ah! hello! is my connection strong enough?

[rinni]

Hello! Hellooo? Can you see me? Can you hear me? I can see you, and i can hear you! We're already off to a good start!

  You can call me Rinni! Or you can call me whatever else you'd like. I'm just a bit of text on your screen, after all!

  As a child of the late 2000's - early 2010's internet, I was never exposed to old web/forum culture and social spaces. I grew up with friv, dora/barbie/strawberry shortcake/etc flash games, wholesome minecraft playthroughs, early indie horror, five minute sections of anime episodes on youtube, vines, childish wattpad stories, and tumblr textposts screenshotted and reposted on pinterest. Yeah. I was a pinterest tumblr textpost reader. Apparently that was common?

I had fun, though. It was nice. An era of the internet that, much like the early web, has been lost, replaced by...

  ...Social media has been feeling far too much like a hostile, crowded room recently. Everywhere you turn someone is getting at someone else's throat for no reason at all, people are dividing themselves and each other into isolated camps and poking spears at anyone who isn't in their group, further separating communities that once thrived in unity into... just... unfun places to be. This doesn't apply to Everywhere. Duh. But... still.

Every thought you project outward becomes a follower count, or a like count, or a comment count, or a repost count, and if no one cares about what you have to say...
...did you even say anything at all? Were you ever there to begin with? Did your thoughts and opinions matter, or was your passion completely irrelevant to the cold, calculating algorithm you fed it to? It thinks you're just a number, after all, a pair of eyes that might land on an advertisement and generate some company a few dollars.

That's a bit sad, isn't it?

  But it's why we're here! It's why a shelter like this is so important! It's the reason why a tool like Neocities is so so so Important! And I love love love that! Websites are art! People are art! People here share their passions so openly and unashamedly, and i think that's beautiful! I love seeing websites with random stickers and characters and essays plastered all over them, because I know that the people that created said sites did so as labors of love! That's what art is meant to be! In it's purest form, it's just self expression that exists just because it can!

Neocities is art The internet can be art, too. I'm glad a place like this exists, that people that know this exist.

I know this was a long post, and it isn't really about me... but i'm just a bit of text on your screen. It's hard to conceptualize myself in a way that will make sense, it's even harder to be an easily digestible... person?. I just hope that my little rant about why i already love it here was nice to read. I mean every word.

It's nice to meet you all. I hope we can get along! (^^)/

[Melooon]

Hi rinni, welcome to the forum 

Oh I love the formatting on this post and how well put together your argument is! You should totally put this on your site as your manifesto! 

Also omg that landing page is GLORIOUS!! Im always a fan of people using their landing pages like artistic canvases. I look forward to seeing how your site grows!

One artwork that really spoke to me in my teens was this one; its basically turning mundane objects (clocks in this case) into an artistic subject and medium - I love that combo and thats how I see web art!

Is there a piece of media that influenced you?? I hope you enjoy the forum!

☀︎☁︎☻→ You've Received Melon's Welcome Pack! ←☻✌︎☀︎

• If you haven't already check out the forum welcome post, and forum usage guide!
• New to website making? Here is a complete(ish) guide!
• Visit your look/layout to pick a theme and set a default colour/font for your messages!
• Feeling shy and unsure what to do? Maybe post a song you like here!
• Finally don't forget to share the forum and invite friends! We have some way cool graphics over here!

[rinni]

Oh I love the formatting on this post and how well put together your argument is! You should totally put this on your site as your manifesto! 

Hi!!! Thank you so much! I have lots of fun with the formatting, it really gives written text a more recognizable voice, I think. . I'll definitely make a page for more serious written work, and add an expanded version of my previous post! I love to write...

Also omg that landing page is GLORIOUS!! Im always a fan of people using their landing pages like artistic canvases. I look forward to seeing how your site grows!

Is there a piece of media that influenced you?? I hope you enjoy the forum!

  Thankyou!! I'm working on putting some important information on it, but i haven't gotten around to it yet...    I wanted it to look like the viewer is being transported somewhere! I think of my site as more of a place than anything else. Even if it's a bit barren right now.

Speaking of which, I feel a bit embarrassed to say this because it's a bit of a controversial game, but the media that mostly influenced my site was OMORI. One specific aspect of the world of the game, to be exact. Headspace, the second area of the game. It's sort of a dream dimension that the protagonist uses to escape his waking life. I liked the concept of taking my abstract ideas and making them semi-physical, making my mind a place others can travel through as they wish! It'll also hopefully help me get my thoughts in order, because I have this nasty habit of not writing things down and forgetting important things about myself! I completely forgot to add Pikmin to my list of interests! I Love Pikmin!!! How could I have forgotten? Doesn't matter! I can infodump about it all I want on my website! Another influence on my site are the SEKAI from Project Sekai Colorful Stage! They're digital worlds the characters can travel to during the story. I think I could call Doki Doki Literature Club an influence as well?

I should write all those influences down... Anyway, I'm having a blast here already! Thank you for the warm welcome!!