A personal renaissance

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 m̶a̶s̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ i̶f̶/t̶h̶e̶n̶/e̶l̶s̶e̶ f̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ 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 ago1. I took a detour and did a lot of work for the Handshake blockchain in that time but quit due to ideological differences2. 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 concept3 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, socii4 (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.

🕸