4 years on Neocities
28/02/2026

A little over 4 years ago, on February 20th 2022, I made my first website.
It's insane looking back and realizing it has been four entire years. I wouldn't guess for a second its been longer than one! What does this mean for me? What are my feelings on being here, and on hosting a personal website?

Neocities was an act of escape for 2022 me. Almost of rebellion. It had been a tumultuous few year for my mental wellbeing, and most of it intrinsically involved with my presence in conventional social media. When I look back, I see that I am much better off now, and joining Neocities was my first baby step into leaving the social media bubble. Finding what's right for me and fine-tuning my internet usage to the sweet spot where it only adds to my life and does not subtract, is an ongoing project... I've left twitter, I've left instagram, I've left tumblr. I'm greatly limiting my pinterest use and now I'm trying to do that to my YouTube usage as well...... Your own balance is something you have to find yourself. But Neocities, rather, keeping a personal website of your own, is not the cure-all I thought it was. It, by itself, will not "replace" social media for you if that is what you seek...

And apparently, a lot of people are seeking that.

Neocities has gotten bigger since I joined. The internet has gotten worse. Filled with bots, AI generated content, hatred, advertisements, posts scientifically engineered to upset you, misinformation ... I keep seeing the indie web (the old internet! it's just like the old days!) touted again and again as the solution to this. Particularly on YouTube. Videos about Neocities (& the indie web, generally) being the cure to the new age of the WWW are getting hundreds of thousands of views and these people are then joining Neocities.
I don't know how to feel about this. I feel gladder than ever to be a little further away from the enshittification of the internet than most, but I could never affirm to you that personal websites are the way out. I understand the feeling deeply, because I felt the very same in 2022... But this is not social media. It just isn't.

I think most people that come here will be shortly disappointed. If they stick around - great! Don't take this as me being against more neocitizens, I'm always happy about new people finding joy in html! I just wish they'd come with the right mindset. This is not a new age of the internet that brings back the glory of the 2000s to fight back against technofascism. This is Neocities. It's a lovely place here, yes, and I will still serve you tea, just please manage your expectations. I've seen a lot of hate brewing in comment sections of this kind of content, too. It's definitely very disheartening to see.
This hype will probably come and go like it has before, but it's definitely interesting and very topical now with how bad the rest of the internet has gotten.
I do feel glad to have this place, that despite everything, has indeed stayed the same - no AI or surveillance or slop or ads or ragebait, just me and my cringe.

I love Neocities. I love my website, I love yours. I welcome any new people, and I say everyone should too.

I have been low on motivation to work here. I tinker, but then I feel unhappy with it, and quickly close the code editor. That's definitely a habit I have to break .. Now I suffer from something much worse, a lack of TIME! I have to study a crazy amount, and on my free time I am usually way too mentally exhausted. What, you want me to write? After I've just had to do that for 9 hours? No. It's nap time. I make no grandiose promises to update my website every x, but I am keeping the promise to never abandon it until I die. Then, they will bury the USB stick where I keep a copy of the website in with me. (I should write this into my death will...)

Has Neocities been a good in my life?
Yes.