Basic Guide To The Personal Web

-- Chapters --
0:00 - Introduction
6:21 - Websites
9:24 - Blogging
11:10 - RSS
16:21 - Tools/Communities
21:18 - Conclusion
- Fair Use & Copyright Info -
This is video was made to help educate people on how to get started with the personal web. All music is non copyrighted.
This video should fall under the fair use section of teaching, commentary and criticism. If you have a problem with a particular clip or song I can quickly replace your short clip within KZbin’s online editor studio
with a different clip or song. If I forgot your song please let me know so I can credit it!!!
- Music -
Aries Beats - Sppoky Space Wave
Three Chain Links - Happiest Days
Jahzzar - Stars
EVA - It Still Hurts
Mattie Pride - Changing The Times
AIRGLOW - Electrifying Landscape
Aries Beats - Freestyler

[@psychcool]

Hello everyone, It's been a while and I've learned a lot since making this video. I'm going to be more active now. Firstly, 1. Here is the link to the map: psychcool.org/links/Personal%20Web%20Map.pdf 2. Here is the link for the guide: psychcool.org/links/BuildingAPersonalWebsiteGuide.pdf If you are building a site from stratch for the first time then it's reccomended that you use a template (sadgrl's template): goblin-heart.net/sadgrl/projects/layout-builder/ I am not posting links to other people's sites due to respect for them. Secondly, There is a lot of terminology that has sprung from online communities over the years... Personal Web, Yesterweb, IndieWeb, Web Revival, Small Web, Cozy Web. All having slight differences and similarities. This video was generally made for people who want to get into making websites, instead of being on social media apps. That's it. Thirdly, I'll try my best to update/correct information, but video formats become a pain in the arse since everything gets outdated and you learn better information Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate the responses and feedback! - Psychcool

[@bad_atgames]

Super nice video, I made a neocities page about a year ago but forgot about it. Really wanna get back into it again, with completely dumping every social media site and stupid terrible forced chat apps like Discord recently. Very much appreciate it.

[@user-nc4tn3hf8g]

ur awesome dude. keep it rollin 🔥 whats the mindmapping tool u used? *edit: mindnode = apples walled garden only? 😢

[@pixojoy]

where can i get that synthwave theme you found for visual studio at 17:27?

[@lunareclipse363]

write a companion blog post for this video! then you can update it as you learn :3

[@ExplorationB]

I saw Policically Non-Binary used a good portion of this video @Psychcool - Thought I was going crazy

[@ziprock]

I like the idea of kids growing up today rejecting the entire idea of blindly using modern social media to have an online presence. To learn and have fun with the creative challenge of building your own wildly customizable website.

[@Jpizzy_]

im one of these kids. imagine it as the new wave of punk, literal cyberpunk. We have our own new music, websites, and ways to express what we want online in the ways the people in the past did.

[@Adrenaline0413]

We literally have the power bro... We can fuckin DO IT​@@Jpizzy_

[@luizbr21022001]

It's like we're going back to the old web, in a good way. I'm obsessed with the creativity and just plain originality that web 1.0 had and now i kinda want to do the same.

[@Sage-ig9hk]

As someone who was born in the early 2000’s this is so exciting to me because I grew up hearing about things like blogs and MySpace and even old-school tumblr and Reddit and I thought it was so cool and I couldn’t wait to grow up and get in on it too, only to grow up to find that culture very much dead and replaced with hellish corporatized social media, which I don’t like as I was not allowed to have growing up so it just feels alien to me but I’m so happy to find that the internet of my childhood still exists somewhere!!!!

[@jerbear7952]

It was very different man. Especially the forums. People helped each other and shared information without selling courses. People made weird little sites for weird stuff they were in to.

[@SedBuildsThings]

@@jerbear7952 How sad is it to find the answer to a problem you're having and it's on a forum and then the link is to a site that's been dead for 10 years.

[@karatra4044]

Same, born around 2000's feels like living on the edge of the golden era

[@SedBuildsThings]

@@karatra4044 to be fair, i was born in 1985 and I feel the same but about my working life and not just the internet.

[@televisionkid7783]

same dude

[@methical__]

Imagine watching a guide on how to build a personal website in 2024. Kinda crazy that this stuff got forgotten over time and replaced by apps and social Media spaces.

[@michael654]

I've been pretty despondent about the web lately. I quit Reddit and Twitter. I only have Facebook to keep in touch with older family and Instagram for younger family. I miss the days of forums and personal blogs. This video really struck a nerve. Thanks so much!

[@JC-jz6rx]

I absolutely adored this. I program web applications and servers all day every day. It sucks the life out of the art sometimes. This really brought me back to the reason I fell in love with the internet. It’s a craft. It’s an art. It’s an expression of the digital self. Great video.

[@user-bc6vd5je7o]

"go buy a domain name, its $5" *proceeds to show a domain listed for $56k*

[@rismosch]

That's to be expected. An unused domain really does cost 5 to 10 bucks. But once you use it, it easily goes into the thousands. Remember: Every domain has only one owner. So when you want a used one, you must buy from the original owner. The price listed is just an estimate from the provider, on how expensive this may be. But that assumes the owner is willing to sell the domain. If they don't want to sell, you will probably never get that domain.

[@folksurvival]

I remember when it was easy to get free domains.

[@theophiled]

Price vary for each domain extension, and if you see prices that are abnormally high it usually means that someone already bought it and is reselling it (domain squatting)

[@tech6hutch]

@@folksurvivalfree? How would one have done that?

[@folksurvival]

@@tech6hutch By registering it.

[@Kraboobee]

Nothing has made me feel older than the term "traditional social media" Thank you for talking about this stuff, I hope it will help kids who were our age at that time find out how much fun the internet used to be

[@cerulity32k]

I'm 18, and I feel a lot of anemoia for the early Internet, before blandly designed social media sites took over. I've made my own sites on GitHub Pages, and it's been really fun to express myself on such a high level of granularity.

[@jaguar3217]

it was called ✨ SOCIAL NETWORKING ✨

[@Kraboobee]

@@jaguar3217 you can't do this to me

[@JokerLover123]

This video is such a refreshing sight in today's mass of slop content. Outstanding

[@NatalieAri]

I've missed the personality of the early web so much. I feel like you've given a great jumping point to learn more, make my own site, and reconnect with the wonders of a decentralized web.

[@Cruciblecoder]

I do not know how KZbin recommended this to me with it being this small but goddam I’m grateful for it because I love this

[@natanmaia3575]

Great video, but as a tip, you can do entirely without the flashing pictures, its an outdated editing technique exactly because it's uncomfortable. You can still make your visual point by showing images spaced .4 or .5 seconds each, or show overlapping pictures in a wider space like a collage spaced .2 or .3 seconds each.

[@descarded]

this...

[@Antleredangelbun]

yes it is annoying to not be able to see any frame even by pausing because its too quikk

[@Ben_R4mZ]

I like the style personally because I've seen video where the images flash slower (Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows' Pâro comes to mind), and my brain gets distracted by the text in the images instead of on what the narrator is saying. Not to mention after reading a handful of the images shown in this video, I have a feeling I would have a mental breakdown from sheer overexposure to the level of hate and toxicity presented. I don't mind not being able to read them, but using dark mode or inverting the black and white would go a long way to avoiding the flashbang feeling.

[@juicyboxesxo]

i agree on this. love this video but that was just not it for me

[@fnotcool]

For real, just gives me a headache

[@jagmeemees]

You inspired me to make an account on neocities and maybe start something there finally. I've got the git repo set up now. Now I just gotta learn html/css...

[@mhmrules]

Forgive me if you have already gone through this (if you have, then disregard this), but Neocities has a tutorial hosted by their mascot: Penelope the Cat. Kitty will show you the bare basics of HTML and CSS coding. SadGirl also has a "Responsive Design" website layout builder for a simple web page layout that works in mobile and full browsers.

[@francooooooooooo]

how u goin?

[@kendawg_mcawesome]

Been exploring some stuff, and I feel kind of reborn. It's like reading nothing but corporate rags for years and then picking up a bunch of zines. Big hits, big misses, some authentic, some trying too hard, but all the more sincere in all 4 outcomes.

[@thehans255]

I've been keeping a personal website for a few years now, but have really only been using it as a programming blog and portfolio that I can show to potential employers (which has still been super valuable, although limited). Seeing this video and a few others about Web 1.0 is inspiring me to expand it more - perhaps blogging more often and about a wider berth of subjects. Thanks too for talking about RSS! I've never really used it, but now that I've seen it in action, I'll be setting up a feed.

[@spaderttv]

This video was like a splash of cold water to what the internet used to be to me. Reading the comments, and it seems I'm not alone.

[@poupeuu]

Glad to see more people talking about the personal web Great vid!

[@macyler]

I’d love to put more effort into this, but everything web-related seems to be engineered to be as high-maintenance as possible. I thought a few years ago that going with a static site builder would be a sure-fire way to make something that will last. Boy was I wrong. The theme I used has undergone several major restructurings (requiring me to completely re-do all of my customizations every time), and now they’ve even completely moved away from Hugo to something else. Just because I want to update the foundation of my site to fix some annoying bugs, I get to essentially completely re-structure it from scratch every time, taking a “quick update” and turning it into multiple days of work I don’t want to do. These Javascript developers apparently have nothing better to do than reinvent the wheel every 3 minutes, and I’m so tired of dealing with all the churn that causes, no matter how you try to use web stuff.

[@T61APL89]

preach!

[@MLin87]

Yeah, as someone who used to make site after site in the early 00s, all the dependencies and frameworks and shit have really sucked the fun out of things. But there are a few places where things are still raw and simple. Neocities can use just straight html and css. And if you step away from those "builders" and learn the basics of raw markdown you can buy some server space and a domain for relatively cheap, and things only get as complicated as you want them to be.

[@jlco]

Thank you for this video. I'm now fairly certain the YT recommendation algorithm is processing my comments for this to have shown up when it did, but regardless, this is helpful information.

[@insanityspokentheluniticplayer]

I love this. I don't want to be confined to a social media platform anymore. I can just promote my website on social media.

[@yan_afrukh]

I had this thought lingering in my mind for weeks at this point! I needed a way to speak my thoughts off while enjoying doing that, since no one in my life really has enough space for whatever I have to say (which is out of their control, people have lives). This feels like the right way for me!

[@O.Reagano]

This is perfect, I remember making a personal website when I was a little kid but now the internet just…sucks I’m glad to see this exists, I’m going down this rabbit hole lol

[@abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv8850]

i also had dozens of personal websites as a kid lol

[@tippy7831]

I can't tell you how much I miss forums. It felt so much more personal and way better structured in a way my brain craves. But now it seems even if you do find a forum on a topic you like, it's a just a graveyard. Thank you for all the website recommendations and tips!

[@Vann-jn3jc]

this is exactly what I've been looking for THANK YOU

[@eduardoktg8683]

Oh my god this is so cool thank you for sharing this on KZbin. People, share about this with your friends, they might be interested. We need this kind of thing.

[@Poly_0000]

The personal web seems cool and all but a lot of the things you mentioned just don't make sense to me. "Social media has echo chambers" forums have echo chambers as well. Oftentimes even more extreme ones because of the lack of unbiased moderation. "Propaganda is spread on social media" what stops somebody from spreading propaganda through the personal web? If somebody wants to propagandise they will do it. Just because personal websites are more honest does not mean they are more factual. I'm confused why you kept bringing up these two points in this video.

[@mablungbalrog424]

It seems to be more of a community thing at this point. Everyone who is shifting to personal websites tend to be people who are sick of ungenuine discussions, which is why it "seems" like the personal web is less dogmatic, less propagandic, less reactionary. A complete lack of things like "likes" or "the algorithm" is just how web forums work already. No algorithm, just sort by date; no likes, just gauge interest by amount of replies; no overhead moderation, just users moderating their own posts. The most well known website like this is 4chan, but I don't see them as particularly less echo-chamber-ish, or free of propaganda, or nicer, or more honest, or more truthful. As soon as more and more people start using the personal web, the more and more baggage from modern social media is going to come with it. There's always been huge internet fights and community drama, even back in the days of internet 1.0 with the original personal websites, even back in the days of e-mail groups on AOL. It is only natural to be in constant conflict.

[@Poly_0000]

@@mablungbalrog424 couldn't have said it better.

[@Rahman.Shahadat]

could you please share the roadmap you were using?

[@alexanderfarrelltech]

This video is so good. Among all the reasons why I loved building a personal website, you helped me realize exactly what it was: it's part of who I am. My website is almost like an extension of myself. I want to thank you so much for making this video and helping me to realize this. Definitely got a like and a sub from me!

[@BabyBunny-Cottontail]

Everything about this video was just super nice. Especially you and the huge nostalgia I felt about recognising the look and feeling of the internet from my childhood.

[@turpeluren6536]

Glad to see u on this side of the web with such a great overview! Many great tips!

[@delsen]

Excellent, its great that you crafted this for an intermediate user like me. Social media's lowest common denominator slop is getting really old.

[@junkmeal7292]

wow this channel is so based.... so based... i am now tempted to finish my website, great job! i hope that you will grow

[@harleylazy]

Great video! Loved the guide on making Blog posts, will come back to that for my own website.

[@wpickle]

I loved this so much and it has inspired me! I also respect that at first I found some bits a bit dogmatic, but then I realised that's kinda the point - vive la opinions!

[@user-oe8fw3bl8n]

thanks, I found zonelet really easy to work with and add. I've been looking for something similar for a while. I'll come back to this for finding personal web communities and tools again. thanks for the work in sharing

[@travissouthard]

This is great! Lots of excellent info here! I have been working the last few years to lean on my personal website for more of my outreach and do make an RSS feed from it. I love the resources you've provided, especially about webrings! Thans for making this

[@OmerMD]

Bro not even half way throught the video. YOU'RE ONE OF THE BESTTT DUDEEEEE!!!!!!! Just amazing!! I've recently made my own website and didn't know what to add or do and damn!!! Thank you fella :D

[@willthepotato]

Nice video! Personal websites are truly refreshing to read and create compared to the fragmented, sporadic, and polluted stream of information one gets on social media.

[@beingL]

This is the internet I came up with. Loved it. Cool video

[@FlourishCaster]

You're doing good work by creating videos like this. It's ironic that the KZbin algorithm brought me here but for i'm very happy it did! Thank you for creating the map and guide on your website as well.

[@Povilaz]

Very interesting! Love the aesthetics of early 2000s personal websites.

[@afjelidfjssaf]

I recently got more involved in FOSS programs and RSS, this video was really informative and insightful!

[@Funce]

What a video! I love it! Glad to see you're still improving and checking out this post! I'm sure someone's pointed this out, but TTL is "time-to-live" which is (in minutes) how long the feed should stay cached before attempting to get an update. You generally want this to be not too crazy, as its the longest amount of time that someone can wait before they're notified or get your updated blog posts (worst case being someone refreshes right before you update your RSS feed) I tend to set my TTL at double my update speed, so that if I update once a day, I'd set the TTL to make readers check in twice per day, so that its a maximum of a 12 hour delay. But you could totally do more if the traffic isn't an issue!

[@clementineshamaney5137]

Could you add the mentioned stuff in the description too?

[@LambdaJack]

Let Us start with Marginalia and that other recomendation.

[@kpingvin]

This video is like a time travel to 20 years ago. Great stuff!

[@SomeGiy-dx8kb]

Surprised you don’t have more subs. This vid and others are extremely high quality. Keep it up and you’ll be big!!

[@reimanas]

Very informative. I always loved the aesthetic and concept behind personal websites and thought they were only a things in the 90's and early 2000's. You must have put alot of work in creating this map, so thank you ! ! ! !

[@omnomnomreviews]

yes! thanks for this video

[@MeowppleCider]

I've been wanting to dig into this for a while now, and this video was good at segmenting the different parts of the personal, decentralized web. Time to get coding.

[@romankoshchei]

Liking that video. But why against Markdown? It's like even simpler than HTML. I get the fact that you will need to transform it to HTML, but mostly tools are doing it for you without a big trouble.

[@cherry6288]

Did you know how much I've learnt from your vid ❤ Keep this up

[@dontusethesamenicknameonthenet]

i feel like i went back in time

[@dimitrijebalabanovic]

This video is golden.

[@dustonpage1280]

I literally woke up feeling disoriented and this goldmine just greeted me at 4 am. Thank you! I didn't know I can immediately subrlscribe to someone after a few seconds but here we are ( ´◡‿ゝ◡`)

[@scary-tower]

WIBY ON KZbin LETS GO YOUR A REAL ONE

[@Aarron-io3pm]

Spot on, this has been a problem for a long time and AI is only acceperating the shit storm. Quite unbelievable it has come to this, going completely full circle, and lots of people are totally unaware. Awesome video 👍

[@bomberfish77]

16:10 I disagree. For my blog, I use a framework called Jekyll, which converts Markdown to static HTML using a defined template, and even automatically manages the RSS feed for you. I'd argue it's even less complicated.

[@Furdox]

this is a great video, you get my approval :3

[@aiocafea]

thank you so much i knew about all of these things but i needed the impetus to realise that maintaining these things does lead to a better internet only when you described the rss logo as an orange wi-fi thing i realised that this isn't for me, or not just for me, it's for people that missed the train on all these things and they aren't in on the past 20-30 years of internet tech thank you so much

[@tavoh3200]

Love this video! Recommend putting links to the various resources in the description though, be much easier for people to check them out that way.

[@detritic]

As a "90s kid" I am here for the Geocities rebirth

[@sigmaroll9802]

This is such good content, wow 🤯

[@romieabel2629]

This video is amazing and underrated ❤🎉❤🎉❤🎉❤

[@DCNRS90YT]

I wished I made my websites years and years ago. I’ll use my personal website as a place to freely talk about stuff and showcase the art I make and archive.

[@eidolon101]

So we're going back to pre 2000 . Nice :)

[@ButtersDClown]

Im browsing your videos and im surprised you have so few followers, i really enjoyed this though!

[@annekaushal314]

Thanks for the inspiration ❤ also, this is a video that every single person using the internet must watch!!! THIS is the absolute best video in all of KZbin. THIS video is what your kids should be watching, a video that inspires you to stop wasting your precious time and do something productive. Btw in my opinion, everyone should learn HTML/css/js and host their websites using a cheap service like hostinger. Thank you, forr changing my life ❤

[@romieabel2629]

Personally, I want my personal website to my permanent online home someday.

[@homomorphichomosexual]

same, im excited to work more on mine :)

[@eggymens]

i feel like i knew this when i was younger, but they tried so hard to make us forget this. thanks for the inspiration.

[@danielenease]

for the past couple of months I've been looking for the old internet lol. I was born in 94 but I had a computer early and was online during the AOL days. I clearly remember forum websites and regular non application websites that dominated the internet and I thought it was gone for good. I'm so happy that its been there all along and I'm all aboard the nostalgia train... TOOOT TOOOOT.

[@holdmychaingun]

"...There's no teacher out there quite like experience." What a wonderful quote!

[@PokeNebula]

Oh boy, time to learn RSS “It’s really not that hard, just remember to update five separate variables manually every time you wanna publish a blog without letting a single one out of sync.” Oh, that’s a nightmare waiting to happen. Better find a way to automate that process. “I recommend doing this process manually every time, for no demonstrated reason in particular.” Cohost sounds nice right about now. Maybe fediverse.

[@protogen-posting]

I wish i couldve been around for the old internet but i was busy being an egg

[@starsmp3]

sick video thanks so much

[@raynbol]

i loved your video

[@urFavoriteEva]

really very good video thank you :3

[@esobrev]

seeing one of my webpages gave me a jumpscare! lol i can tell which webrings you clicked around to find examples. nice video :^)

[@cxctuses]

You're underrated!

[@perezident14]

As a professional software developer and tech hobbyist, I’m more than happy to help anyone who is trying to put together their own website if they have any questions. (:

[@entername2954]

thank you.

[@kezif]

when programming i really like to block resources from big corporations (tutorial point, w3 school) and search for personal developers blogs. They are much more cozy and informative

[@salman0ansari]

this channel is underrated

[@SevensRequiem]

woah, my website appeared in a video... thank you!

[@cactuz116]

Im just surprised at how many completely insufferable ppl u have screenshots of LMAO

[@michael654]

I'm going to go make my own website!

[@LKRaider]

Very cool

[@sophbear4259]

I love this video so much, I've been learning about the personal web lately and I'm so intrigued. I really wish you linked the websites that you used as visual examples, and especially some of the "getting started resources" ones, just to get people clicking.

[@CB256]

The thing is you could find em if you go down the rabbit hole he showed you.

[@sophbear4259]

@@CB256 I don’t think you understand lol, I was saying he could’ve included links. People are lazy and won’t just google something they can’t immediately find. If he provided a link people could just click and keep clicking from there

[@CB256]

@@sophbear4259 ig its meant to be like tht mate,btw i used searx nd got his pdf lol...maybe he is tryin to prevent lazy people from accessing those sites loll

[@CB256]

@@sophbear4259 dont use google lol

[@christinathomas2352]

Reminds me of the Tumblr age with personalization and blogging

[@sirpendelton5710]

Thank you

[@slipperynickels]

i recently rejected social media and have switched to just running a silly personal website like i did when i was a teenager. wrote a whole generator in clojure and my largest cost by far is the domain name. personal websites are freedom.

[@chinpokomon_]

if a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?

[@rayhere7925]

Stay social, the personal way.

[@gldistrict]

i love the idea and ive been wanting to do the same thing but i get overwhelmed with stuff and give up

[@hackergallery]

good vid

[@thecallan101]

Not putting links in the description is criminal

[@romanglinnik8073]

As a tech person I admire DIY solutions. Recently built my first website and despite doing everything SEO it still doesn't show up on corporate big brother's search engine. Will fix this but in the meantime, small/personal web sounds like a neat world to explore

[@PersonManManManMan]

Having your own wrbsite is pretty cool

[@CrowleyBlack2]

8:27 This is what I'm doing right now. Since I'm running a user generated content website. Please back up your progress site and your database. Use at least 2 or 3 portable hard drives or flash drives. This is a very important and huge recommended.

[@pancelalkov2070]

cool video, but why are you actively trying to destroy my eyes with the fast shifting images?

[@vedun9439]

Thank you for this, I was unable to find some meaningful new content and ideas for a while now, now I have a place to dig in. And what is the website on 2:24 mark? I really like the styling