Changes

The web has changed an awful lot since I got my first computer in 1996.  Back then, social media didn't exist like it does today.  But it wasn't difficult to find communities of like-minded people.  There were message boards, newsgroups, chat rooms, and e-mail groups.  It wasn't difficult at all to become a member of a web community.

When I first got online, I had an AOL subscription, because I wanted access to their message board communities.  I met a number of really cool people on those boards.  I also got bogged down in sending, receiving and re-sending jokes through e-mail.  This was the equivalent to shares and re-tweeting.  This only went on for a few months before I realized how annoying it really was to open your inbox and see 43 messages, and nothing of interest.

Back then, if you wanted to have an online presence, you needed a personal website.  There were WYSIWYG applications that you could use to build your website without having to know anything about HTML, but if you really wanted to have control over the way your website appeared, you really needed to learn markup.

And there were tons of really crappy websites.  Mine included.  Nobody really surfs the web anymore.  These days, everything's pretty much presented to you via Facebook, Twitter and a host of other social media options that I'm not hip enough to even know by name.  In many ways, Facebook has turned the internet to an even more passive experience. 

I've found that Facebook is better for a community experience, while Twitter is better for keeping up with what celebrities are up to.  There's often a lot of complaining going on about the way the masses follow celebrities, but I think we can all name at least a few celebrities that we enjoy keeping up with.

So, it's under these circumstances that I've brought my website back from the dead.  I'm sure there's no real purpose to doing it, because I don't really expect to get any traffic.  I never really got much traffic back in the day to begin with.  But one thing I like about having a website is that it gives me someplace to upload the things I create so that I can share them with my friends if I like.

I also like to record guitar riffs that I come up with, and make them available to anyone that might need bumper music for a podcast or their own videos.  As long as I receive proper credit, I don't mind it being used royalty-free.  I'm never going to make a living at it, so the idea of someone hearing my music for whatever reason is appealing.  Even if it's just background music that's largely ignored.

So, while it's really unnecessary for me to have a website in 2015, I am happy to have brought it back.  I've enjoyed, for the most part, re-designing it these past few weeks.  Even if I've struggled a bit to make some of the content work the way I'd like.