Document: WM-057                                                 P. Webb
Category: Life                                                2024.09.16

                         A personal renaissance

Abstract

   Nah, imma do my own thing.

Body

   I tire of platforms. So of course, I’m building a platform.

   I think a major reason why dystopian games like Cyberpunk 2077, Deus
   Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, and even the Watch Dogs
   series fascinates me so is because in these games, I am not a mere
   bystander. In these fantasies, I have the power to fight back against
   injustice. I can literally "stick it to the man" and in my own way,
   save the world. In other words, I can be the change I wish to see in
   these worlds AND have immediate effect for the betterment of most, if
   not all.

   When I power down my PS5 however, reality beckons and I see red orbs
   indicating activity from online friends and acquaintances on
   platforms where I’m pigeonholed into the same box as everyone else;
   my expression and originality welcome as long as they fit into neat
   compartments designated by the platform. I do not particularly enjoy
   using these platforms as much as I enjoy communicating with humans
   who also feel the way I do. The term "necessary evil" gets thrown
   around a lot…why must evil be necessary? I don’t have the stomach for
   such a rabbit hole, I’ll let others investigate that topic further.

   Twitter is a cesspool. You hear that? A lot of grumbles in agreement,
   reverberating across the internet. No one is happy about it and even
   though many (most?) of the accounts we follow have since fled to
   Mastodon and Bluesky, they aren’t replacements. I haven’t posted
   gameplay clips to my gaming Twitter in a year but I keep the account
   because the amazing illustrators, game developers, and composers I
   follow there are very much active and will not move elsewhere.

   Remember Myspace? Pepperidge Farms remembers. I’m sure you do too (if
   you’re younger than a millennial, get rekt). I was a teen when it was
   THE online place to be. Everyone I knew, even "cool" kids and jocks
   understood enough about HTML and CSS to customize their profiles.
   People gatekept themes sites so peers wouldn’t have a better‑looking
   profile. It was a point of pride when you could de‑obfuscate CSS to
   replicate something or even customize it more to make some effect
   your own. Anecdotally, it seemed like the collective intelligence of
   the internet was higher when we had to use our minds more. We should
   get back to that. We COULD get back to that.

   Much has been said about how advertising ruined the web experience
   (by giving birth to the data brokerage economy) and while that’s
   true, isn’t it super fucking sad that Silicon Valley is spending all
   of its money and attention on massive if/then/else factories
   LLMs? Trick question, they got us into this mess, why fix it?

   This is where I tell you I’m saving the world with my platform. I
   mean, it could happen, right? My lil’ social network could upend
   everything and I’ll have VCs groveling at my feet. My TED Talk will
   feature me in muted hacker‑wear (hoodie and jeans) and I’ll
   pseudo‑humbly recount my beginnings and half‑smile while the slide
   behind me shows $1 billion in quarterly revenue.

   No, this is me being the change I wish to see in the world.

   I wish other people would build things I want to use so I can spend
   my free time playing Fortnite and watching shows. I mean, I do do
   those things but it’s kinda like someone who learned what kerning is
   and then notices terrible kerning on every street corner. I know too
   much. I took the old "should designers code" meme seriously and did
   just that. Building is my verb it’s what I do.

   The last post on this blog was literally eight months ago. I felt
   compelled to publish today for some reason. The funny thing is, the
   last time I posted about socii (the social network/platform I’m
   building) was several years ago[1]. I took a detour and did a lot of
   work for the Handshake blockchain in that time but quit due to
   ideological differences[2]. It turns out, perverse incentives are
   rampant everywhere and the only way to win is not to play.

   Quitting Handshake made me re‑evaluate my life in whole. Where I am
   not fulfilled, I’m making changes. I’m reclaiming my space on the
   web, starting with my homepage. There’s no reason why it cannot also
   be the testing ground for the personal OS concept[3] I published
   years ago. Music I intended to publish 15 years ago will finally
   release (they were trapped in Acid Pro 6, I bought a basic Windows PC
   to free them). Sci‑fi novels scribbled in notebooks will be
   scrutinized by the world. I don’t care. I’ve been hoarding ideas and
   concepts for far too long. Not enough characters to share ’em? Who
   cares, I have a blog.

   This post is rambly but again, who cares? I am constantly inspired by
   others so the least I can do is put myself out there more.

   Okay, socii[4] (click the logo to hear the pronounciation: "sew‑key")
   is a paid service. Not expensive, but not cheap either. Social
   networking with advanced anti‑harassment tools and customization like
   you wouldn’t believe (I mentioned Myspace for a reason). Small groups
   because large groups invoke trolls. The UI of Big Social becoming
   mere feature/theme toggles. True data ownership. I could go on but
   I’d rather get back to building. 2025.01.01 is the launch date.
   Newsletter signup is on the site if you’re interested.

   All this to say, I think I’m gonna enjoy having my homepage be the
   source of truth for all the things I do online. And, I have an
   intense interest in making Big Social suffer. If I can get my
   favorite creators on socii too, I’m happy.

   🕸