This Website.

Well, here you are.

Yet another traveler on the World Wide Web. Once, that's all I was too. Then, tragedy struck: I decided to make my own website. Truly, I do not know what I was thinking.

So, there I was. Writing the HTML and CSS. I picked a font, and made a logo. There was an elephant in the room though: What do you put on it? Of course, I thought of a website before I thought of what to do with it.

Apparently, this is common.

I mean, back up for a second here: Why was I doing this the first place? Well, I guess I just got curious about what owning a website would be like. It's something I always wanted to check off my list and say that I tried it. I know it sounds weird to imply that all of this was created on a whim, but I would argue that makes this so much more geniune and fun.

No seriousness from a commitment. No big, lofty goal to aim for. Just me making something that I might like.

In terms of what to do though, I had seen other people use their websites as a "base" for yourself on the internet. It contains everything you'd want to share online, all in one place you fully control. It can be project homepages, opinion pieces, or just fun stuff. The more I talk about it, the more it just seems obvious I should've done this earlier.

"Yeah, these seem like good ideas", I said to myself in an imaginary blockquote that didn't happen. "Vague enough that I can always peel it off into any direction I want to in the future, while still having a meaning to this nonsense."

On the direction note, looking around at other personal websites was invaluable when it came to creative descisions. A common phrase I have heard thrown around here is "Copying is an act of love". And there are a lot of websites I love. You can just take what you like, and leave what you don't. It turns out it's also a lot like burglary. With love, though.

But... who is this for? I debated in my head about this for a while. Is it for me? I would just make what I wanted, no suggestions taken? Or is it for others? Doing things I don't want to do just to appeal to a majority?

In the end, I decided that me's an others. I'm a someone. I am other people. Basically, I'm going to do what I enjoy. I know that at least some other people are like me. So at least some other people will enjoy it too. It might not be a lot - I don't think the reason any of us are on the Indie Web is for huge exposure - but it would be right for them, and therefore right for me.

In fact, while on the subject of what's right and what's not right, this is a good place to have a sentence about how almost all of those huge social media websites are horrible in order to explain why I don't use them. You've heard the lecture a million times by now if you've been around the Indie Web, but Boy Howdy! is it bad when you take a step back and look at it.

They're basically trying to build a massive forum for everyone and everything. Except the owners try their hardest to do the bare minimum for maximum profit while trying to chain the community to their platform. Oh, and it also sucks. Did I mention that? It's horrible. I do not want to share a forum with a lot of these people. We have lost far more than we have gained from platforms. That's the short opinion piece I'll give you.

This brings me to my other point: I think another reason I wanted to make a website was just to be a part the community. For a rule-less, diverse, and effectively impossible-to-moderate place, it is... suprisingly tolerant and well-meaning. Don't get me wrong, there's bad people, but in general it's a very safe place compared to most. What I'm trying to say is: The self-expression encouraged by the community of the Indie Web, likely stemming from its diversity, is a large reason to join in and of itself.

Anyways, I'm getting off track. By now we have pretty firmly established the why, but let's talk a little about the how. Now, by no means was this some Apollo Program of cutting-edge technology. But I did want to try to do some things different compared to most sites. See, now we can get to that one article that I said I would write on the about page.

Now, don't let any of this mask some of the low points. One of the first things you learn about making a website is that there's a reason why lots of people on the Indie Web are self-proclaimed anarchists. You have to learn the correct chaos in order to proceed. Oh, and don't worry about mobile devices, most people just put up a sign that says "This looks bad on mobile lol".

Surprisingly, this website does work on mobile. Mostly thanks to Bootstrap though. Even with that though, it's an absolute time vampire of a problem to make things look correct. I don't blame anybody for not supporting it, whatsoever. You know that one meme about moving one picture in Microsoft Word, only to have everything get messed up?

Yeah. Like that, but worse.

I should note something odd about this whole article: I'm still figuring stuff out while I write it! This means that I'll probably add more to this as I make decisions on things. Honestly, I actually consider this a huge plus side of websites: They are fully allowed and expected to evolve over time. This is great for me, because I hardly get things right the first time.

And thus, with a note on change being made, let me wrap this up ...for now. Until I decide to add more, at least.

Conclusion

There is no conclusion to developing a website. In some ways, you sort of buy yourself the gift of endless development. But someday, everything will come to a halt. One of the updates will be the last update. Hopefully I will at least have the courtesy to note that. But regardless, the last reason I had to make a website was as a sort of time capsule of myself. I spoke earlier about it being a base for myself, and I meant that in more ways than in my activity.

I am actually not as afraid of being forgotten as most. Maybe it's because of the digital age, where there will always be some backup, on some drive, with your name in it. The problem is, that probably just has data about how to advertise to you. That's not what I want.

I want to leave a footprint that records who I am, not what my name is. That's the only part I'm afraid of: The wrong parts of yourself being recorded. Ironically, communicating this deep thought is done through trying not to be "deep" in what I say. I guess that's just how I would do it. But hopefully the message gets through to you, in between the lines. I assure you, I did put thought into these words.

I just wanted to make... something. Show that I did more than just consume. Just sort of etch onto an endless rock that I had ideas. It's special in a stupid way to me.

And I hope everyone gets a chance to make something that is archived forever. I promise, it will give you a strange feeling that no matter what happens, your creation will live on in a quiet corner. Exactly as you designed it.