Discovering and Sharing Good Websites: No Social Media Required
February 6, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
The Web has evolved over the last decade or two, and largely not in a good way. Blogger Jason Velazquez ponders, “Where Have All the Websites Gone?” Much of it, sadly, is the influence of SEO and Google—every year it gets harder to see the websites for the ads. But Velazquez points to another trend: the way we access web content has changed. Instead of curating it for ourselves and each other, we let social-media algorithms do the job. He points out:
“Somewhere between the late 2000’s aggregator sites and the contemporary For You Page, we lost our ability to curate the web. Worse still, we’ve outsourced our discovery to corporate algorithms. Most of us did it in exchange for an endless content feed. By most, I mean upwards of 90% who don’t make content on a platform as understood by the 90/9/1 rule. And that’s okay! Or, at least, it makes total sense to me. Who wouldn’t want a steady stream of dopamine shots? The rest of us, posters, amplifiers, and aggregators, traded our discovery autonomy for a chance at fame and fortune. Not all, but enough to change the social web landscape. But that gold at the end of the rainbow isn’t for us. ‘Creator funds’ pull from a fixed pot. It’s a line item in a budget that doesn’t change, whether one hundred or one million hands dip inside it. Executives in polished cement floor offices, who you’ll never meet, choose their winners and losers. And I’m guessing it’s not a meritocracy-based system. They pick their tokens, round up their shills, and stuff Apple Watch ads between them.”
But all is not lost. Interesting websites are still out there. Those of us who miss discovering and sharing them can start doing so again. To start, Velazquez offers a list of 13 of his favorites, so see the post for those. He also swapped out the Instagram link in his LinkedIn bio for links to several indie blogging platforms. He suggests readers can do something similar to share their favorite autonomous websites: artists, bloggers, aggregator sites run by humans (hi there!). Any “digital green spaces” will do. The websites have not gone anywhere. We just have to help each other find them.
Cynthia Murrell, February 6, 2024
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