Establishing a Home on the Web
I used to view domain names as street addresses on the internet. The more unique, descriptive or desirable the URL, the more valuable the real estate. Years ago I purchased a few domain names I like and have been paying a small fee every year to clame that space. After years of abdicating space to the big platforms I have come to the conclusion that we need to claim our own space in this digital world. The big dogs are not doing us any favors and I am increasingly concerned about the homogeneity I am seeing on the web.
I miss the old days when small sites were the norm and individuals would create web pages for anything that caught their fancy. They did it for the love of the game. And like all games, it got worse when money got involved.
So, in order to future proof my place in the internet and provide for a little bit of creativity on the web, I am finally publishing a site to my favorite little domain name. What started as an ironic instagram handle has become a piece of my identity. This is my stake in the ground. I value being able to put thoughts out there, share ideas, and add to the beauty of humanity. I don’t want to feed the algorythms that incentivise conflict. I hope that a few people read this and decide they too are interested in taking back their own spaces on the internet. It only costs a few bucks a year, I am hosting it for free as a static website, and it only takes a little curiosity, some patience, and possibly some help from our future AI overlords.
-Mike