Finding The Form

 

A few people in this little corner of the blogosphere have linked to this bikobatanari.art recently: Browsing the Eastern Side of the Personal Web (and exploring its differences with the West)

It’s quite frankly one of the best things I’ve read all year. Go read it!

The author, having browsed Neocities for years, became interested in discovering new, less-visited corners of the personal web. This led them to Japanese personal websites, which are often indexed by specific search engines dedicated to personal Japanese sites. These sites, unlike Western equivalents, focus more on showcasing creative works rather than individual personas.

Here’s some of my fav quotes:

These observations on the role of personal sites about the nature of the blogs about pages:

Something that I’ve noticed in general is that the personal sites over there tend to be very creations/product focused. That is, their sole purpose is to show off things that they’ve made, rather than embody some sort of persona.

This emphasis on creations is also made clear by how many of these sites’ administrators handle their About pages. It’s not hard to find an About page on Neocities or some other site in the Western Personal Web space which has a lot of personal information—almost written like a biography—detailing who they are, where they’re from, their beliefs, favourite media, food, etc.; also displaying stamps, blinkies, and that sort of stuff that came from DeviantArt and Tumblr in regards to Neocities sites.

However, in a large majority of these Japanese sites, you will have an extremely difficult time finding something like that. You’re more likely to find an About page with a sentence or two at most—and it’s most likely talking about their site, not themselves as a person. They may share their name and sometimes what prefecture that they were born/raised in, but that’s about it.

We talk about the dark forest/cosy web but the culture over there takes things to a whole other level

A term which I’ve encountered quite a bit on Japanese personal sites is “検索避け”. The translation for this term is simply “search avoidance“.

Essentially, there are plenty of personal sites that go out of their way to make sure their space doesn’t get spotted or picked up by search engines; and not the search engines that index these types of sites mind you (like the ones I linked to in the beginning of this article)—they’re explicitly talking about search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.

These sites will have a disclaimer saying that their site “avoids search”, and more often than not they will also add an additional disclaimer saying that their site is not allowed to be linked on SNS (basically their shorthand for social media).

This is partly (it seems) a reaction to western norms leaking out of our social media:

Since their culture handles criticism and feedback differently compared to those from the West, it’s not surprising then that they’re finding it hard to adapt to the Cancel Culture that is (unfortunately) heavily normalized over here. This is likely why many of these people, even in such a secluded place as a personal website, take extra precautions to make sure that they don’t get negative attention, despite the fact that their sites are already hard enough to find as it is.

They even have a strict (but informal) linking culture

In the case of these Japanese sites, it’s rarely about the interactions between them and visitors and more so just linking to their site. And in that regard, I tend to see one common criteria: you can only link to them if your own site is also a personal site.

The whole thing is super fascinating. It’s left me me with a lot to think about, what do I want from this blog in 2024? If I give up short form social media completely (as is my intention) I have a feeling I’ll be posting here a bit more freely. Maybe daily. For a long time I’ve been worried of overloading those of you subscribed by email, but if its too noisy, you can unsubscribe.

All my favourite bloggers focus their energy on just ‘posting’. Blogging is a ‘form’ and I want to find my own groove with it. The one big thing I do want to do this month, before the end of the year is get activity pub working properly and join that ecosystem.


Permanently Moved

EOY 2023

As is tradition, here are all the episodes that didn’t get made in 2023, and a little note about Season 11 and 2024

Full Show Notes: https://www.thejaymo.net/2023/12/02/301-2340-eoy-2023/

Support the show! 
Subscribe to my zine
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Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo

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Photo 365

photo-a-day 40/356/2023

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • Finished last podcast of the year!
  • Started work on a new linocut for zine #008
  • Nearly finished my taxes
  • Finished a long blogpost about ‘the alms race’ – out next week
  • Wrote all the Experience.Computer scripts for the trailer and intro and outro.
    • Recording this weekend
  • Went to a wedding
  • Had a busy Friday afternoon ending with drinks in kings x

Terminal Access

Colin had some interesting thoughts about blogging and embedding oneself in a community the other day:

At its core, blogging is a solitary activity with many (if not most) authors claiming that their blog is for them – myself included. Yet, the implication of audience cannot be ignored. Indeed, the more an author embeds themself in the loose community of blogs, by reading and linking to others, the more that implication becomes reality even if not actively pursued via comments or email.

Dipping the Stacks

Russell Page – My Garden

British gardener, garden designer and landscape architect, Russell Page, was fifty-six years old and had not had a garden of his own since he was eighteen but he had a fantasy of what his ideal garden would look like.

Inside Marvel’s Jonathan Majors Problem: ‘The Marvels’ Reshoots, More

“The Marvel machine was pumping out a lot of content. Did it get to the point where there was just too much, and they were burning people out on superheroes? It’s possible,” says Wall Street analyst Eric Handler,

High Entertainment – David Robbins

If a High Entertainer is free to use mass media communication formats toward conceptual ends, does that make High Entertainment some sort of “conceptual art for the masses”? Is that really the goal here?

A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox

A blog post is a search query. You write to find your tribe; you write so they will know what kind of fascinating things they should route to your inbox. If you follow common wisdom, you will cut exactly the things that will help you find these people. It is like the time someone told the composer Morton Feldman he should write for “the man in the street”. Feldman went over and looked out the window, and who did he see? Jackson Pollock.

Whose Domain Is It? – by Tianyu Fang – Reboot

Domain sales are generating revenue for Anguilla’s government. Per Cate’s estimate, the domain registry is currently generating $3 million in revenue every month for the government, which is somewhere around a third of its monthly budget.

Reading

I apparently have 10 books ‘in progress’ according to Goodreads, some of which I haven’t looked at over a year.. I’ve never ever not ever finished a book… Maybe in my late 30’s I should cut my losses?

After meeting Venkatesh IRL the other week, and a conversation with a friend I’m reading his The Art of Gig. What a great book. Its so so helpful. I followed the newsletters as they were coming out, but seeing all the essays in one place is awesome. It’s a very inspiring book. Very useful for where I am right now, thinking about 2024.

I finished Feminism Against Progress by Mary Harrington. It’s a very … er …. 90’s book IMO especially section 3. It has Gen X vibes throughout – but not in a bad way at all though! It’s re-contextualised much of Harringtons other writing I’ve read which has been useful. Its given me an understanding of the landscape from within which she’s writing and looking out over/from.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Coupdekat .mp3

The new Coupdekat (previously on the blog) single is hyperpop track mining nostalgia. Guitars, breakbeats and a pop structure. This song reminds me of the sonic melange I was embedded in around 2008-ish.

Remember Kids:

Soil meme

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The post Finding The Form appeared first on thejaymo.

thejaymo

03 Dec 2023 at 18:24

EOY 2023 | 2340

 

|

|

As is tradition, here are all the episodes that didn’t get made in 2023, and a little note about Season 11 and 2024

Full Show Notes: https://www.thejaymo.net/2023/12/02/301-2340-eoy-2023/

Support the show! 
Subscribe to my zine
Watch on Youtube

Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo

Support 💸

£5 MONTHLY

Includes Handmade Zine ✉️

Subscribe

SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTubeOvercastPocketCastsRSSTuneInDeezerAudibleAmazon Music


EOY 2023

What You Could Have Won

Alright then, 40 episodes down, and 3 hours and 20 mins of audio read from approximately 44 thousand words of script. 

Whether you’ve been subscribed since 2018 or have just arrived, thank you for listening to this strange, weekly, 301 second long podcast. And a special thanks to Permanently Moved’s paid supporters and zine subscribers for helping keep the lights on. 

If you would like to give the show a little Christmas bonus, please rate and review the show on iTunes or Spotify. Because as you’ve heard a million other podcasters say before, it really helps with the algorithm.

The last show of the year is usually a recap, but since Episode 250 was only 2 weeks ago I’ll direct you there. 

I will however keep with tradition and tell you about the 12 shows that didn’t get made this year. They are as follows:

Just as Dead: A show about how it doesn’t matter who you were when you were alive, after you die you’re just as dead as everyone else. Unless you’re very special.

Once Lore with Meaning: I’m definitely going to use this title sometime in the future as it’s a cracker. This episode was a follow up to Episode 23-13 Lore and Lens. About the importance of narrative in modern organisational management.

Stationary: Did you know that we call items like pens and pencils stationary because they were the first kinds of consumables sold where the seller didn’t go from town to town? I didn’t either, but I couldn’t find a hook to stretch the invention of ‘the stationary shop’ out to 1000 words.

When I Was Young: A tempting prompt to begin a piece of writing with. But in my opinion, it’s lazy and playing on easy mode. A phrase almost as bad for your creativity and mental health as using nostalgia as a hook. I never *ever* want to start a piece of writing with those 4 words. If you’re listening and stick around long enough and I end up committing this sin, feel free to call me out about it. 

Facing the Future: This was going to be about Solarpunk, and our cultures relationship to progress. What does it mean to walk into the future with eyes open, being optimistic in the face of things getting so much worse.

Not News: This is actually a completely finished episode. But I vowed at the end of 2018 that I wouldn’t pout out negative work. Anyways, was a tour of the major newspapers’ homepages and how most of what’s on them isn’t ‘news’, but a form of media better classed as infotainment. If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.

Dialogue Derangement: This was about the general ontological confusion about AI and how I think most of the press are at the wrong end of the stick.

Funko Drops: A rant about the company that makes Funko Pops destroying $30-36 million worth of its own collectibles as demand for its gamer bait has dropped off a cliff in 2023.

That’s Enough of That: This episode was going to be about the long term impact of the Declaration of Cyberspace, the UK’s Online Safety Bill, The USA’s Restrict Act, and Canada’s C-11 bill. I don’t remember why I didn’t record this episode, the script is completely finished. 

I Wish to Wind-Up a World: A fun sequence of words to say out loud. It’s just a title. I’m glad I finally got to record myself saying it. 

Reaction Videos: Another show script that’s basically finished. It opens with the lines: “It’s very late. I’m home alone indulging in a vice. A bad habit I picked up during the Covid-19 lockdowns. The living room floor lamp tripped its bedtime timer hours ago. Sitting in the dark, I find myself 3, maybe 4 hours into a certain kind of YouTube binge.”

And last but not least

In Defence of Neck Beards: This was intended as a heartfelt episode about the type of guy I knew growing up in the early 2000’s that became a milady hat tipper. I was essentially arguing that the early social webs ridicule towards this demographic produced something far darker as a result of its spite. But I abandoned it, as I couldn’t bring myself to write about incels and the manosphere. 

So that as they say, is what you could have won.

Enough content for a whole other extra season. At least I know that had I not adopted the far more manageable schedule of 4 blocks of 10 episodes this year, I could have made a weekly show for the full 52 weeks.

Speaking of which, a quick reminder: there’ll only be 3 blocks of 10 episodes next year as I’m in Thailand all of January. Start Select Reset zine will still be going out on its regular schedule however. My dream is to more double the amount of paid supporters next year and if that happens I’ll go from 4 issues a year to 6.

Sign up today at thejaymo.net/support if you want to get issue #008 delivered before christmas.

Also, you can sign up on Substack to receive updates about my new interview show at Experience.Computer. There’ll be some bonus long form audio coming out here on the Permanently Moved feed before things kick off with Season 11 next year propper too.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year. Thanks again for listening in 2023, and I’ll speak to you all again in 2024.

Watch

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The post EOY 2023 | 2340 appeared first on thejaymo.

thejaymo

02 Dec 2023 at 15:56



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