Another web revival manifesto

Or why I made this website…

Like so many netizens of the modern web, I’ve become increasingly disgusted the current state of affairs. I have vivid memories of spending hours creating final fantasy websites as a tween, forming my own little eco system of like minded individuals – others who wanted to create a safe space online to curate our own little museums of hyper fixations. Back then it felt like the web was occupied by a certain type of person. People who needed to be online in order to scratch an itch for exploration and the sake of curiosity. Now, when I log online to the dreaded Facebook, I’m lambasted with the worst kind of anti intellectualism, misinformation, and attention seeking engagement bait.

When I was younger, it did not feel like the net was for everyone. If you spent too much time on the computer, you were straight up labeled a nerd. Now that access to the World Wide Web has exploded and seemingly every single person is online, my feelings on the subject have changed a lot. With the rise of social media, my initial thoughts circa 2010ish were, “Wow, it’s so great that everyone is online now!” But now everyone is online and they are also anti-vax. Over the past decade I’ve started to ponder if maybe, the net is not for everyone. A lot of people are online and actively making things feel dreadful around here.

This website is just my way of regressing into my childhood where the internet still felt like the wild wild west. Hopefully it will continue to be a work in progress and go through many iterations as inspiration strikes. I realize this post probably sounds like cynical internet gate-keeping. But it’s simply a call for others to continue cultivating and maintaining the spaces on the web where coding is a creative pursuit borne from the desire to make a digital home. Hopefully, more people continue to grow the web revival movement. Neocities is a good place to start.