Not Much of a Steamworks With No Engine, Admittedly
most of this website is template I'm keeping around for reference while I figure all this out. this section, however, is very much in my own hand. I've never been much of a social media person, which -- on one hand, thank the stars -- but on the other, when I live in the middle of nowhere with only a few discord buddies for genuinely close connections, you can imagine there's downsides to this existence. but I know sites like twitter won't fix that for me. it took me this long bumbling through discord servers to find a space that didn't either explode or ban me for reasons varying in validity, so I don't much fancy that method, nor do I have the energy these days.
so you can imagine, I'm quite curious when I encounter the idea and reality that is The Indie Web Revival.
for starters, I don't have to worry about keeping up with everybody individually all the time -- if I wanna say something, I'll be able to just. Write It. if I wanna see what someone else has to say, if I haven't talked to someone in a while, there's no pressure to start a conversation -- I just visit their site, and go from there. as someone who's notoriously shit at keeping up with people, I found this idea quite exciting. better yet, though -- well, I have this *problem*. I'm a bit of a thinker, you see. I like to believe I see issues with the society of today, and perhaps, even, some solutions. but... I'm some twit waiting on a contract for an engineering position at a company that at best, isn't helping. I barely have transport, and less again the energy (maybe I need to work on my sleep schedule, but don't we all). I'm sure by the fact that you're here at all, that you know at least slightly where this is going -- Other Writers Have Spilled a Whole Lot of Ink Over the stark limitations of modern social media, and how the Indie Web hopes to overcome this ailment, to start a sentence quoting someone I've already linked in this document once. I'd personally cite the problem to be one of "attention economics" and "convenience", best solved with an assault on advertising and data revenue models, and incentives toward looking a little harder for one's home, a proper education in internet literacy and history perhaps -- but I'm some over-ripe kid with too little free time. I'd much rather you take, perhaps Norway's word for it. they even went to the effort of putting it in english for you.
yet, sat here, in my stumpy chair that's actively trying to stab me, such thoughts are just so -- thoughts. thinking them doesn't help. contrary to popular belief, I don't think *saying* them helps much either. we want to *act* on them. but those are systemic solutions, and we don't run the system. of course, there are still levers -- vote, protest, start a civil war (you know you want to) -- but these range from only so effective to simply not feasible for most people. fortunately, there's also a *cultural* solution. admittedly, I hate this. because I hate individualism. I hate the idea of just having to trust people to suddenly decide to take the hard road, when I have so much evidence that too many people never will. but... with every pessimism unto which we subject reality, we must address *reality*: sure, I won't fix the world with a website. I can certainly, at least, try to fix *me.* and hey, maybe one day I'll make a game, get famous and start a movement. okay, I mean probably not, but *someone* might, and frankly this is still progress if they don't. I'm still taking steps to better connect with people. still taking steps to say what I want to say, openly, without a social urge to put it in a way my friends would better recieve, but not into the eternally hungry kraken that is social media. this website, as of writing, may not be much -- but it has the potential to change my life. as a home for myself more than I could make any space to be, for my projects better than any github account, for my writing better than any discord dms or pieces of paper.
this is my escape from the suburbs, a little plot of land with which I will one day host a great steamyard, a refuge for my mind, and perhaps, for yours. I thank all those who join me in this quest, and hope you find something worth looking for.