sadgrl.online is a website of significant influence, and it's webmistress, who goes by sadness, is a person whose name you'll likely hear while perusing the personal web. I first encountered sadgrl.online during my previously mentioned reading of foreverliketh.is's blog posts discussing The Personal Web.
In those posts, sadness is cited as the inspiration for the creation of that site. This was a common theme during my excursions. In seemingly disparate corners of the web, people referenced sadgrl.online as an inspiration for them in creating their sites. It's as though, if you went looking, you would encounter many more, similarly influenced, netizens.
And what was it that sadness did to inspire all these people? Well, a lot I think. More than I can analyze, given the limited scope of this site. But based on what I've read from her website, and around the web, she is an admirable person. What I'm interested in discussing here, is her internet manifesto, a collection of thoughts about what the web is, for better or worse, and what it could and should be.
In her manifesto, sadness calls for the protection of people's rights to personal online spaces, and from anyone trying to encroach on them. She encourages others to also write manifestos and to create online spaces of their own. And people seem to have listened in droves.
I myself strongly agree with sadness's positions on social media and the flow of information. People do need online sanctuary from those who would exploit them. People should have a way to connect that is not governed by algorithms.
As suggested by the aforementioned posts from fromjason.xyz (Where have all the websites gone? and Raw dog the open web!), the modern internet feels like it's made up of social media platforms and corporate run search engines, and not much else. All the incredible things that exist online, and the people who make them, seem to be walled off by people who don't have anyone's best interests at heart.
sadness's message about protecting online people from exploitation seems to have struck a chord that's still resonating long after its original posting. I'm unable to find the exact date of the manifesto's publication. The earliest reference I could find to it was Jun 3, 2021 by Phil and The Internet, in his post, Opinionated Guides. I believe that's about when it was first posted.
As of 05/01/2023, sadness is on hiatus from webmistressing, and sadgrl.online has been archived, but her presence can still be felt, and her site still serves as a guide to those seeking to participate in the personal web.
The reason I wanted to share this is because sadness, and people like her, are why I'm here now sharing my thoughts. They inspired me to create a space online and to think about what the internet should be. I really don't have much to add to sadness's manifesto at this point in my web journey. I don't have immediate plans to create one of my own, but I'm grateful to have been challenged into considering where I stand on these issues.
Thanks to sadness, and everyone on my journey, for all of your incredible work, and for being such an inspiration. Kudos. And that's gonna be all from me on that subject, for a while at least. I plan for upcoming posts to be less internet focused and more on what I've got going on in general. Please look forward to those. For now, I'll be signing off.
Thanks for reading.
-Ty
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