Why a Website

I built my first website on Angelfire back in the 90s when animated backgrounds, embedded music files, and guestbooks were all the rage. This was prior to any type of customizable social media pages like MySpace and even predated journaling or diary sites like Xanga. Everyone had to learn just enough HTML to write a quick bio, slap some low quality GIFs on the page, and link it on their AOL Instant Messenger away messages. The original measure of your internet clout was the visitor counter on the bottom of your page.

Fast forward a few years and I am building sites pretty regularly for all kinds of reasons from my local car enthusiast club to my Counter-Strike clan. Adobe Flash is the web technology of choice from its ability to make interactive web experiences to making web-based games. Chat platforms like AIM and ICQ and forums and message boards are being replaced by the now social media giants.

Having professionally worked in startups building web apps and personally using many apps, my desire for starting a new website has evolved into the following reasons:

1. Try new technologies — I have moved on from the days of using Flash and the tech landscape continues to change at a fast pace. I want a testing ground to try new things without too much foundational overhead to get it working
2. Aggregate my data — Over the years, I have created accounts and content all over the web for different domain specific purposes. It would be nice to aggregate all of that data into one place to make it more readily accessible
3. Document the journey — I will keep a log of what I am doing

These will change over time but will be the pillars of what this site is dedicated to initially. This is the first “thought” I wanted to jot down.