Niche Internet

Niche Internet

Morenathancheng
#ideals "#social media"
Putting the “Person” in “Personal Website”
Putting the “Person” in “Personal Website”
Writing about the big beautiful mess that is making things for the world wide web.
I believe everyone could benefit from a personal website. Its form encourages you to look inward, whereas every social platform on the internet encourages you to look outward. A personal website has affordances which encourage you to create something that you couldn’t otherwise create anywhere else, like YouTube or Reddit or Facebook or Twitter or even Mastodon. Why? Because the context of those environments is outward looking. It’s not personal, but social. The medium shapes the message.
Additionally, a personal website and a social platform are two different environments: one I’ve cultivated, the other I’ve been granted.
Like dancing or singing, you don’t have to be skilled to do them. Personal websites should be the same. They’re for everyone. Like dancing and singing, their expression can be as varied as every individual human.
#ideals#internet#blogging#digital gardens#personal website#social media
·blog.jim-nielsen.com·
Putting the “Person” in “Personal Website”
Maven
Maven

Maven is a new social network platform that aims to provide a different experience from traditional social media.

  • It does not have features like likes or follower counts, focusing instead on users following "interests" rather than individual accounts.
  • Content is surfaced based on relevance to the interests a user follows, curated by AI, rather than popularity metrics.
  • The goal is to minimize self-promotion and popularity contests, instead prioritizing valuable information and serendipitous discovery of new ideas and perspectives.
  • The author has been using Maven and finds it a slower, deeper experience compared to other social media, though unsure if it will become a regular timesink.
  • Overall, Maven presents an intriguing alternative model for social networking centered around interests and expanding horizons, rather than following individuals or chasing popularity.
#social media#ideals#product page#startups#platforms
·heymaven.com·
Maven
Taking an Internet Walk
Taking an Internet Walk
analogies between the internet and physical exploration—hyperlinks as portals which skip the freeways, handmade websites as subculture, reverse image search and direct site searches as alternative path systems
The first hyperlinks pointed within their own domain, like the doors separating the rooms in your home. However, with the world wide web, the doors became portals, and pioneers mapped out site directories to guide internet travelers to the frontier of development. Reject modern interstates and embody Tarzan, Jane, or the chimpanzee to swing from link to link, blue to purple.
if you like handmade websites, you should visit Gossips Web or Brutalist Websites. These are the digital equivalent to the jazz bar, punk record store, or other physical places where subcultures gather. There’s likely one made by a devotee whatever your interest, like cyberfeminism, tiny internet sites, cozy websites, niche museums, list of lists, LA sandwiches, and much more.
#ideals#internet#analogy#platforms#social media#public-life#megalinks
·syllabusproject.org·
Taking an Internet Walk