Actually, it’s not that relevant that it’s Neocities: I could be using any other web hosting provider. But it is a bit relevant.

I’m here because the Internet sucks.

I can’t depend on big platforms

Around the year 2020, the state of the mainstream side of the Internet (which goes beyond the web) made me feel exhausted enough to give Mastodon a chance while moving away from most of the big platforms. I stayed there for about 5 years, but I ended up leaving, dissatisfied with the kind of people and culture I found.

Mastodon was not really the worst, obviously. Facebook, X and Instagram are utter garbage. Tumblr and Bluesky are okay, actually pretty decent in content, but they’re not immune to enshittification and the AT Protocol does not look that good. I suppose some instances on Mastodon and Misskey MIGHT be somewhat decent, but discoverability and moderation in the Fediverse is also garbage (and not for the reasons you might think!).

Not long afer leaving Mastodon I realized I also hated my smartphone. I’ve never been addicted to it, I don’t think so. But having a giant heavy brick all day on you that’s only slightly helpful like 1% of the time, and that’s designed around the worst aspects of social media (like having a big long screen so you scan comfortably doomscroll to the end of times) made me realize I don’t really need this thing except when I’m on the toilet. And unfortunately, they don’t make cheap, small, and lightweight smartphones, which would have solved most of my complaints.

It turns out I was not the only one

Very recently bought a dumbphone. And then, only a few days later, I came across Eddy Burback’s video I hate my phone so I got rid of it. Then I watched a few others related videos and some from LuvstarKei started popping up, including her review of the Kyocera 902KC, but most importantly Why YOU Should Make a Website!

While I didn’t agree with her on everything she said, I do share the general feeling that the Internet has become stale, and I’d prefer to see more people expressing themselves through their own designed virtual spaces. I also dislike generative AI a lot, and the platforms that embrace it make me back away from them.

This is not the first website I’ve had, but it’s the most personal one I’ve had so far, even if I’ve barely posted anything on it. So I asked myself, why was I able to stay on Mastodon for 5 years, but couldn’t maintain a blog before for more than a day? Simply because the accounts I had on Mastodon were for myself. I wasn’t trying to please or convince anyone. That’s the mistake I made with my previous websites: they were mere blogs that aimed to be practical or political, with a specific public in mind. There’s a public here too, I guess, but this time I am part of it.

Also, I didn’t know about Neocities before watching a couple of LuvstarKey’s videos. My first impression was that I wouldn’t “fit” here because it gave me childish vibes. But it turns out there are all kind of people here, and in any case who gives a damn? Neocities claims to be a place to promote webmasters’ creativity, and they seem to be doing it pretty damn well (I hope they’re doing well financially too.)

This is mostly for myself, as it should be. Don’t expect anything specific from it.