Making Space for a Handmade Web | Figma Blog
The web’s early personal, expressive character has been diminished by commercialization, platform standardization, and pressure to optimize for broad audiences. Chia Amisola argues that a “handmade web” still exists in pockets such as Neocities and internet-art communities, and that anyone can support it by making a website without forcing it to serve a conventional purpose. Websites can instead be temporary, obscure, playful, poetic, or collectively imagined spaces. ## From Personal Webpages to Standardized Platforms - In the 1990s, services such as GeoCities gave people small parcels of digital space to build personal webpages. - GeoCities hosted as many as 38 million pages, organized into themed “neighborhoods” and shaped by amateur creativity. - Although the web now contains more sites than ever, efficiency, commercialization, and social media have reduced its visual and expressive variety. - Many people retreat into the internet’s “dark forest,” limiting public self-expression because of judgment, surveillance, or pressure to conform. ## The Handmade Web Still Exists - Neocities continues GeoCities’ legacy by offering free hosting and has grown to nearly one million sites. - Organizations including Rhizome, the Center for Net Art, and the School for Poetic Computation support internet art through exhibitions and workshops. - Decentralized-web initiatives supported by groups such as the Internet Archive promote an internet shaped and owned by its users rather than concentrated platforms. ## Websites as Living, Personal Spaces - Making a website is presented as the most direct way to participate in the handmade web. - A website does not need to be a resume, portfolio, blog, homepage, or comprehensive representation of its creator. - It can be treated as a changing environment that grows over time, rather than a fixed destination. - Personal sites can be short-lived or maintained for decades, focused on one subject or combining many interests, and addressed to a broad community or a single person. ## Websites with Time Limits - Websites can deliberately operate only at particular times or for limited durations. - B&H’s website reflects the closing schedule of its physical stores during religious observances. - “Cloudwatching” and “Stargazing” are accessible only during the day and night, respectively. - Temporary projects such as Internet Stoop and Reddit’s The Button demonstrate how expiration and scarcity can create meaningful online experiences. - Digital spaces are inherently impermanent because domains expire and sites require ongoing maintenance. ## Websites That Resist Discovery - A site can be rewarding precisely because it is difficult to find. - Cassie McQuater’s *Black Room* uses an intentionally illegible URL, while *Default Filename TV* collects videos that retain their original camera-generated filenames. - Obscurity offers an alternative to search-engine optimization, algorithmic distribution, and polished branding. - These sites encourage “surfing” through links and rewarding accidental discovery. ## Websites Without Clear Ownership - Websites can outlive or separate themselves from their original creators, much like abandonware. - Anonymous or ownerless sites can function as fictional tools, alternate realities, or spaces where visitors construct their own meanings. - JODI’s long-running site presents a maze of ASCII landscapes, while the collectively authored SCP Foundation uses a fictional wiki to build a shared mythology. The practical recommendation is simple: make a website without requiring it to be useful, polished, permanent, or widely understood. Its value may lie in being personal, strange, temporary, and shaped by the people who encounter it.
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