Q: May I ask why you moved from neocitites to your own website? Isn't neocities good for publicity?
A: there are a lot of reasons. i'll go over a few of the main ones, but know there are many others i'm not mentioning.
i was on neocities from 2021 to mid 2025 and got really burnt out on static web development. i found the process slow and tedious, especially for constantly updated pages like my media logs, and in the end i updated less and less. i knew having access to PHP would make my workflow a lot better as it'd already improved by webring management.
regarding publicity, while i consider attention and views to be a currency of the internet, neocities views don't mean anything. the average random neocities user doesn't really engage with the content they're looking at. while my site got tons of views on neocities, i estimate the people actually reading any of the content on the pages is a tiny fraction of the people just clicking through looking at everything. i just didn't really see the point of being on neocities if this was the case.
i also disliked the social features of neocities. i did have some appreciation for them at times. i think it made me grow closer to some people, but i just prefer exchanging emails, writing guestbook messages, joining webrings.. doing things that don't rely on you actually being on neocities. disabling my profile made me neurotic too because of neocities mutual/follow culture.
so basically QOL features i have with backend and just a general displeasure with the Neocities ecosystem. i don't hate Neocities or anything. i even still like a lot of the userbase that are around my age. i just needed to move somewhere that suited my needs. in the end, my site is made for fun- not for attention. i make shrines and long rambles not because i want/expect people to read them, but because it's something that sparks joy. of course, it is pleasurable when people read them and engage with me, but i'd rather people go out of their way to make it known to me that they did rather than liking a random status update on neocities.
anyways, moving here has been really fun. it's reinvigorated my web dev passion. i love my PHP workflow, and i love databases and having a server. i love having complete control over everything. my extensions- i removed them myself. my diary is updated with my own frotnend inspired by my old FC2 blog. my dollmaker is done! and i'm learning so much! i've fallen in love with computers again. it's been such a long time!
i was on neocities from 2021 to mid 2025 and got really burnt out on static web development. i found the process slow and tedious, especially for constantly updated pages like my media logs, and in the end i updated less and less. i knew having access to PHP would make my workflow a lot better as it'd already improved by webring management.
regarding publicity, while i consider attention and views to be a currency of the internet, neocities views don't mean anything. the average random neocities user doesn't really engage with the content they're looking at. while my site got tons of views on neocities, i estimate the people actually reading any of the content on the pages is a tiny fraction of the people just clicking through looking at everything. i just didn't really see the point of being on neocities if this was the case.
i also disliked the social features of neocities. i did have some appreciation for them at times. i think it made me grow closer to some people, but i just prefer exchanging emails, writing guestbook messages, joining webrings.. doing things that don't rely on you actually being on neocities. disabling my profile made me neurotic too because of neocities mutual/follow culture.
so basically QOL features i have with backend and just a general displeasure with the Neocities ecosystem. i don't hate Neocities or anything. i even still like a lot of the userbase that are around my age. i just needed to move somewhere that suited my needs. in the end, my site is made for fun- not for attention. i make shrines and long rambles not because i want/expect people to read them, but because it's something that sparks joy. of course, it is pleasurable when people read them and engage with me, but i'd rather people go out of their way to make it known to me that they did rather than liking a random status update on neocities.
anyways, moving here has been really fun. it's reinvigorated my web dev passion. i love my PHP workflow, and i love databases and having a server. i love having complete control over everything. my extensions- i removed them myself. my diary is updated with my own frotnend inspired by my old FC2 blog. my dollmaker is done! and i'm learning so much! i've fallen in love with computers again. it's been such a long time!