I've seen it's semi-common to begin a neocities website/blog with a post about "Why Neocities?".
I wanted to explain how I decided to change what I was doing and why. I hope maybe it'll help someone understand the topic better.
I'm still relatively new to writing blog posts compared to thought dumps, so I apologize if anything sounds awkward or formatted strangely.
Feel free to skip to headings that interest you.
I've tried a few times in the past to start a blog, but usually didn't get past the first few posts.
I was frequently told on social media sites that:
It basically boiled down to "use the big platforms, because that's where the people and views are".
Imagine my surprise when seeing that my bare bones Neocities landing page got over 70 hits in a few days. (about 40 unique visits)
Not any number to brag about if looking for income. But for people manually choosing to look at it? Pretty decent.
Back when I was on Twitter trying to promote my art, there was a time I entered a pretty big Vtuber art contest. There was about a month to plan and make the art. So I spent weeks working on this art, thinking surely this will catch the eyes of people scrolling through the entries. And maybe if I get really really lucky, I could be featured!
So I submit the post, and wait. It got about 500 views. It wasn't featured.
The competition was fierce and filled with many professional-tier art.
I was crushed.
I hadn't made it.
That was the moment that made me realize that I had lost my way.
I had pushed myself out of my comfort zone, did a topic I was passionate about, really thought over how I wanted to convey it, and put a part of myself in it. I was really proud of that art.
Why was I letting social media decide it wasn't any good?
What had I been doing the past decade that got me to this point?
Was this really the only option out there?
I decided to reconsider things.
A brief aside, but I realized in the past my writing was pretty disorganized. My most common method was thought dumping and tangents to anyone who would listen. I would write on one place and then in another place and another. I've always struggled with keeping things organized, and then adding too many labels.
So I decided to go "old school" with it. Not paper or a typewriter, but Notepad. Notepad++ to be specific. It has a distraction free mode that's great. Forget the attention economy, more distraction free material would be nice!
This is going to be more free flowing, but I'd like to try actually editing sometimes for future posts.
(And better HTML)
When I first joined the web, it was during a transition period.
The Web of the 1990s was fading, and the Web that would become the 2010s was starting.
And in that gap, was what I consider Web 1.5. (not official terming)
It was more social than Web 1, but less social than Web 2.
Think forums, early video, flash games, some blogs, etc.
Usernames were standard on most sites, following without an algorithm based feed,
chronological order based, income-first not common.
That was the internet I loved.
Maybe it is nostalgia based, maybe not.
Another thing about the period is it was a between period for internet access. (at least where I was at)
Before that point, internet access was very limited and very very slow.
After that point, internet access was abundant to the point you could always be connected.
But for me, the internet was a special thing.
You played flash games at the library, or even at a "computer room"!
You logged into a big desktop computer, waited for the content to load slowly,
and then when you were done you logged off and did something else.
Because of internet speeds at the time, people were more respectful of file sizes.
If you had a giant page filled with a bunch of items it'd be a chore to look at.
Despite many insisting that the internet only became addictive after social media, I disagree.
Forums could be very addictive, as could instant chat rooms, or even TVTropes.
Has anyone gone to TVTropes and only read one page?
For me it would always be a ton of tabs.
Depends on the personality I guess lol
Then came the rise of Facebook.
I personally don't really like that kind of thing.
However, at the time (2009 or so), it was the must be place to be.
Everyone was there! Your friends, your family, etc.
In hindsight it sounds very strange.
This was the first time I had heard of adults caring about computers.
Not just any adults, but every adults. A sudden influx of new users.
At first everything felt brand new.
You could poke your friend! Very serious!
There was Farmville and other browser games. Why play a free flash game,
when you could play a Facebook game that pesters the heck out of your friends instead?
But mobile gaming was still relatively new at the time so there wasn't too many concerns.
As for the rest? I can't say.
People posted photos of themselves doing things and talking about whatever.
I didn't care too much for it. But everyone was saying it was the future!
I remember being in computer class and people constantly
talking about how social media marketing was the future.
Only looking back on it, do I feel like I had been scammed.
I was really into them at one point.
But over time I grew tired and left.
I still care about the creative and niche side of things.
And maybe the occasional shitpost just to have fun.
Need to loosen up sometimes!
I was hooked to reddit for a long time. Almost a decade.
If forums were dead, I figured this was the next best place to try.
I gradually grew tired of it over time.
I grew tired of shouting into the void and the echo chambers.
Learning from books and tutorials is more helpful.
Karma was a waste of time.
I made a Twitter when the site was new.
Made a few posts, then abandoned it.
It was boring! Who cares about breakfast?!
My first reintroduction to Twitter came from an odd place.
It was Japan.
I was and still am a big weeb/otaku/passionate about Japan.
After a few years of lurking Nico Nico Douga (Japanese equivelent to YouTube), I started seeing promos for Twitter.
Japanese Twitter was so interesting to me. It was like looking at a parallel universe.
Maybe I wasn't looking at the right (or wrong) places, but it felt so calm.
Cat pictures, food pictures, gacha rolls, fanart.
A bit tedious at times, but relatively harmless.
Over time this became the next big place you "had to be"! Everyone was there!
You can start to see a pattern. But at the time I didn't think much of it.
Anyways I was too confused by Instagram or Tumblr to really get deeply into either.
I had been on DeviantArt at one time, but by this point it was losing users.
So I thought "I'll obsessively google the tricks of Twitter,
make a buncha art, and get followers! And then maybe one day make it!"
It didn't go well.
I posted for a bit, and then abandoned the account. Again.
Then for a 3rd time I tried again.
Surely this time would be different!
This time I would make multiple accounts for my different interests!
It went a bit better. Sticking to one topic is better for the algo.
At some point I found myself addicted to Twitter. It felt very important at the time.
This was around 2020. Hahahahaha! ha... (Pain)
It went horribly. But it was also an important lesson.
I went in with great intentions.
I was going to make more art, and connect with fandoms, and it'll be so fun!
It'll be like forums again!
And as the months went by, it was very much not that.
I found myself getting into dumb debates and getting really riled up about it.
Had I learned nothing since high school?
I later learned that the medium is the message, and that the algo is rigged against you.
It doesn't matter what you go in wanting to do, you'll be funnelled to what gets more engagement.
What makes it crazy is it's very subtle at first.
But over time, you're suddenly in ragebait land thinking "how did I get here?".
I still feel some shame about the whole thing, but it made me realize even knowing it existed wasn't enough to stop it from happening.
As for the art side, I couldn't keep up.
I feel like a relatively slow drawer.
Nothing boiled me up more than a big account artist who said "just a doodle! lol" and it looked like a full blown painting.
I was constantly comparing myself to other artists and angsting about it.
I was not feeling inspired by it.
I was feeling more and more dejected.
So I decided to leave Twitter.
I didn't like browsing it and I didn't like creating for it anymore.
I didn't know where I'd go, but I knew it wasn't there.
Funny story with this one.
Yet again I was hearing "TikTok is the place you have to be! Everyone is there!"
And this time I thought "No! Hell no! I don't care if 7 billion people were on it,
you're not getting me back on this damn wagon!".
It was tough at times.
Seemingly overnight TikTok became the center of culture, instead of articles about Twitter.
TikTok was changing music!
It was changing books!
It was changing fashion!
It was changing everything!
Did you hear about this trend?
Or this one?
How about this one?
YouTubers were making videos about TikTok trends for views.
I never made a TikTok and still don't have one as of writing this.
So this is more of an outsider perspective.
Other sites took notice and made their own short videos.
YouTube started really pushing shorts.
I was pissed.
I subbed to people for 10+ minute videos. (or several hour long streams)
I didn't want less than 60 second clips spamming my subscription feed!
We had separate channels for live streaming or niche topics before, why not for shorts?
But YouTube was paying and promoting too much for people to overlook it.
I was getting a sense of deja vu.
Wasn't Vine a thing already?
Didn't that die? Why was this different?
And what do you mean "short videos going viral"? Wasn't that already a thing?
YouTube did it in the late 00s! Was everyone forgetting that?
YouTube already did "shorts"!
People got bored of it,
they switched to watch time,
long videos became king.
I guess things go in cycles after all.
But something felt more sinister about it this time around.
Every time someone I knew joined TikTok, they became hooked within weeks.
I had struggled with focus my whole life even before getting hooked to the web.
I was the kid constantly scolded for spacing out. For not paying attention. For doodling in class.
But I started seeing others getting shorter and shorter attention spans. It bothered me.
When did YouTube and TikTok replace watching TV and movies?
I had been a long time YouTube fan (since 2006), but I was worried about this trend.
(5/4/24 edit: I wanted to clarify that this section isn't supposed to be "TikTok bad!". TikTok isn't for me personally.
When I talk about the negative sides of TikTok, it's more about how I feel about the methods used. As an example, having a problem with gacha as a system isn't the same thing as disliking any game that has a gacha system in it. I want people to have the ability to chose what they want to watch, rather than becoming addicted through manipulative tactics.
But I also understand that because I don't use TikTok, that I'm not qualified to speak about it in detail. I understand what it's like for people to demonize the newer platforms as the same thing happened with YouTube when it was young.)
I had struggled in the past with my own form of addiction to shorter content.
I loved to read as a kid, but stopped as the internet grew.
It took me years to regain my ability to read full books again.
But I'm glad I took the effort to do so. I love reading again.
As a lot of things are going faster, there is a sub community of slower.
"Patient" communities that focus on slowly discussing instead of binging.
For me I keep thinking "where is the slow web? That's what I want!".
I don't want an endless feed of content that I'll forget about in the next hour.
I want to read from individuals, create together instead of against, to be able to take my time.
The internet (hopefully) isn't going anywhere. There's no rush.
I don't like algorithm based content.
I want chronological order.
I want things that don't get views!
I want things that don't make money!
I want things that were made for the fun of it!
I'm not saying everything needs to be like that.
Consider it like places to eat.
Some people like fast food.
Some people like sit down restaurants and cafes.
I was told that the old web was dead.
Social media was the only place to be.
But it's a lie.
There's still buzz here. Far more than I expected at first.
And even if there wasn't, this place still matters.
People matter.
Art matters.
Sometimes I can't sum things up in less than 200 characters.
I don't want to make all my info into 30 micro chunks.
I thought I hated the internet, but I don't.
I hated being addicted to social media.
And I feel like in this place, I can talk about what I want to, when I want to.
I can post what I want to make, at my own pace.
I don't have to limit myself to one niche to promote myself.
I can talk about topics that aren't trendy.
And people who want to see it can choose manually to do so.
Don't follow me unless you want to.
The real Y2K experience is bookmarking your favorite pages
and checking in because you genuinely care!
Anyways this got way longer than I originally thought.
I might do a follow up post at some point.
Thank you for reading!
If you'd like to reply to this I have a comment box and a contact email.
If you'd like to support what I do, I have a Ko-fi.
