Websites, Websites Always Changing

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Trying to get back into the habit of actually writing posts on my website, so, in the theme of a massive changelog in regard to things I’ve done and have been doing on my website, I’m going to detail here all of the things I’ve changed in the past week. Some of these changes have to do with personal taste, and others have to do with decisions made by CEOs of websites and apps that used to be cool … ten years ago. Really feels like I’m reaching the age of, “Back in my day,” rambling, but I’m telling you, it really was better back in the old days of the internet.

Firstly, I think the last time I wrote about major changes to the site, it was when I moved to a personal server and installed Anubis, in order to fully block out AI scrapers. So, this next little update has to do with that same kind of issue. Basically, Reddit is becoming increasingly more and more filled with slop, and its directors, or CEO, are pushing advertisements for its own AI directly onto the main dashboard, whether you like it or not.

This was referenced in a recent log I posted.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I was tired of seeing AI being shoved into everything a year ago. Now, it’s just egregious, loathsome, and beyond annoying.

In response, I’ve scrubbed all references of Reddit from my site, much in the same way I scrubbed references to Meta, and other corporations who’ve gone full-enshit. My calendar will no longer display random background images from /r/animewallpapers, and I’ll no longer be archiving submissions I make.

I did briefly setup a proxy for Gelbooru to display images for my calendar from that source, but I ultimately decided that the extreme tendency to show constant NSFW content is just not something I want to accidentally plaster all over my site, at random. Especially due to the fact that Gelbooru doesn’t just have random regular NSFW content, but also some really … wild, niche, fringe sort of material, that absolutely doesn’t need to be on my site!

I’ve also replaced the “Random Reddit/Lemmy” blob at the bottom of the homepage with a blob that is now just random posts from select Lemmy communities. Kind of like a look into the alternative “reddit” community that’s been building on the fediverse. This also tended to show some NSFW content at random, but I think I’ve tailored it enough that this shouldn’t happen often, or at all.

Lemmy is pretty neat, and, or but, is also pretty much the same as Reddit in regard to the community, although maybe slightly a little more left leaning. Suffice to say, you’ll still find yourself random bitter weirdos hellbent on ruining your day. You’ve been warned.

Outside of removing Reddit from the site, I’ve also now added a new “back to the top” button that’ll display any time you scroll down, anywhere on the website, via either desktop or mobile. This wasn’t really essential, but I felt like it’d be useful, and kind of neat.

And, on a final note of change (pun intended), I’ve had “notes” and “logs” on the front of my site for quite some time. But … I haven’t really been using the “notes” post type, despite the fact that it auto-crossposts to Tumblr and Bluesky. I think this is mostly because both my Akkoma and official Bluesky accounts are not only archiving directly to my website, but also displaying in near real-time on the front-page as well. So, for all intents and purposes, these act as “note” content types, where you can see my random thoughts, without me having to interact with VS Code at all times.

I do use the “log” post type, which also auto-posts to Tumblr, but not as frequently as everything else.

So, notes and logs can still be viewed from the sidebar under “The Archives,” but, in the more prominent area of my site, on the homepage, it’s just going to be Posts, Skeets, Texts, the Markov bot, my little Matrix … uh, thing, and random Lemmy posts.

I feel like this is, at least, 5% less overwhelming in regard to content explosion.

To wrap up this post, I wanted to give a shoutout to “Our Favorite Void,” a new webring I’ve joined that’s been setup by a friend I know from the fediverse. Go on and check it out.