If you've been here before, you might remember a much fancier website being here for the past 8 years. That website used a fancy template, a content management system and a database - all to look pretty much like every other site on the internet. And at this point, who is even visiting websites anymore anyways?
I recently had some conversations with friends about what we miss about "the old internet", you know the one - where shit was weird. I could (insert meme of grandpa simpson yelling at clouds) type lots about algorithms, tracking, infinite scrolling and the monetization of our attention, but I think we all get the gist of what that rant would entail.
I've had this website since June 2000 and it started out as a blank canvas to try really fucking weird things like controlling an RC car from the internet, or live streaming the audio from my bedroom. The point of all of those things was to meet other weird people and I'm still friends with people from all over the world that I met through this website. 24 years later and it feels like the mechanisms for expression and connecting through the internet has been commodified and distilled.
Twitter limits users to 280 characters. Facebook will let people type all they want, but nudges users to not say much by keeping your text large and bold as a reward for only sharing a single sentence. Long posts are hidden behind a "read more.." link that nobody is ever going to click on. Does that affect how we communicate in real life? I don't know, and I probably don't really care, but this is all just to say that I fondly remember reading complicated thoughts on LiveJournal and can't help wonder what people are actually thinking right now.
Cut to the chase, Mike.There's no chase, I just want to type html and have it appear on the internet for people to find.
How are you?