to commit to writing the same time of day, everyday. Never even thought of the whole "It could help your employment prospects" angle.
I try to make something for my blog every week. This week is a dry week for the blog because I was working on my RustConf talk! I have an unused version of the talk that I'm probably gonna adapt into a blogpost. Keep an eye out :)
Nothing you do, aside maybe from putting it behind a login, will prevent your content from being ripped off. Its just a sad part of what we have to live with.
I'm pretty sure the only real issue with the license is that the license is not clear about what the limits of "this software" are.
My understanding is that the following are your main concerns:
1. Content, including blog posts, talks, and images. You don't really want those reposted, especially if misattributed or altered.
2. I know you really don't want people to come to rely on the software have put out there on the net, especially in any way where you would feel obligated to provide support, notifications about vulnerabilities, etc.
For #1, clarifying that the contents of the `blog`, `gallery`, `talks` and `static` folders (and perhaps `template` too) are not part are not covered by the license, would effectively take care of this. (I also agree that it probably won't stop people from hosting such modified copies, especially if they are using scraping techniques, as opposed to running the code, but at least then it is completely unambiguous that they are violating the license.)
For #2 the existing nonstandard license, and warnings in the readme are probably mostly sufficient to make this clear. Plus honestly overall the code is pretty tailored to you. If I were to try to create a blog based on your code, I'd want to rip out the galley and talk sections, would need to redesign or remove the webmention support (or run a stripped version of the `mi` api), remove the patreon support, remove or modify xe-conv, change the cloud flare ping code, remove signalboost (I'd be too small to meaningfully boost anybody) etc. And all of that on top of creating the content, creating a stylesheet I like, creating new templates, etc.
"All rights reserved" is obsolete language (there's a long boring story behind that) without legal effect. The way copyright has worked internationally since the late 70s, you don't even need a copyright notice but not having one will limit your remedies (and make proving your case very difficult -- always use a copyright notice). Your work is copyrighted automatically when created. If no additional license is provided any copying not under Fair Use is illegal. Licenses like the many variations on Creative Commons allow for copying under the explicit terms of the license (minimally requiring attribution). Apache, MIT and the 3 generations of the GPL do the same for software. Enforceability, especially by authors not themselves wealthy or backed by a wealthy patron, is another matter. It's a rich man's game, and become even more so over time. If someone steals your car, you might get the authorities to step in. But if they steal your written creation, even though violation of copyright is a crime in many jurisdictions, you're on your own.
EDIT: also because independent personal blogs are a rarity now, having a decent one means that you can really stand out from the crowd.