yukijoou: New blog post: "own your place on the web!"

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content/yukijoou/make-a-website/index.md

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+---
+title: "own your place on the web!"
+authors: ['yukijoou']
+date: 2023-09-03
+description: "...or why you shouldn't create content for social networks in 2023"
+---
+
+hi, welcome! you've just arrived on my piece of the internet. you're reading
+this article from my own website.[^ownership] i have full control over every bit
+of this page. i can change the background to a picture of my cat, or make the
+layout completely different, or use bad words and insults if i want to.  
+if you've arrived here, it's likely not because of google's search results --
+unlike most companies these days, i'm not using any tricks to rank higher in
+search results or buy ads, and so i'm probably not easily findable through that.
+i also don't tend to talk about trendy topics, or bring any value to google, as
+that's not my goal...
+
+see, i'm just making things on the internet because i enjoy it! because i think
+some of my friends may find it interesting, because i want to try something out,
+or just because i like writing or making software for the fun of it. i don't
+think it's worth the time or effort to be popular, or to play the google
+rankings game, it'd just make it harder for me to do the silly things i enjoy.
+
+and i'm not alone! the "indie web", or, as i like to call it, the "*people*'s
+web", is a bunch of independent websites, just like mine, made by people, **for
+people**, with the main goal of sharing something with the world, or just
+putting ideas out there. we're not in it for the money or the fame: most of us
+hide behind usernames and avoid sharing as much personal information as possible
+because we just want to make fun or share interesting things!
+
+we want to share the cute cat we saw on the way home, the program we made that
+helps us study, or even how we block ads on websites and watch pirated copies of
+movies, because we think it'll help out other *people*, or because we think they
+may enjoy it. some of those things may not be liked by advertisers, and that's
+one of the reasons why we don't want to use big platforms like instagram or
+others. we don't want them telling us what's "safe" or not.
+
+we don't like ads on websites, so we don't use them. we don't like
+corporate/uniform designs, so we try to be creative. we don't care about having
+billions of views and interractions, so most of us don't even track that. and
+most importantly, we want **people** to enjoy our stuff. not algorithms, not ai
+chat-bots, not search engines. we don't care about those.
+
+# the problem with the state of "the internet"
+
+if you ask your parents what the internet is, they will likely answer that it's
+"basically facebook" (or something similar), and possibly "emails" if they use
+that. which makes sense -- when you think of internet content nowadays, most
+people think of massive social network that make content creation and sharing 
+super easy.  
+in a way, it's really wonderful that anyone can share their opinion and say what
+they want! thanks to the algorithms they have, finding people's stuff you like
+is easy, and everything is centralised on less than a dozen platforms.
+
+and that's the problem. all that content is pretty much owned and distributed by
+a dozen massive platforms. if one of them goes down (and one day they all will),
+it's millions, if not hundreads of millions of people's content that gets
+deleted in an instant. this also means it's up to the platform to decide what's
+allowed and not allowed: if an employee in the right department of that company
+doesn't like you, they can shut off your account in minutes, and you have no
+recourse.
+
+the content creation process may be "easy", at least in comparaison to not using
+those massive services, but it does restrict you to the platform's rules, which
+often encourage you to make things that make advertisers happy, and allow the
+platform to make as much money from its users as it can. these things often
+don't align with what people want! most people are growing tired of
+recommendation algorithms, people and companies keep finding ways of getting
+around it, and instead of your recommendations being full of things you care
+about, it's mostly just popular stuff, or things specifically made to make the
+algorithm happy.
+
+making the content creation process as easy as possible also means killing a
+good bit of creativity. when making a twitter post, you can write some 280
+characters in the box and share those with the world. no more, no less. no
+formatting, no *emphasis* or **bold text**. some websites may give you more
+options, but none will allow you to write your own code in the middle of your
+blog post to draw a rainbow:
+
+*Click and drag in the window below to draw a rainbow!*
+<div id="funny-block">
+<canvas width=100 height=100 id="rainbow">
+your browser unfortunately doesn't support canvas, no funny rainbows for you :c
+</canvas>
+<script src="./rainbow.js"></script>
+<noscript>
+you'll need javascript to enjoy this funny thing i made
+</noscript>
+</div>
+<style>
+#rainbow {
+	image-rendering: pixelated;
+	border: 1px solid black;
+	border-radius: 5px;
+	width: 90%;
+	height: 30vh;
+}
+#funny-block {
+	display: flex;
+	justify-content: center;
+	width: 100%;
+}
+</style>
+
+on popular social networks, if you want to do anything more creative than bare
+text , you have to use an image or a video, which comes with its own set of
+problems[^screenreaders]. youtube had fancy channel customisation
+options[^smosh-2009] at some point, but it got removed in the name of uniformity
+and ease of use. now, every channel looks the same except for a custom logo and
+banner, and i think that's a bit sad :(  
+i've seen amazing personal websites with crazy designs, and on small social
+networks like [SpaceHey](https://spacehey.com/), where people have the tools to
+customise their profile page, you get amazingly unique things!
+
+and that's mostly why i think personnal websites are better: you can truly
+express yourself, you're not at the mercy of some algorithms to know if your
+content will be deleted, and you're not helping some company grow their market
+share and increase their proffit margins[^corporate-hosting]. you're always in
+control of your content, you can make backups and repost it wherever you want
+super easily, and can, for example, at any point, [stop openai from using your
+content in chatgpt](https://platform.openai.com/docs/plugins/bot).
+
+though, many people think the major platform's compromises are worth it for the
+ease of use social networks have. to which i have to answer:
+
+# making a website isn't hard!
+
+of course, this is subjective, but making a website isn't a difficult skill to
+learn, and will serve you greatly for anything related to the internet! there
+are many tools available to make it even easier, and even more tutorials (i'm
+also currently working on a guide to help you get started)!  
+it's not expensive either, and (depending on what you want to do, of course),
+you likely can put something up on the internet for free (or really cheap) right
+now (as long as you have a computer).
+
+and even if you can't put anything on the internet right now, you don't have to:
+you can store all the files that make up your website on your computer, and make
+your website accessible to anyone on your home internet connection for free
+within minutes. it's a very good way to prototype things and just play around
+with making internet content without any consequenses!
+
+while you may have to rely on some companies to make it work (like, an internet
+service provider, a host if you don't want all the traffic from your website to
+go through your home internet, and most likely a registrar to get a name for
+your website), you have the option to switch to any other company providing the
+same service at any point! you can always copy all your files to somewhere else
+if you want to.
+
+all in all, the whole infrastructure i'm running for my friends and i costs me
+about 15€/month, plus a few hours of maintance a month, for a blog, personal
+websites for each of us, a social network, and an image sharing service -- it's
+cheaper than a premium netflix subscription!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+so, if you have some time to spare, and want to start sharing content with the
+world, i recommend making a website! even if it's just for reposting stuff
+you're sharing elsewhere, it gives you a space that's truly yours, and that you
+can keep as long as you're alive, and maybe more. it'll teach you general
+computer and system administration skills, that'll always be usefull in life.  
+and most importantly, it'll let you express yourself however you like, share the
+things you care about with friends, and make something *for people*.
+
+i'll note though that if you want to build a massive community, a website
+probably isn't the way to go. but i'd say, you don't need a massive community!
+people looking at your website are often much more engaged and interested in
+what you're sharing than people scrolling though hundreads of posts, so you'll
+likely get as many interractions, if not more, from actual humans!
+
+if you want to get started right now, i recommend you check out [mozilla's
+"Getting started with the web"
+guide](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web),
+and if you're looking for tools to make your life easier, i made a [dead simple
+site generator](https://yukijoou.kemonomimi.gay/site-inator.html) you might want
+to check out.
+
+if you want to see some content made by indie web people, you can check those
+out:
+
+* [rampancy.neocities.org](https://rampancy.neocities.org), including [this
+  beutiful digital shrine to the video game
+  SIGNALIS](https://rampancy.neocities.org/games/SIGNALIS) (cw: no reduced
+  motion support on both links)
+* [possums.gay](https://possums.gay/), another yuki's website (cw: gifs with
+  slight motion on the main page, quite high contrast)
+* [nano.lgbt](https://nano.lgbt/) (cw: gifs with slight motion, high contrast)
+* [maia.crimew.gay](https://maia.crimew.gay/) (cw: gifs with slight motion)
+* [sugary.kemonomimi.gay](https://sugary.kemonomimi.gay/) (cw: gifs with slight
+  motion)
+* and of course, [my own website](https://yukijoou.kemonomimi.gay/)
+  
+you should also check out [reclaim hosting](https://www.reclaimhosting.com/), a
+company providing super cheap hosting (less than 4$/month) and domains for your
+website.
+
+[^ownership]: well, not really "my own", it's my group of friends' website that i am
+    managing.
+	
+[^screenreaders]: images are not readable by screenreaders used by blind people, and take
+    much more data than text to transmit. blind people make up a good part of
+    internet users, and metered connections are still definitely a thing in many
+    places.
+
+[^smosh-2009]: see [smosh's channel in 2009 on the internet
+    archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20090309121304/https://www.youtube.com/smosh),
+    i was not on youtube back then, so i don't have many examples, but i'm sure
+    some people managed to do some way more advanced things!
+	
+[^corporate-hosting]: yes. i know, you will have to rely on some companies when 
+	running a website, and they definitely make money from you. but i'll touch 
+	on more how that works later, and i think it's still a much more honest and
+	transparent business model than most social media companies.

content/yukijoou/make-a-website/rainbow.js

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+const canvas = document.getElementById("rainbow");
+const context = canvas.getContext("2d");
+
+const resizeCanvas = () => {
+	canvas.width = canvas.clientWidth;
+	canvas.height = canvas.clientHeight;
+};
+
+canvas.onmousemove = (event) => {
+	if (event.buttons < 1) return;
+	context.fillStyle = "red";
+	context.fillRect(event.offsetX, event.offsetY + (0 * 5), 5, 5);
+	context.fillStyle = "orange";
+	context.fillRect(event.offsetX, event.offsetY + (1 * 5), 5, 5);
+	context.fillStyle = "yellow";
+	context.fillRect(event.offsetX, event.offsetY + (2 * 5), 5, 5);
+	context.fillStyle = "green";
+	context.fillRect(event.offsetX, event.offsetY + (3 * 5), 5, 5);
+	context.fillStyle = "cyan";
+	context.fillRect(event.offsetX, event.offsetY + (4 * 5), 5, 5);
+	context.fillStyle = "blue";
+	context.fillRect(event.offsetX, event.offsetY + (5 * 5), 5, 5);
+	context.fillStyle = "violet";
+	context.fillRect(event.offsetX, event.offsetY + (6 * 5), 5, 5);
+};
+
+window.onresize = () => resizeCanvas();
+document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", resizeCanvas);