Personal homepage of Aleksi Räsänen

Old Web Manifesto or Why this site exists

As many others I have came to conclusion that Internet is not anymore the place it once was. Of course that is excepted and normal progress, but in time of changes something important was lost gradually until web stopped to be fun anymore.

Back in the days (yep, I am that old that I can start sentences like this) when the web was quite new there was lots of funny and silly sites to see. Sites were made by amateurs and commercialism was not yet there. Web was made from people to another people and there was lots of interesting stuff to be found. Internet was miracelous and most imporatantly, it was fun.

Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against commercialism in web but I am not happy when only thing you can easily find nowadays are just search engine optimized useless content filled with huge amount of ads. Interesting and fun sites does not pop up in Google search results anymore and anyway whole Google search engine goes day by dy more useless. Many sites and articles are behind paywalls and the bloat is the sickness of the modern web.

As a nerd this bloat of the current modern mainstream web annoys me quite much. Power of computers have grown hugely, but web sites are slower and slower and requires more and more computing power to even load and scroll. That is insanity and it should not be like this.

I do not believe that whining about how things should be helps anyone. Only way to change Internet better is to start making own personal web site what is lightweight and personal looking. It looks just the way I make it to look. There is no any template, there is no dynamic content and ads and images are relatible small as well so it is fast to load on even slow internet connection with 15 year old computer.

Also I value privacy in general and think that privacy should not be an option but instead it should be a necessity by default. People should not be tracked all around - that would be creepy thing to do outside the internet and it should be seen same way on the web as well. Sadly the current default is that there are lots of shady behaviour and user tracking all around big web sites what just not feel right.

Censorship is another terrible result of a modern Internet. People have moved to big tech platforms from their own web sites and web forums and results are sometimes disasterous. When your writings and opinions or even links you share what is not disinformation is seen as "potentially harmful content" your whole account and all its history can be wiped away before you can even blink your eye. I don't even blame big tech companies about this - it is our choice as users to select if we want to participate or not. Own web site is a choice and it is a statement against current status quo.

So shortly this site exists because only way to change the Internet back for the better is to participate and do my own part. Create a personal "old school" kind of web site - or any kind of own website - and share what I feel worth sharing for. There is no permissions needed from Google, Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple or Meta if or if not I can share my content. Why limit own possibility for free expression and put content on those big tech company services when you can be removed immediately when they just change their rules for worse?

Last updated: 2023-02-25