Manifesto

My History with the Web

The Internet has been a huge part of many peoples' lives, mine included. I lived in an age where we didn't have Internet, and then suddenly. BOOM. We had Internet.

I'm sure a good number of people who have been in the old Web can remember those horrible(?) dial-up noises and how we couldn't use the phone as long as someone was using the Web. My first Internet provider was called Juno, and it makes me happy to see that they're still around. Knowing how frugal my parents were, my sister and I weren't allowed to have messenger apps like AIM or MSN. After hearing so many horror online stories, I think this was for the best for us lol.

Despite the slow connection and other inconveniences, I still look at those times fondly. I can never forget the hours I spent looking at Sonic and Digimon fansites of all kinds. News, art, trivia, you name it. Sonic and Digimon may have gotten me into drawing, but it was the artists that made me pursue art even further.

I mostly lurked around forums until I came across deviantART--I'm sorry, DeviantArt, it's history from there. In terms of social media sites, I joined the following in this order: MySpace → LiveJournal → Twitter → Tumblr.

I had my own website at some point, but it became to expensive to keep the domain so it was taken down. You can find some pieces of it from the only snapshot taken in 22 April 2005. It's nice looking back on it.

I mostly stayed on social media and made a Carrd at some point, but something still felt missing until I came across Psshaw's Tumblr post about Neocities. I can't remember if I had heard of Neocities before, but I definitely heard of Geocities. The fact that making a site was completely free was enough to fully convince me to make this site on July 2022.

I couldn't be happier and prouder of this small side project. :')

The Actual Manifesto

What I previously wrote in this manifesto is more or less an exact copy of what others have said, "Corporate websites bad, personal websites good!" This statement is still something I abide by, but I would like to update this manifesto and further explain the goals of this website.

  1. This site will primarily serve as an archive for artwork I have created over the span of 20+ years. It will take a while to upload everything, and I certainly don't have a quarter of the pencil sketches that are left behind on the other side of the country, but my intention is to inspire younger artists to continue drawing. I have seen a distressing trend of younger artists being pressured to be on the same level as a professional, which is not only unrealistic but also extremely damaging to their psyche.

  2. This site will also never be removed, unless Neocities itself goes down, nor will it remove any art. Even if I find my art to be "old and cringey", I believe it's important to keep old art as a way to not only gauge one's progress, but also to remind others that no artist starts out perfect. The only art that will not be archived here are pieces that have been deemed harmful.

  3. This site will not be used to make any money. This site will not or ever have any ads unless it is to promote other personal websites (for free, mind you). While I do take commissions, the time that they are open is very few and far in-between as I already have a full-time job.

  4. This site will not be used to promote hate, harassment, or discrimination of any kind that will potentially bring harm to others. This one sounds pretty self-explanatory, but in this day and age, it's become common for self-righteous users to have a twisted sense of justice and send death threats to those with views that don't align with theirs.

  5. The site will not encourage getting rid of social media. For better or worse, social media allows others to communicate and form bonds just like they would outside the web. In fact, social media was how I met my wife and husband. Instead, this site will advocate for better ways of using these platforms, such as taking the time to respond to posts instead of just "liking" them.

Others' Manifestos

Good Reads

The following articles gave me a well-needed gut-punch and serve as inspiration for this personal site. Whether or not I'm succeeding is debatable, but they're fantastic articles, regardless!