blog

three years on Neocities

Wed . 12/01/2021 . 14:27

Today, December 1st 2021, marks three years since I started this website! Doot doot!

here is the first blog post I published, short & sweet:

I don't really have much else to say; I feel a bit mentally burned out if i'm honest and consumed with Life Stuff(tm), trying to stay creative in small ways—I started making (free!) digital graphic patterns again, as you might have noticed—but I wanted to at least mark the occasion : - )

Okay just kidding actually now that I've fully switched the ol brain on I do have some stuff to say. Turns out I was talking with a friend recently about my feelings RE: what the internet has become, about how everything is one giant wall of advertisement, about how tech bros write infuriating algorithms that decide what we see and when we see it instead of presenting the content we chose to follow in a fair chronological feed, having to then beg for engagement like crumbs of food for a sliver of a chance to be seen at all, feeling guilty about being part of a wholly over-saturated "market" of things competing for dwindling attention spans, and already having my own struggles with a "social media presence". I won't go more into that stuff but I will talk about what I DO like about using Neocities!

I guess what it amounts to is: this experience has been a really refreshing "internet reset". Without getting lost in the nostalgia (too tempting sometimes) and just being like "wow cool it's like a time machine haha neato twinkly star gifs", I very much like this self-managed system of community networks. It's one that I feel good about interacting with! So many cool creators here are making and sharing all sorts of stuff: multimedia interactive collage, a new writing system, Game Boy Camera photography, a junk food time & place capsule, a manifesto against carpet ... eager to curate their own internet experience. Where webmasters themselves choose exactly how they craft their sites(s) and what content they share, while not being coerced into uploading every detail of their lives into a handful of different platforms owned by the same one and a half companies with interfaces & features that all blend together. Boom. Roasted. Watch out Bo Burnham I'm coming for your gig.
We can be content-focused bare bones like this masterpiece, go all out with fonts and graphics and colors and layouts like this other masterpiece, or any number of in-betweens. We can be as in/visible as we want AND creative with the presentation. Also, like, I have all the files and documents and code for my site. I happily utilize Neocities as a service, am happy to be supporter because it's more than worth it, but the content, layout, etc is mine. I wrote it, I can take it with me, and I have it so long as I keep it and nothing happens to all my back-ups at once. :`)

I don't know if I saw myself doing a ton with this site initially because it began as more-or-less a coding exercise. I'm very glad now it wasn't just a one-off novelty project, and that, not only have I maintained it as a dynamic hub for my varied creative endeavors, but InternetBee.Neocities is also one of those in-and-of-itself? Designing, styling, and coding your own website really gives you a sense of ownership and pride.

I'm gonna end this entry here as it's time for a walk and a podcast.
Here's to the internet, carving out my own place in it, and what it can be when it's good.