In 1997, I wrote my first website. I had little idea of what I was doing. But the tools were all available to me in the form of HTML. No expensive publishing software or knowledge of programming languages were necessary. I published my content on Geocities, a now-deceased platform for web publishing. For many, this story is reminiscent of their own early experiences with internet technology.
Since those early days, the internet has gotten incredibly complicated. Much of the complexity relates to the web growing from a small network of enthusiasts to a major commercial platform powering the modern world economy. Unfortunately, in the process of its maturity, the web lost much of its DIY flavor. This website is an attempt to show that it is still possible to publish useful information online without such complexities. I will be developing this site from beginning to end using plain HTML and stylesheets. If I find a need for dynamic content, it will be used sparingly. There is an analytics JS bundle injected by Cloudflare, but that data is only used for tracking usage of the site. Otherwise, I will be keeping it simple.
I hope you'll enjoy following along as I bring back Web 1.0 here!
- Robert, May 14, 2022