Do people read what's written on personal websites?

[Kie]

Personally, I do check the websites I feature on my site, but don't exactly do any investigating. What I mean by that is that I read through the homepage, browse the site like I normally would, and then check the "about me" section. I don't vet them or thoroughly check that there is no harmful material in any page of the site.

This is because although I don't wanna platform anything bad, I also don't want to go crazy checking that everyone I showout does not have problematic ideas. I don't want to be pressured to obsess over the morality of every site I feature on mine. I'm not responsible for what other people post, and people should not take me featuring a site as an endorsment of every single thing stated on the former. That's not to say that I do not care about featuring problematic stuff, I do, but I also cannot be checking every single word on a site for aything I disagree with.  Sometimes problematic statements are only in a specific page of the site, sometimes they are concealed trhough dog whistles, and sometimes they might have been added at a later date.

That being said, there is a limit to "I'm not responsible for what other people post" too, and the examples you have brought up actually seem really bad. One thing is not doing a full blown investigation of the person running a site, another is ignoring extremly bigoted sentiments displayed out in the open.

So it's definetly a tricky topic, and it kinda goes on a case to case basis. If you see a problematic site featured on someone's site you can always bring it up to them! I have my email displayed on my site for that very reason. Keeping the web safe is a community effort, so it's always worth bringing it up to others :-)

[cynderthekitsune]

i think this is pretty interesting.
others here too have also mentioned that there's certainly sites for people to spread their hate and bigotry, no matter how bad it is.

i think in general avoiding cult-like behaviour and being cautious, not trusting every single site you click into is the key too.

all my links are usually to other people i like, though i accidentally linked a person i don't agree with, so i've set that as my goal to get rid of it! i don't have heaps of links either, but usually it's to archives, my friends, or just people i genuinely find cool.

i think the part of people not reading things is pretty much a leftover from social media, like what others here have said too.
lots of social media just shares things based off the title alone and/or if something looks cool, usually
it's good to actually tiptoe around someone's site and only click on a link if your gut's okay with it. if a site feels a bit sketchy, it's probably best to leave! 

[KiwiMeowo]

When I browse websites, I either first look at their art or blogs. I really love reading someone rambling about their life or their fav shows/games. I usually link back websites that I have read a lot, I'm a bit less strict with following people on Neocities though, if the site looks cool enough, I follow.

However, there is one time I realised I followed someone with unpleasant views. When the person updated their blog page, I took a look, and the content is quite questionable... So I quickly unfollowed them. I didn't link back their page, but I did worry if other people think I share the same views as that person.

It is quite difficult to check whether someone has problematic ideas before linking a website back. Like many replies here mentioned, one person's website can have too many sections to check them all, and people can change after their buttons are linked. A person's problematic views usually won't show up in the very main page of their website, it might not be obvious to most viewers.

I do regularly check the websites I have saved, so far the incident I've mentioned is the only time I accidentally followed has views I heavily disagree with, or at least from what I am aware of.

I feel like it would be quite stressful to check a website fully with the mindset of "Is this person a massive bigot?". I enjoy checking websites for others' artistic expression, I don't enjoy constantly worrying over whether the person I'm looking at is actually a bad person. I still don't hope some of the pretty websites I have followed hold some awful opinions, that incident still makes me very sad 

Edit: Minor wording changes

[boreal_cryptid]

i read most of the site if it contains something original. like blog, journal, "about me" page. though i'm not really interested in checking fan-stuff, because... i guess it's just not for me. it includes favorite music/media/books. and turned out it was a mistake.

i had an incident when person was mostly writing about their mental health (and i often relate very much to other people with these problems), so i followed their profile to check other stuff later (i like checking others' bookmarks too). and only after reading through their book/reading log i noticed that they shared a resource that contains whitewashing USSR's crimes. wild stuff. unlike minor disagreements, such things is my absolute limit.
note: nowhere on their site they didn't mention anything even remotely connected to it. this section of their reading log was at the very bottom.

as others mentioned before me, i think there's a difference between promoting open bigots and obsessing over every piece of website that you want to share. i agree with others here about some people adding a button to say "i like the design of this site".

also a thought... maybe some people add buttons as bookmarks, "to check it later"? i don't know. i see adding a button like making a public bookmark too, but in a sense "i've read stuff here, seems interesting".

[wolfkitty42]

Yeah, sometimes. If I feel like it. If what the person is saying is something I find interesting.

I do tend to try to do a loose background check if I'm reaching out or messaging someone- Mostly, I wanna figure out if we would be friends! Or maybe we would argue too much...

I don't usually follow people or link back to them. I think right now I'm linked to Sadgrl since I used
her template to get started, one irl friend, and that's basically it. I'd link to someone else if we were close friends, or I'd link to something I thought was cool, but otherwise I don't really see the appeal in putting someone else's button on your site. Like... If I think your site is cool, I'd rather just tell you on your guestbook or something!

I definitely see the point of linking to others, but at the same time I feel too shy to do that unless I knew the person I was linking to.

[invader_gvim]

I have read the websites of basically everyone who has ever replied to something I posted here lol. Definately people read it, although a smaller number than the big numbers i find myself hoping for in my subconsious. The upside is that the people who look at your stuff are more likely to look at **all** of it simply because the "scavenging for good loot" aspect of these sort of small websites. Ya know?