This tumblr is connected to my personal website that's part of the Sovereign Web movement. If you miss the early days of the internet when it was common place to build personal websites purely for the fun of it, follow this blog, visit my website, learn more & get inspired!
Hey everyone, I have an unfortunate update to share. My website was hacked about a week ago. I tried to restore some backups I had from March and came to find out yesterday that they too are infected. I will need to rebuild my entire website from scratch. I did manage to salvage my webring files, blog posts, and some page data which were the most precious to me in this process, so it could have been a lot worse. I'm really thankful I have those.
That being said, if you're part of any of my webrings, expect your widgets to be down for awhile. They will likely be changing as well so feel free to remove them from your pages. I will send out a mass email when the new widgets are up. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience!
This has been a tough lesson learned, especially in terms of self hosting. I self hosted my website for several months, thinking it was a wise decision financially, but this experience ultimately taught me that I don't know enough about website or server security to self host, and it cost me 3 years of work I've put into my website. Self hosting is a big responsibility, and something I'll probably write a bit more in depth about once I have my website going again.
Anyways, I just wanted to share this update with you all. I sent out an email to those of you who are part of my webrings. I was having some issues with my email when I switched my hosting over, which I had since fixed. So if you sent any emails within the last few days and they didn't go through, feel free to resend them. My email system should be working as normal again.
I'll keep you guys posted when my Sovereign Web subdomain and webrings are back up.
I don't know why I never gave Tumblr a chance until now. I was satisfied with Facebook, I suppose. I've grown disillusioned with it over time--the constant restrictions, the shadow bans, the onslaught of paid content. I complain often about how centralized and corporate the internet has become and feel nostalgic for the internet I grew up on. It used to be this beautiful patchwork quilt of sloppily coded hobby pages and small business sites, and now it's just one giant billboard advertising generic slop.
I miss the good old days when social media sites still let users express themselves freely with HTML, links, etc. without burying their posts in the algorithm--before social media was even called social media. Tumblr reminds me of that a bit, those golden days of blogging when my friends and I used to jot down every detail of our lives on Livejournal or Diaryland and meticulously craft our Myspace and Blogspot designs with HTML snippets stolen from other sites.
I don't know why I stopped. Maybe I've been too busy or too sad or too sick, or maybe I just got out of the habit accidentally. Maybe I didn't have anything to say or anything good to say, or maybe needed some time to process everything that's happened before I was ready to talk about it. Maybe it's because it was a very social thing for me, and nobody really seems to blog anymore.
Maybe my self-esteem has been too low or I've been too focused on the scramble to keep the bills paid. That's probably closest to the truth. I don't believe anyone would care what I have to say.
What happened to me? I used to always be creating, building websites, writing--journaling about my day, scribbling poetry, telling stories, ranting about politics. I've become so quiet, so inward. It used to be I was silent because I wasn't sure anymore what I wanted to say. Now I know exactly what I want to say but it's hard to muster the willpower. It feels like my words will fall upon deaf ears.. I just have a hard time mustering the willpower because it feels like my words will be falling upon deaf ears.
I wish I hadn't stopped journaling. Somebody does care what I have to say. I care. I wish I could pick a day, pop open my diary, and see what my children were up to on that day in history, like going back in time. I can't really do that with Facebook because I never really used it that way. Unless I happened to take pictures most days aren't documented at all, except perhaps a few lines here and there when something out of the ordinary happens.
We used to post for ourselves. Over time we've been conditioned to post for everyone else instead. I think that's made us all even more narcissistic and attention-seeking than ever. I think it was better when we all had our own weird little corners and converged in niche pocket dimensions like mIRC channels and were all just playing show and tell, motivated not by money but genuine desire to connect.
No one's ever going to be as invested in your life as you are. Why are we curating our social media for other people? Why are we posting only what we think other people will find interesting? Why was I? Why do I care about what other people will think looking at this? In 20 years from now I'm the one who is going to want to look back on my life and reminesce. Probably no one else wants to know what I was thinking and feeling most days. But I want to know.
This blog is for me. It's not to entertain those who stumble across it. It's to help me remember my life. It's so my kids have documentation of my life that's more substantial than Facebook and random cell phone pictures. To preserve my voice for them. My memories. I'm going to try to treat it the way I would have treated a diary when I was very young so that when I am gone the people who loved me can still find little pieces of me in it.
After 2 days of hard work, I’ve finally got the Sovereign Web Ring and directory erected. It would have been up sooner but I ran into a couple challenges and I really wanted to make sure it was polished before I released it. I’ve also done a little extra polishing on this subdomain as well and feel really happy with the new aesthetic around here.
I’ve also decided to republish some of my social media marketing posts. I saw a few people referring others to Webring Wednesdays as a resource for finding new webrings and I don’t want to take that away from anyone if they found it useful. I might continue to do webring features within a different capacity in the future but I’m going to need a better social media automation system before I consider doing regular features again. Keeping up with regular features is already quite a bit of work. Taking time to post them on several social media platforms manually and even semi-automated also takes quite a bit of time. I’m pretty determined I’ll find a good system for this eventually though.
Anyways, I just wanted to invite everyone to check out this new webring. 🙂 While it is a different branch of the personal web, I absolutely want to extend the invitation for everyone within the small web / indie web to join this new ethos if it aligns. I’ve seen a lot of gatekeeping during my time in these spaces (I was part of the small web for over 2 years before I branched off) and I don’t know if the Sovereign Web will help be a remedy for that, but I think it will really help make space in this niche for everybody, and unify people supporting true diversity and inclusivity. 💜 We don’t all have to agree with what we’re all doing in our own spaces. We don’t all have to follow the same path. We don’t all have to think the same things. We don’t all have to share the same values. We are all different. Some of us are here for the same reasons, some of us are here for different reasons. It’s all valid. So I hope that this will be a really positive thing and help people find community no matter where they’re at or how they choose to experience this creative hobby. 🙏
You can find the link to join here: https://sovereignweb.thecozy.cat/join/
Hey friends! Just popping in to show off something I’ve been pouring a lot of love into lately. 💜
My Sovereign Web subdomain has gotten a major revamp! I’ve been busy tweaking, updating, and adding all sorts of new features; and right now, I’m working on a Sovereign Web Ring for anyone interested in supporting this new ethos of personal web-building. 🙂
But today, I’m here to share something else I’m really excited about: the Resources page makeover! It’s been completely redesigned as a step-by-step guide, complete with a handy table of contents. Whether you’re just starting your personal site or looking for a solid library of resources to bookmark and revisit, this page is meant to grow alongside the community. I’ll be continuously adding to it over time!
I’d love for you to check it out! If you know of any great resources that would fit in, feel free to send them my way!
Algorithms, constant ads, pay walls, tracking, and walled gardens are so 2024. Leave behind the big data mining corporations and make your own indie website in 2025! That's what we're doing! ;)
Here is a preview of Blinkie.world, my blinkie collecton site! The goal here is to collect every blinkie on earth (but only if they're free to use, and can be credited). They're all sorted into these color pages, and also sorted into tons of sub categories on other pages (like food, animals, holidays, etc etc). This is what some of the color pages look like now! Once I have at least 300 blinkies in each color, then I'll consider the site full enough to go live! I'm aiming to get it online by Art Fight (aka by July this year).
Do note that this isn't actually an accurate representation of how many I have. I have thousands more than this! I just have to code them all in. It's not as quick as just an image tag and a link, because it also needs to be named, linked to it's source, tagged so I know what categories they're in, have a link to a screenshot that proves who the creator is and their terms (in case the credit link dies one day), have alt text, and have hover text which says the creator and a description of what the blinkie says! So, it's not like this:
<img src="">
It's actually like this:
<a href="" target="_BLANK">
<img src="" alt="" title="Credit: . ID: """></a>
<!--Categories: -->
<!--Screencap: -->
And that's for every blinkie! You can probably see how this is so time consuming, but I think it's worth it. I've never seen a blinkie collection with 6,000+ blinkies, much less every single one credited, and even less sorted into dozens of categories! It's like I have a blinkie for everything, while also knowing the creator of each, and being able to easily search for a specific one via the sorting system! It's especially good for helping others find blinkies, and helping people get the sources for blinkies they already have! It's also great for finding blinkies to use for your ocs (which is my initial reason for doing this).
I'm very excited about this. I really think this could be a very fun resource for people, and that aside, I just really like having so many in my possession. I love to see them. I even have blinkies that I've downloaded before they were deleted off the internet! That's very exciting to me. I have blinkies that are straight up lost media, and I'm happy to be able to preserve them.
Of course as I said, it's going to take forever to add them all, but I'm chipping away at it. I shall not be stopped! Also, if you want a blinkie in any of these screenshots above, just let me know! I'll get it and it's source for you, easy peasy! I'll post more screenshots as significant progress is made, but for now, it's back to downloading blinkies!
i like working at plant store. sometimes you ring up someone and there's a slug on their plant and so you're like "Oh haha you've got a friend there let me get that for you" and you put the slug on your hand for safekeeping but then its really busy and you dont have time to take the slug outside before the next customer in line so you just have a slug chilling on your hand for 15 minutes. really makes you feel at peace with nature. also it means sometimes i get to say my favorite line which is "would you like this free slug with your purchase"
@holyknuckled you get it. lterally what are we here on earth for if not to occasionally impose gastropods upon unsuspecting customers. this story is delightful
im sooooooooOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOO SICK of the “yeah everything sucks but like, what else are we gonna do? fix it? :/“ attitude online
YES
we CAN in fact fix some of the stuff that sucks, and YES, it will take work, but are you really OK with the alternative of just lying down and letting these tech companies rule your life?
You are capable of change, you are capable of doing better, and you are capable of carving out a better Internet for yourself and those around you. You should feel driven to do that.
I love this. 💪 But also, I think since everyone is already on those platforms, that is exactly where we need to be right now, promoting these movements so that people can find these alternatives. Use big tech's own tools against them to promote resource hubs for people to get educated and inspired to start building their own sites - and eventually feel confident and comfortable enough to leave the corporate web. This is how we can create a transition point for people to start exiting the corporate web. As much as we hate the corporate web, unfortunately I think it is a necessary evil we can use to our advantage to help build momentum for this movement, and establish it as a solid alternative to big tech social media. One day we won't need to use them anymore, but right now, if we really want to start building momentum for change, people need to know the Small/Indie web exists. We need to share this movement on platforms where the majority of people are. So create social media pages dedicated to this movement, create groups, put in the work to consistently promote it over on the highly populated platforms. If you have a business or marketing degree, putting those skills to work in social media marketing could be powerful for this movement. Talk about it on your podcasts, Youtube channel, Twitch, Tiktok, Instagram. Put it somewhere it can be seen, build audiences, build momentum, and start creating transition points.
I'm excited to introduce a new blog series: Web Wanderings! 🤩
In this series, I'll share the funniest, most interesting or weirdest websites you can find on Cloudhiker. The first edition is out now! 🚀
Rediscover the joy of online exploration! Web Wandering shares a hand-picked selection of unique and captivating websites you won't find any
baratheonpilled
jacobvanloon
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
dailybridgerton
dededos
areudirty
ellievsbear
discoholicmusic
