So, why a website?
17 May 2023
I have spent around three months working on creating this website and I’ve been preparing to start this project for even longer. So, why have I dedicated so much time and energy to creating a personal website when I could have continued posting on my Twitter account/DeviantArt profile/Tumblr blog?
Would you believe that the sale of Twitter to ol’ Musky influenced my decision?
Motivation
A place to call my own
Following the sale of Twitter, which was my most active social media at the time, there was a lot of talk online about the merits of having your online identity tied entirely to corporate services that could pull the rug out from under you whenever their owners felt that there was money to be made from exploiting their users. This was a problem that had been at the back of my mind for a while, given previous examples of large websites going down in flames and taking all the work of their users down with them, but it was the tolling of Twitter’s bell that finally convinced me that I needed to carve out a place that I truly owned.
On this website, I can post about whatever I want without the fear of having to laboriously transfer it all to a new website every time the old one dies. Sure, my web host could go under, but I have the HTML to this website. With raw HTML and CSS, I can host this website anywhere I want - even on my own hardware if I feel the need to be truly independent!
Creative freedom
Speaking of having the HTML of my website, I can make this place look however I want! No more am I tied to the white-and-one-accent-colour designs of all the social medias that exist in the year of our lady 2023. Yes, it has been a ton of extra work to get the styling how I want it, but it is how I want it. This website is as much an expression of me as any of the individual pieces of art hosted on it.
Too many hobbies
The final reason why I really wanted my own website is because I have a wide range of creative hobbies that I want to be able to show off together. As of writing, this website contains digital paintings, 3d models, computer games, physical model kits, and sequential art. Normally, I would have to spread this stuff over multiple different websites and hope that they each let me easily link to my other accounts. But now I can express the full range of what interests me in one easy to navigate place.
Also, on what website would I even upload the photos of my model kits?
Downsides
It’s not all sunshine and roses having you own website, though.
I’ve already mentioned that setting this up took me multiple months, and I am also benefitting from years of work as a professional web developer. Having the time and expertise to take on this project is a luxury that lots of people simply don’t have. Sure, anyone with a computer can open up notepad and start writing HTML, but they’re not going to get a result as functional as an average social media site without some serious commitment. For this reason, I don’t begrudge anyone who chooses to stick to the modern web of large social media websites.
This venture is also costing me money, albeit a small amount in the grand scheme of things. I am paying for the web hosting and domain name and will have to keep paying for each year that I want this site to continue existing. Unless you’re stupid enough to pay for twitter blue, that does mean that having a personal website costs more than having a social media.
And finally, discoverability is waaay worse on a personal website. Unless I join a webring (which I do want to do), there’s going to be very little natural traffic being pointed towards this site. However, I’ve realised that I don’t really care about that. I’m just a nerdy girl who wants to show off her passions to anyone who is interested enough to come looking. I actively don’t want to be famous on the internet; obscurity suits me far better.
Conclusion
I love my little corner of the internet. Seeing this project that I’ve put so much effort into just exist out there on the web keeps putting a smile on my face.
Whether you’re interested in creating a website to ecape the confines of the big social medias, or you just want to give it a go as a creative exercise, I can fully recommend taking the plunge and going for it. You’ll learn a lot, and end up with something that you can easily share with your friends: just give them a link!