Spacehey, Mastodon, Static Sites and the independent web.

Probably too  "journalistic" (I.E: Full of shit) of a blog title but discovering this site sort of awoke something in me that's been brewing for a while. Now, this isn't really a "unique" point of view or feeling, people have been getting sick of the centralization and de-individualization of the web for ages but I just really felt the need to write down my thoughts on this one because why not?

For a few years I've been interacting with this sort of internet "underground" community of people that are pretty sick of the direction the web is going. Sure, it's pretty and full of bells and whistles but every new update to Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Etc feels like it's taking something away from us in the long run. Remember when sites were clunky but so much more individualistic in their design? You could go on your Facebook and write down things nobody really cared about on your profile but that made your profile, well, yours! Or Reddit with its (Now mostly dead) tools for editing a subreddit's CSS to oblivion to create something new and original? Nowadays the only few places on the "surface" of the internet where one can make your profile yours are sites like Tumblr, but even they are slowly falling to the modernization and standardization of the web and it's a sad thing to see.

Slowly though, we are seeing a growing community of people who want to take the web back. At first it was just a small group of devs and artists being experimental and trying new things but every day I see more "average" users join us. Sites have been popping up during the later part of the last decade and the past few years offering something new: Decentralization and customization! Mastodon, the decentralized micro-blogging platform. Neocities, the free personal static website hosting service. Spacehey, the kick on the face straight back to the good ol days of 2000s scenecore. And many more are out there, growing slowly!

And honestly? It makes me happy. I love to see this. Sure, we aren't going to be taking down the industry giants any day soon but the other option, our option, still exist and it's great!