Plans for the website

Drag here, I've been putting a bigger focus on letting people know that this is my website, but since there's barely anything on it, it's a good idea to identify how I want to use this space, since I've barely had a plan up until now. (TL;DR? Skip to the last paragraph)

What's the internet look like right now?

In the years of 2018-2022, most everything a person can do has been consolidated into a handful of websites. Do you paint? You either post it directly to social media, or create a gallery on a website geared towards industry professionals, amateurs, fandoms, etc, with each site having its pros and cons.

Same if you make music; it's Bandcamp if you sell it, Soundcloud if you don't. If you just want to put your thoughts and opinions out there, you're likely posting those thoughts on one of many social media sites. Do you want to visit the community around a hobby, like programming, or game development? Chances are, you go to Reddit instead of a message board.

What all of these things have in common is, they provide you the platform you want, and you use this platform to do your thing. It's also convenient that everyone else puts their stuff there too, so you're only signing up on one website to get access to all of these different communities, versus making accounts in 10 different places.

Convenient until it isn't anymore...

Social media is only good for what's happening right now. When you post something, it's only there until something else takes its place, and most people completely miss it. So, posting art, everyone only sees what's recent. It's a pain to find older pieces, and if it's really old, good luck infinite-scrolling down to it, since that's your only option.

It's good for posting thoughts, but again, those thoughts get lost. That's fine if it's a thought that's meant to get lost (like something you ate), but not for "I saw this neat thing that this game does and I want to remember it", or "I finally figured out how to do xyz".

You can't post music on social media unless it's part of a video. Music is such an oddity though. Despite MIDI playback being standard on computers, operating systems generally don't bundle MIDI editors like they do simple paint programs or simple text editors. Therefore, there's usually no workflow for writing up a tune and posting it somewhere. (This is a story for another time though)

So, again... what's this website for?

I do all of the above things. I sketch and paint, I make music, I write things, I have random thoughts, and most important of all, I'm a programmer. I want to use my personal website to showcase all of the things I make, and that's a tall order because I make lots of different kinds of things.

So finally, my plans for this website are:

• Create a place I can put write-ups and tutorials for things I know or am researching.
• Create a place I can put my thoughts on things, in a longer and/or more permanent form.
• Create a gallery I can put the art I make.
• Create a gallery I can put the music I make.

Whenever I feel the urge to work on it, I'll be developing the means to do the above things. That's all for now!