What Do You Think of the Web Revival?

[Dynaknights]

I'm curious of what people think of their experiences with the web revival or other movements like it (like the indie web, wild web, or even the analog trend thing I guess) thus far.

I'm pretty sure all of us jive with the intentions (anti-capitalism, anti-corporation, etc.) of these movements but do you wish they acknowledged more aspects of themselves (like people who cannot abandon mainstream social media due to work or how expensive it may be to buy alternatives to phones)? What do you think of how some values are executed? Could these have been done better? How does these movements compare to other counterculture initiatives and movements? Do you enjoy the community and has connecting with it been easy?
Feel free to offer your own inquiries and such for people to answer, too.

Obviously, I'm not the spokesperson for this thing, but communication's always good in any case, right?

[sunnyp4rk]

I've always hated the whole "I'm making this site to take back the internet from corporations!" thing because...why would you not just be making it for yourself? It's something that annoys me but doesn't actually matter lol

Otherwise, I really like seeing the creative webpages people make. No two are the same and I think that's the best part of it. It's fun to see how people design their space to be for themselves.

[rnottelovesowls]

i think many indie website creators' modus operandi is "i hate big tech and i want more control over how i express myself", which is an admirable goal. i love indie web spaces that are their own entity; they don't try to be the "facebook killer". their creators just want a space to decorate and share what they're passionate about, with no incentive to get clicks or get paid. it's the fact that none of these spaces have monetization incentives that make them so much fun to be in, unlike facebook

what i don't care for are indie social media sites; the twitter-likes that tout "no AI, no algorithms", because twitter is a bad place for social connection by design. creating a website that's just twitter but sans elon musk, doesn't fix that. forums, status.cafe, onio club, diaryland, and bear blog are great because they are their own entities, with their own purposes beyond "screw social media". oh, and speaking of social media content, i also don't like sites that are covered in garish colors and flashy GIFs. i know that a lot of geocities websites looked like that, but they were bad, and we don't need to copy them

but the best part about the indie web, in my opinion, is that there are no gatekeepers. if you ask for help on something, someone out there will give it to you; you won't get many snobby jerks typing, "uh, look it up, idiot. google is free" or "sure, i'll help. that'll be $10". it's nice to be in a space where humans have each other's support, and there's no better online space for that, than the indie web. wherever you go, you'll find a space where you belong 

[lakes]

i think the web revival movement is good in its goals
however i think about this one thing a neocities mutual said (paraphrasing) "the term revival ignores the people already doing these things without the need for a "revival.""
basically forums, self hosted websites, web hosters, etc didn't go anywhere
some of them may have died, but some still exist buried among social media & big tech
i think it's easy to get so caught up in "reviving" stuff that's still alive but hidden

[Melooon]

the term revival ignores the people already doing these things

I'd very much disagree there, the word revival was a reference to the folk music revivals of the 1940s, it's purpose was to recognize that webcraft is a continuity of tradition of individual craft that goes back not just to the start of the web, but hundreds if not thousands of years, as a form of folk craft and free media - the web part is just today's twist on a long history.

Revival does not mean "bringing back from the dead" (that would be Web Resurrection), it means "the process of becoming more active or popular" or "a time of interest".

That aside, I'm always interested to see threads like this, I've seen people opinions change so much since I started my site 10 years ago, there are so many questions people ask over and over, and yet each year the mood shifts a little

[lakes]

I'd very much disagree there, the word revival was a reference to the folk music revivals of the 1940s, it's purpose was to recognize that webcraft is a continuity of tradition of individual craft that goes back not just to the start of the web, but hundreds if not thousands of years, as a form of folk craft and free media - the web part is just today's twist on a long history.

thanks
that makes more sense
i feel kinda embarrassed i didn't piece the meaning together myself because it feels more obvious now that you say it out loud

[Melooon]

it feels more obvious now that you say it out loud

Don't worry, I'll take that as a complement that I described it well; when something is well described, reading the description should feel like it was always the most obvious thing in the world; but that doesn't mean it really was obvious

[Noah_S]

Regarding the revival, I'll repeat what I said in the shoutbox yesterday. The coelacanth works well as a symbol. People thought it was extinct, then it was found alive. It had never been extinct in the first place. It just disappeared from the fossil record at the same time as a mass extinction, and people drew their conclusions from that.