Some people on Neocities talk about how sometimes, they fall back into the numbers game. It's how our brains have been trained by social media, after all, and we can't pretend that, as people, we don't want to be seen and remembered. I don't have this problem personally; yes, the numbers are cool, but what I really like are the comments, because it makes me feel a connection! But even that's secondary to making my website for myself. But it is a semi-common sentiment… Which is what seems to be at the forefront of everyone's mind, with federiefederi's blowup recently.

Originally, I considered making a post recapping this, but decided against it. Posts going over this situation are inevitable, so I don't need to do it, too. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I do actually have a lot of thoughts to share. So, here's the rundown.

Federiefederi was a Neocities site who listed lesser-known or smaller sites, to help people find them. A concept which I don't have a problem with on the surface, mainly because I view it as a service to the visitor, rather than the people being listed. It's all for the visitor to find new sites, not for the sites to get more views. Or, that's how I saw it.

However, the site had rather aggressive tactics to become more well-known, in a way that almost felt like… Advertising. Or a corporation.

To start, it was a follow4follow deal. Already very social media-esque, but nothing that most people had an issue with.

But then, the people behind the site found out that this would not work to get them to the front page. See, their goal was to get in the top 8 Neocities sites, and the way that Neocities worked is that the more followers a site has, and the fewer sites it follows, the more it gets boosted.

This is around the part where I take issue. As I've extensively covered, Neocities is a way to get away from the numbers, and to make something personal to the user. To focus on getting into the top sites feels against the spirit of the service entirely. It just sort of felt increasingly like the people behind the project just wanted to be on the front page. Them commenting the same thing on individual sites over and over may also be indicative of this, as, when you comment on someone else's site, everyone who follows that site sees it. They were very much focused on growth, and it felt, again, like a big advertisement. For the sake of the small sites listed, yes, I suppose, but again, as this went on, I continuously got the sense that maybe it was less about that than the owners wanted you to believe.

Anyhow, one day (around the beginning of April 2024), they announced that they would be unfollowing all of the sites that they had followed as the initial part of their setup. This open announcement that they would be rescinding support for small sites, in hopes of getting to the front page, really rubbed people the wrong way. Additionally, they made a few posts regarding a very aggressive blocking policy which also gave people a weird, corporate vibe.

While their logic about sorting through sites by 'most recent' and not wanting to see ones that have opted out is sound, this doesn't track with them immediately following that up with, "We normally don't give a second chance to anyone who has been permanently blocked." If it's about organization, and not hurt feelings or pride, why wouldn't you let someone join who has previously said 'no'?

People began to request to be removed en masse due to the above reasons, but, in an attempt at damage control, the site owner tried to limit the comments requesting this to one comment thread. They seem to be very aware of the commenting feature, and how in this case, if someone commented something negative on their site, all of their followers would see it. Limiting things to a comment thread makes it so that the comments requesting removal doesn't show up on other people's feeds, which is seriously scummy to me. They also compared themselves to a charity in an attempt to say how rude the site owners are shouldn't matter. Which is not only manipulative, but also stupid, because, yes, I would refuse to donate to a charity because I think the owners are going about their charity work in a shitty way. Frankly, lots of people would.

Eventually, an anonymous user reported federiefederi for being a 'follow4follow scam', and the site got sniped by Neocities, who agreed that it was gaming the follower system. Not that it mattered much — the site was bleeding followers so fast that the owners turned off site comments altogether at one point.

Federiefederi was a nice concept, turned into a project where people were gaming the Neocities code to gain influence, popularity, and, most of all, to make the Number Go Up. But how useful was it, really? If you want to find niche sites, you can always sort by 'recently updated' or 'new'. Whenever I look at the Neocities search, I always switch it to 'recently updated'. Then I'm viewing ALL the sites! Not just the ones listed by someone else! The only downside to it is that there are occasional bigots, which I'm able to easily block and move on from.

A lot of the sites listed on federiefederi were newer sites, and, if they were just starting out, I can understand how they felt frustrated or unseen. Especially if they just recently moved from social media. Because it wasn't just federiefederi that made this situation. It was also all of the people it listed who aggressively pushed it, too, presumably so that their site that is listed there will get more views.

I'm not blaming those small sites, though. Again, it is human nature to want validation and praise for something you have worked hard on. I'm not above that desire, and I find all attempts by other people at pretending they are above it disingenuous. Don't lie in an attempt to seem cool — you desire connection just as much as the rest of us. You can't escape your nature as a social animal just by moving your internet presence, because the mindset of a creation's value being dependent on it being seeing has existed long before the internet did.

"What is the point of art if nobody sees it?" I absolutely consider coding a form of art, and this question often comes to haunt me at the best of times. Whenever I just want to throw my phone into a lake and move to the middle of the woods, I have to ask myself if making my art for myself and myself alone would ever truly fulfill me. Whether that be my writing, my visual art, my edits, or my coding. How much of what I make is motivated by the desire to have people see it online? Not just see it, but also like it? What kind of art would I make if nobody would ever see it? Just as the artists before me toiled with why they want their art to be in an exhibit, I toil with why I want my art online.

My website was an attempt at making art that I would make if nobody saw it. Making something for myself, that I like, that is completely honest, and not caring about what anyone else thinks. (Even when this results in TERFs flooding my guestbook calling me slurs for disliking fujoshi culture, as it did recently.)

I suppose that what I'm saying is that, no matter what we tell ourselves, there's always gonna be a federiefederi in the mind of every artist, demanding your work to be seen so it can have value. But I would like to encourage everyone else to treat their website the same way I try to treat mine. Neocities is largely about trying to let go of the social media-esque desire to get as much validation as possible. I've made peace with the fact that this desire will never be done away with completely, but, if your site ends up not ever getting a single comment, at least make something that you like making. Make something honest and weird and that brings you joy. That way, when you do get that inevitable first comment, they will be complimenting something completely, wholly you.

You don't have to beg for views. If you keep updating, they will come with time. But the human connection that you make with someone via your site that you put your heart and soul into is something that can't be forced.