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I'm a fucking webmaster

justinjackson.ca

11–20 of 69 posts

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#12
post #5
post #4

OP here. This is a follow-up to my original essay: "This is a web page." https://justinjackson.ca/words.html

Plx 2 add webmaster@nerdnorth.com in footer khtnxbye Seriously though, I loved reading this. Thank you!

Hahaha. A few other folks have mentioned that too. Updated!

Have you seen http://tomstrucking.net yet? ;)

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#13

This is exactly the reason I created minni - https://github.com/jyotiska/minni , a static site generator I use to host my own blog. Link to the blog - http://jyotiska.github.io/blog/ . Simple, clean and content only.

The link you wanted was https://github.com/jyotiska/minni as the one you provided links to a different github user :)

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#14

This is exactly the reason I created minni - https://github.com/jyotiska/minni , a static site generator I use to host my own blog. Link to the blog - http://jyotiska.github.io/blog/ . Simple, clean and content only.

The link you wanted was https://github.com/jyotiska/minni as the one you provided links to a different github user :)

Oops! Fixed it. Thanks for pointing out.

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#15
>And when you publish your own HTML to a server that you control; that's fucking powerful. Autonomy and independence are central to the web. We can't forget that.

>The world still needs some fucking webmasters. We might not all be making websites professionally anymore. But we should keep making websites. The passion, the freedom, the joy: we need to pass this on.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for wanting to empower people but the technology (e.g. simpler format of HTML, or open standards instead of walled gardens, etc) is not really the issue even though it looks that way. I've commented on this illusion before[1].

The underlying issue is the asymmetry between active participants and passive spectators. Most people don't care to make an HTML web page. On the other hand... Uploading a photo of a cat or plate of food to facebook or twitter? Or type a short response comment to a niece saying "love your new dress!"? Yes, a good percentage of people will conquer the threshold of complexity to do that... but it's still not the majority of users.

Even though I don't like it, I've come to terms with the fact that the human race is "wired" to make easy posts on Facebook rather than maintain an HTML web page on a server they control. Most people don't want to be "webmasters".

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10010540

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#16
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plx 2 add webmaster@nerdnorth.com in footer khtnxbye Seriously though, I loved reading this. Thank you!

Hahaha. A few other folks have mentioned that too. Updated! Have you seen http://tomstrucking.net yet? ;)

awesome. by your twitter photo, you were either pretty young in the 90s, that's an old photo, or your friends are running a longevity startup.

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#18
A fun read and trip down memory lane, of the times sitting with an HTML book open on my lap and trying to write code that would display what I wanted. Being one of those artsy-fartsy types meant that I could experiment with design. Seamless frames! Links to other pages that actually work and reference each other! Hitting the 'Preview' screen from the editor to test things...over and over...

...and of course, the ever lovely habit of "View Source" which leads to interesting things. Like finding the large "Never Forget" at the top of the linked page. Fun times.

But for sure, there was a certain aura and power around being able to not only navigate the web (OMG .WAV SOUNDS FROM MOVIES!) but put up a sign that other people could see. Then get good enough to get paid for work doing such things. A good reminder type essay methinks.

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#19
I can empathize with the message of this essay because I feel like it reflects the roots of my career, but I wouldn't share this with anyone I know because there is so much unnecessary cursing in this that gives it a really immature feel. You can totally get the message of this across without the crass language. It only detracts, not helps, in my opinion.

I'm saying this as someone who swears a lot, too.

Re: I'm a fucking webmaster

#20
>We need to remember that at its core a web page is simple. That's the beauty of it. And when you publish your own HTML to a server that you control; that's fucking powerful. Autonomy and independence are central to the web. We can't forget that.

I absolutely agree.

People seem to forget that the fundamental nature of the web hasn't changed. Facebook hasn't destroyed the web, javascript and that framework you hate haven't destroyed the web, advertising hasn't destroyed the web (arguably, the web has destroyed advertising), the NSA hasn't destroyed the web (yet.) You can still open up the text editor of your choice and write some HTML and put it on a server. That still works, and it will probably always work - human readable, human writable, human accessible content. You can still write it all by hand if you want, you don't have to know how to code, you're not forced to conform to arbitrary standards, or use proprietary software.

In the end, no matter how much abstraction modern developers pile on to make it look and act like "legitimate" application programming, the web is just HTML, CSS, javascript and some embedded content, probably images, possibly of cats. Sometimes, in the midst of how homogeneous and corporatized the web can appear, I think it helps to be reminded of how revolutionary it still is because of its fundamental simplicity and accessibility.

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