Good afternoon, Ecency! In this post I give a tiny update about my whereabouts, followed by a brief post about making a personal website on Neocities. Let's head right in :3
You can see my site right now: wallabra.neocities.org
Where have I been?
(This is the slightly boring section, for those who want to know about my hiatus and general status. Feel free to move on to the next section!)
I have been a bit inactive as I've been figuring out a bit about what I want for my artistic trajectory. I'll write much more about that in the coming days, but for now just know that I'm taking an interdisciplinary, multiple fronts approach to it. Some might call it "throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks", pardon the vulgarity. I see it as 'only specialize on what you already know is plausible', pardon the mild pretentiousness (it's just a bit).
That includes the world of crypto. I'm just going to admit to y'all that I'm not really a cryptobro by any measure. I'm too much of a 'dirty w*ke s*cialist' for that (also please don't friendzone me I still make great homemade cappuccinos you should try one someday). I just think crypto would make a much better recipient for international transactions, away from the overreaching claws of Big Fintech.
Anyway, I'm not here to rant about random stuff, let alone politics, to an audience that hardly knows me. Let's get into why you clicked here!
Neocities!
For those who don't know, Neocities is a public free website hosting platform. You can make an account, write some HTML code, add the styling and scripting and media, and your website is up in no time. You can even manually manage a RSS or Atom feed by making a XML file! It has a piss easy web interface to make websites, or you can do what I do and make a little contraption where a Git post-commit hook uploads the files for you through a tool like neocitizen (PyPI) — basically I can use offline tools and Git auto-publishes it for me.
The 'catch' is that it is static website host. It lets you upload files, including media like images and stuff, but these files are served as-is. You can't make server-side code like a login system, but you can host server behavior in other places and use iframes — or, if you don't care about older browser support, JS fetch... or both if you're extra fancy!
While that might seem very limiting, the simplicity is the point. Neocities is, as its name implies, inspired by the 90s/2000s public free web host Geocities. It's a democratizing platform. Ostensibly, technical superpower isn't the point; people just want to make cool websites and show them off to their friends and stuff! (I say ostensibly because people have actually made some really cool stuff within these constraints — even 3D stuff! —, once again proving the age old adage that limitation breeds creativity.)
Most people use Neocities to create a personal website, often writing blogs, showing personal projects, art, updates (like new videos n' stuff), and even joining webrings, which are basically web communities where websites are joined into a sort of linked list via hyperlinks. They even make little button images others can incorporate to their own websites to link to it and demonstrate friendship and whatnot!
And I did most of that. I've still got to experience the more social side of Neocities, but I made a personal website: wallabra.neocities.org . Feel free to click around and check it out for yourself right now - this post ain't going anywhere!
I feel like having a homeplace on the Web is pretty nifty. It's an experience that we don't get a lot nowadays. It's your own little corner where you can be yourself and house your stuff online, for free! You can make friends and hopefully not sound like a broken record as much as me!
"Bleh, more work!"
Nuh uh! I had a lot of fun making the website.
Sure, you're usually writing the HTML and CSS manually (unless you use a WYSIWYG editor on your machine and upload the files after, but ain't nobody arsed to do that). Sure, it's kind of against the spirit of the thing to import a bulky CSS framework and make your site look cool the lazy route (though I got nothing against you if you do it!).
But it's fun. You're making a little gallery, you're pouring your soul online. You don't have to have a professional voice. You don't have to make a résumé, a portfolio. You don't have to show off and compete for jobs through showmanship. Just be yourself! Make cool things! Heck, make silly singleplayer JS games that you can share with your friends and talk about high scores! Forget about your responsibilities, even if just for a brief hour, and breathe life onto the internet.
It's not like social media, either. You have full control over your content. While not having a recommendation algorithm pushing your website in front of other people's eyes at Mach 3 might sound like a caveat, it's actually incredibly freeing to write not for an algorithm, but for yourself. It doesn't mean you can't promote your site. In fact, post about your personal site on your social media if you must! Or, hell, even paste up utility posts with a QR code to it! (though I am legally required to dissuade you from doing so criminally) Also, Neocities's front page has a selection of really cool websites you can browse, and yours can be a part of it if you add the required tags in the website settings. Don't worry about algorithms. Bring your voice out first! Get the right ears to it afterwards.
Conclusion
Sure, you aren't going to make a 'passive income' from posting on Neocities like you might do over here. But that's ok. Hive and Neocities fill different niches entirely. You can even use the two in tandem! Link your Neocities in your Hive profile. Link your Neocities Atom feed in Hive and vice versa. Add a "support me" crypto address QR code to your Neocities site so passerbys can support you for your creation. Instead of spending electric energy on mining coins, spend your human energy building a vibrant foundation for your digital social life.
My website might not be anything special or spectacular, and that's okay! Anyone can make a website, and that is exactly the point! It's your turn to take the reins over your digital footprint, make your own website, share your voice to the world in its most beautifully raw form.
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