Why Make a Website?

You know, I was sitting at work giving my newly-opened forum a quick glance when the idea for this ramble popped into my head. Why in the world would someone with no real urge to talk to people about much of anything put up a web site to spread his opinions? Especially someone who usually has absolutely nothing to say.

Yet, here I am spouting off like a crazy person on the big, bad Internet.

I’ve toyed with the idea of running my own website… just for me… for years. I ran a theme site (House Vallenti) on Dizzy-Star a while back. Before that I ran a site for Falcon’s Fury… an EverQuest guild. But I never got to have one of my own. About me and what I think about the world.

Does the world need another site like this? No, not really. But I think I do. My own memory is unmoored from time and (generally) place. I wake up every day and can’t quite recall which day it is. Perhaps a website will help me remember what day it is. And what I thought of a movie or book long after I’ve, personally, forgotten the details.

Blogging is pretty popular these days… and everyone seems to have one. I could have saved myself a lot of cash by signing up for a free one somewhere (with the same, if not better, results) but I think the whole website thing suits me better. After all, I have total control here. And I don’t have to worry about much aside from my host vanishing (hard to say the same thing about a free or quazi-free service).

Of course, I can’t shake the secret desire beneath it all. Similar to an exhibitionist (showing what’s inside my mind - not my clothes), I’m posting the honest opinions I’ve formed with the hidden motivation of finding others who share them. Or hate them. In order to hate, after all, you have to understand in your own fashion.

That leads me to wonder at the motivation of any non-profit personal site. Are all of those others also writing to themselves while secretly hoping they’ll find someone that can relate? Are they writing to have some record of their feelings because they easily forget them? Or is it something else… something I haven’t thought of?

So, to sum up. While the Internet is about sharing information, it looks like this site isn’t true to that spirit. The truth is: I’m really just talking to myself. And answering. Now, isn’t that disturbing?

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