The Internet
This section is for my internet related interests. I came of age at the turn of the millenium (forgive me), and lived online for most of that decade. I was very lucky to avoid the worst of that time, so I remember it fondly, but I understand that it was not without serious problems.
Neocities & 'Webmastery'
Hi, I hesitate to call myself a 'webmaster' because I don't really know what I am doing outside of applying templates and changing them here or there. But I get that it more accurately means 'manager' of a website, which I am, despite my lack of knowledge or skill. I just try to keep them simple and accessible across devices.
RainyDisco Live: I came across Neocities in late 2024 in an algorithmically supplied video by 'randy moon' on youtube. Later I gained the motivation to actually try it out when adding a friend to a game server I host, and he said he didn't use discord anymore. I already really disliked the 'walled garden' aspect of discord, as well as the data privacy issues, and had been wanting to create an alternative for the server that was barrier-less. I dove in and made rainydisco.neocities.org as a robust information companion for our minecraft server. The server is personal, and stricly closed to stangers, but feel free to check out the site and take ideas or inspiration. The templates that I used, from Eggramen, were really easy to read and alter for my purposes. I have had a lot of fun making and updating that site!
Virbex:*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* Since then I have been working on a project with a friend, another neocities site & blog about virtual worlds called 'Virbex'. It has information guides about numerous virtual worlds that are still free to access today, as well as two ongoing blog sections. Currently a work in progress, probably 95% complete, it is just taking time conferring changes and additions with others. We used a Zonelets theme for that site, which I didn't initially realize came with her blogging code. Another template/code that has been easy to read, comprehend, and alter for my purposes!
DiscoPotato On-Line: After gaining more experience using Zonelets' blogging code, and being restless awaiting the completion of Virbex, I was compelled to make my own blog site here! This site uses Zonelets' code for blogging, and her 'Fingerless Gloves' template which I have altered a little bit. The background image is from Sadgrl's tiled backgrounds resource page. I think it looks like a terminal into a borg/xenomorph-like hive. It's giving "my CPU is a neural-net processor, a learning computer"
'Alternative' Internet
Recently I have been getting into more 'alternative' or 'independent' internet stuff like fediverse sites, Gemini and Gopher protocols. Data privacy has been a big motivator for that, along with just total disinterest in 'social' sites with people I barely speak to, awful user experience, and unethical work/environmental/social practices. I've also been chasing alternate front-ends for sites like youtube or music streaming, with some success. This has all been in tandem with my switch to Linux last year, that just further highlighted a lot of issues I already had with modern tech/internet stuff.
Any posts about the above topics will be linked here :)