I was wondering what the costs are to running the TWiT website and why a service like Squarespace for example is not used. I am pleasantly surprised whenever I run across a big name using a service like Squarespace, like Pixar for example. But I would assume they use Squarespace because they have a somewhat static website that doesn’t update much. I would assume there is a lot of custom software used for the TWiT website that help make the workflow of publishing podcasts easier, so it is likely worth the cost to maintain, but I was still curious if a service like Squarespace has been explored if that would make sense for TWiT and if there even are any cost savings associated with it.
First, we’d need to be clear on which website you’re referring to. This Discourse forum, for example, is hosted by Discourse, whereas the TWiT,tv website is composed of a number of different elements as I understand it. (There’s the web site, the back end CMS and then the caching by the Cachefly service… and probably more I am completely unaware of.) There’s also the TWiT.social service, which presents as a web site in some sense, but is itself a completely different hosted service. And then there’s the back end stuff that Leo uses to a run a show, services such as Obsidian and what not, most of which are separately subscribed services.
In all honesty, it seems to me like your post is just a veiled Squarespace ad… so I feel like you should reveal what your motivations for asking are.
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I am referring to TWiT.tv. I know this is Discourse, and TWiT.social is Mastodon, which led me to asking about how TWiT.tv works.
I have no stake in any website builder. I used Squarespace as an example as they were a longtime sponsor of TWiT (where I first found out about them years ago), but a fair point: I should have been more clear using generic terms in asking why TWiT does not use a website builder, or less complex CMS system. I know they use Drupal and other software as discussed here. Mostly just a question of if a website builder like WordPress.com or similar could be used to replicate the APIs and systems in place for TWiT, and if there are any cost savings. I know Leo has used different blog and micro blog instances over the years, for a much simpler need to post blog articles.
Our web site is considerably more complicated than something Squarespace or Wordpress could provide.
Details are at Developer Program & API | Create TWiT Apps with our API | TWiT - but in short we use a headless Drupal backend to provide a public API which can be used to develop apps or front-end web sites. TWiT.TV is using that API. There’s also a private API we use for our workflow. Editors publish the shows through the Drupal backend.
It costs a bit more than a Squarespace site, but considering it supports the entire publishing workflow it’s worth it.
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