For the small web/weird web

But I did notice that it feels a lot more like a collection of people talking into their own respective voids rather than people talking to each other. For all social media's failings, I do feel like I'm really interacting with people.

That said, my site isn't live...soo....

I would say that's the main point. Maybe wait for it to go live and see if you need anything more 'fancy'? ;)

My blog have been live for a while and the only way to contact me is by using email.

A simple comment form or some social media/big platform presence would allow for more (aka, simpler) interactions, obviously. But I don’t want to. So, I’m ok with getting less interactions... Even more so that I now blog very occasionally, and on such niche and non-trendy topics that almost nobody care ;)

Back when I used to blog on my previous site, using Wordpress, on much more trendy topics and having a social media presence and so on, I used to get a lot more interactions. But at what cost? In the end, I realized looked forward more to those interactions than to whatever I was publishing.

I think we have been so used to social media/comments and things always being made simpler for us to use, as well as to instant feedback and constant gratification, that we as bloggers trying to recreate a more personal web we should be ok with people not being at ease at all and not… interacting much with us the moment we ask them to do a little more work. At least, temporarily.

I mean, maybe, I don’t know really, maybe it’s the price we have to pay to get past those ready-made tools that made us, all of us I mean, so lazy. And to get past those cheap and simple but so illusory ‘interactions’ we were sold upon and that contributed so much, imho, in ruining the 'small web' or what I prefer to call the personal web that was once the Web. A Web many of us saw growing and then, with our active help (mine at least, as I was one of those promoting the use of centralized/simpler tools), quickly and almost entirely be wiped out by the commodified and corporate-owned Web that is now ruling and… enshitifiying everything.

I insist, I don’t know and I may be wrong, but my opinion is that I’d rather have (a lot) less but more meaningful contacts and interactions, and a lot more of what may look like monologues ‘in the void’, than any of that lobotomizing soup social media are serving us, and this constant encouragement to do less and be more lazy, and be less independent.

Even here, we’re so used to things being served to us without any effort. I mean, it’s silly and all but: after reading my comment how many of us have taken the time to click on my profile link to check if by any chance I had put a link to my blog, whose URL I did not mention in the comment? I’m willing to bet: not many.

And, once again, I think as bloggers we should be fine with that… for the time being at least.

I also thought it would be nice to create some sort of SIMPLE social structure

Simplicity is the entire premise that sold us (or me) on social media back then, to make us switch from our ‘personal’ (and very non-standardized, non-unified, and clunky) websites to their simplified/unified/centralized publishing platforms. Then, I would say in less than a decade or, we lost the Web almost entirely to them.

As far as I can tell, for way too many users, the Web is now limited to a handful of very big websites, most if not all being corporate-owned.

They have no clue there is a rich and various crowd outside of those large platforms. Why? Because we all surrendered our independence to their simplicity.

Please, do not take as personal attack. It is not, not at all. It’s just me reacting and sharing my own, not much well thought-out considerations on that interesting topic. Hoping that it can contribute develop the discussion.

it feels a lot more like a collection of people talking into their own respective voids rather than people talking to each other.

It’s also a question of timing and will depend on one’s perception of time. I mean, well, I will once again use myself as an example, hope it’s ok.

Back when I blogged ‘seriously’, I used to answer in the instant, be it on social media or on my blog. I was always checking for new comments or for new posts by other bloggers who may be referring to something I just wrote, to what people may say on social media. Nowadays? I can be not checking my email for a week, not even even thinking about it. And beside Lemmy, where I don’t usually don’t talk much about my blog, I have no social media presence. So, what?

Other situation: I can read something interesting on a website or, say, on Lemmy and make a note to myself to comment about it. And then I will put that on the side for a certain time (days, weeks, or more). Who cares? There is no urgency.

Or, like I think I’ve explained on my blog, I seldom post (there is no schedule, no planning) and also I draft all my posts longhand first, using pen(cil) on paper. It then may take me days or weeks between finishing a draft and deciding it’s time to copy it on the computer and then I may not even publish it immediately after that, because reasons.

So, yeah, it’s real slow and so can be any visible interaction. But thing used to be slow back then. Younger, I started as kid and it lasted up until my 20s when I got my first email at university, I used to write letters, snail mail with an envelop and a stamp, to a few correspondents all over the world. It would take weeks to send and to receive some of those letters (to send/receive questions and their answers) but they were not less interesting because they were slow, far from it. As a matter of fact, I can say I miss those slow interactions of back then. A lot.

My apologies for the long and I'm afraid a bit ranty reply. I will try to be more to the point next time (fingers crossed ;)