Manifesto for Zany Hovel

zany hovel manifesto

This is a non-political manifesto about using the web. I like the concept of the indy web, but I don't subscribe to its assertive and combative stance against the digital mainstream.

When I was extremely young, the first experience I had with web development was with GeoCities. With a friend, we created a one-page website using the WYSIWYG editor that came with Netscape Communicator. That site was in the Corridor neighborhood of GeoCities' Area 51 City. Sadly, that website, for a reason that escapes me, didn't make the cut to any of the GeoCities archives that are still accessible on the web.

After that, I created various fun projects in other free hosting services, like Xoom or Tripod. When I was creating those sites for fun, the finished product didn't feel as fun as the one in GeoCities, because the concept of neighborhoods and cities was lacking. But at the same time, it felt good, because the branding on Xoom, Tripod, and similar services wasn't as intrusive as the one in GeoCities. That made the sites look a little bit less amateurish.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. I didn't become a web developer by trade but ended up as an internet communicator, an occupation that forces you to be a webmaster and a web designer of sorts. To gear down from the daily grind, and return to archaic technology with the purpose of creating a vintage static website was very funny until I realized how difficult were things back then, and how easy it is now to create a dynamic super website with only the most basic internet technical skills.

Developing this website from scratch took me around three weeks, working on it only during the weekends. I think that if you decide to create a static website like the ones that were common a quarter-century ago you gain something in the trade-off. You get to do simple things that have to excel in the content and esthetics departments since you don't have a lot of functionality to make them attractive in that sense.

This Manifesto's Core Values

Before deciding to publish this website I did a couple of nights deep diving into what is being called the indy web. I found a page on Neocities that was a compendium of user manifestos, and I did read a handful of them.

I thought I would like the concept until I started to notice that, apparently, it is a movement that mixes culture with politics. Then I knew that I would never associate myself directly with the indy web, even if I like the sites those that form part of the movement create.

I mean, to create a scene that harks back to the old times of the web is all fine and dandy at the cultural and aesthetic levels, until you start joining causes and becoming militant about issues that may not affect you directly.

You always have a choice to do or not do something, use or not use a product or service, belong or not belong to a social media community. But I think that to posture by attacking the things that you don't like is a dumb way of wasting your precious time.

Sincerely, I don't agree with the leftist notion that art must be politically charged. Whatever happened to art for art's sake? Or art for the love of beauty, perfection, and aesthetic pleasure? I think that to think art must have a political angle is just a crutch for those who aren't that talented to give importance to their otherwise forgettable output.

Still, I know from where are coming those that feel that web3, and the social media monopolies are a threat.

Years ago, about 4-5 years ago, I had a season when I became very indignant about privacy issues on the web. Around 2017 I did not know about the indy web yet, and the only literature that echoed my concerns were the things coming out from the Anonymous movement.

I wasn't interested in joining that movement, but I thought that the points about privacy they made were important and that I had already become too enmeshed in all the free web services that make you a product. I vowed to slowly begin to spin out from all of them, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. Truth is, around that time when I stopped working as a technician and became a communicator, I ended up seeing the monopolies for what they are, just tools that help you to do the things you need to do.

The issue with monopolies, privacy, and all the evils of commercialism is not a black or white issue. Yes, I know that they have questionable aspects. Still, I think that you can manage your involvement with them and use what you need, without rejecting them 100% as if they were lepers.

Personally, I try to find always the positive side of everything, while at the same time doing whatever I can to evade the negatives. You can go a long way by applying this approach to the things that those in the indy web movement hate. It's about not rejecting things, but also not letting those things have the upper hand in your personal life.

For instance, does using Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail worry you because their AIs scan your mailboxes to dish ads out to you? Then, if you already have accounts with these services, migrate all your personal mail out, to more private alternatives, but instead of closing your accounts, you keep them to receive impersonal things and messages that you don't need to reply to.

This manifesto will grow with ideas and processes to help those on the web that would want to have a presence that is freer in general, and less involved with the common-place websites on the web that everybody uses.

Goals of This Website and This Manifesto

The purpose of this website is to create a place where I can express my personality. I have other websites, but they are all community-oriented and customer-centric, and I think it would be bad form to bring personal topics unrelated to their themes in them.

But wait, Zany Hovel is not just a place that I built so I can have a place on the web to let my ego soar. No, this website is not going to be all about myself.

I plan to make it more about things you can do and use to not depend on the mainstream conception of the web, by taking advantage of either overlooked or forgotten resources.

What's in it For You?

If you use this site and read this manifesto each time it is updated you will achieve two things:

1) Knowing about me in an in-depth way: The Work, Leisure, Art, and Personal info pages will serve that purpose.

2) Discovering ways to use the web in a different manner, more akin to what it was before the big corporations had taken over.

This page and the links section will show the non-mainstream and non-commercial places on the web that:

A) Shouldn't be neglected as virtual locations to visit, to just have a fun time, learn something new, or experience bits and pieces of internet history

B) Are services that can be leveraged as alternatives to what everyone else uses, that coincidentally seem to each day be more and more out of favor with those that proclaim themselves as forming part of the indy web movement.

The Bottom Line

This manifesto is not set in stone. Is pretty much a work in progress. I will continue to develop this page with new sections that will guide you through forgotten back streets of the information superhighway. Please be sure to either bookmark or subscribe by RSS to this page, so you will be able to receive notifications when I update this manifesto.

Media Credits

Thanks to all these persons, who kindly shared sourced media with permissive CC licenses.

IQRemix: Rutherford Manor Haunt - Edmonton / Hans Splinter: tinsmith at the midwinter fair / Stephen Day: Haunted House / Boris Kasimov: _BRK5851 (1) / waferboard: red mask / JBLM MWR: IMG_9246 / MockLogic: Haunted TV / anna-maria v: haunted hause 2 / K Tao: Souls of the Forsaken / Steve Snodgrass: Haunted House Ride / leKorbo.be: Kelgelbahn / Mel Possehl: weathervane-191076_1280 / Lee Russell: Abandoned Nursing Home

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