Guestbook
As you step into the cozy confines of the town’s quaint post office, the creaking of the wooden door echoes softly in the air. Your gaze is immediately drawn to a colossal guestbook sitting atop a polished mahogany desk. Hovering gracefully above it is a pixie, her soft glow casting a warm ambiance throughout the room. She flutters with excitement as you approach.
“Greetings, esteemed traveler! Your arrival is a welcomed breeze in our peaceful town. Would you be inclined to leave an indelible mark within the pages of our cherished guestbook? Your name and a heartfelt message shall forever grace the tales of those who venture through Satyadasa.”
Her enthusiastic charm becons you closer, inviting you to contribute to the rich tapestry of stories woven by fellow wanderers who’ve passed through this magical enclave. ✨
I am very excited about this new site. I hope to meet many like-minded people to form meaningful connections!
Hey Scarlet!
I’m so happy you have discovered my website and the Small Web movement! I wish you all the best on this journey and if I can be of any help or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 🙂 I am always happy to help. ♥
All the best,
Aevisia
For the life of me, I can’t remember how I stumbled on your site (probably while reading up on web revival), but I just want to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed it. I love how cute and nostalgic your site is while feeling modern and responsive. Oh! And who doesn’t love a guestbook? 😀 (I really hope i didn’t mess up the formatting on this lol)
I’ve been slowly building my own website from scratch, re-learning HTML, CSS, js… I’d like to learn some server-side stuff, too, like PHP. I’m using WordPress at the moment, but my goal is to move off of it and onto something more bespoke. I feel like it’s a decent CMS but really limiting when I want to start moving out of the boxes and plugins it puts me in.
Lately, I’ve jettisoned myself from most social media sites. I used to share my art on places like insta, xitter, etc. but they were SO negative and overly political IMO- it felt like people were always wanting to just pick fights instead of just talk art.
So I’ve been focusing on curating my own little webspace, and supporting indie sites/forums for art-sharing (And other socializing).
On the topic of AI art, I’m an artist (a traditional one, at that), and please don’t feel bad for using it as a placeholder on your site! I understand (very deeply) the moral quandaries around AI image generation (how it was trained, etc), but some people just are not illustrators at the end of the day. This technology is here to stay, and yes, it will absolutely displace people. On the other hand, it will open up new avenues for people, too. For digital artists, it will become a valuable tool as more use-cases get discussed and discovered. Plus, there are artists who are training models on their own work, which is very neat. Every time a new technology comes out into this scene, it is very disruptive, but we eventually reach an equilibrium.
Have a good one! I can’t wait to see what else you wind up doing with your site!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Kzuich! This made my whole day. 🙂
That’s really cool that you’re learning all those things right now! I’m attempting to do something similar and taking a web developer course on Udemy to learn the same things. I’m also using WordPress! I’ve also noticed it has its limitations, though, I’m hoping to learn WordPress development at some point as well to fill in the gaps, maybe make my own plugins. 🙂 It’s definitely understandable why you’d want to move away from it though, and there are lots of really great options out there. I wish you the best of luck in whatever route you take on your web building journey! I’d love to check out your website as well once you’ve got it set up!
I totally get where you’re coming from with social media as well. I’ve recently been reflecting on my own use of it. I’m really bad with doom scrolling on instagram. Could do it for hours and it usually leaves me feeling empty, my day wasted, and makes me feel even more miserable about the world. xD It sucks everything is so overly political these days, and that’s probably a big part of the problem why folks are so divided today. We categorize each other into stereotyped groups/tribes that we either get along or don’t get along with rather than just seeing and communicating with each other as people whom on some fronts we find common ground and other fronts we don’t. We don’t gotta agree on everything and share all the same morals to have a pleasant conversation. We can enjoy just connecting over things like art, music, books, and other common interests without bringing the heavy stuff into it. I guess that’s part of what drew me to the small web. I still see a lot of political stuff around the small web, even on my own site I’m still trying to figure out how to best approach those things, but I think the small web has really done a great job at helping folks to see other people online as actual people again rather than just another stranger on social media.
And thank you so much for your comment regarding the AI art, it really does help put my mind at ease. I have a degree in graphic design and informal education in marketing and honestly see the same things happening in both of those industries as well. AI and being replaced by machines is a big threat that’s facing a lot of industries right now, even retail. For awhile I was pretty against AI everything, but the more I’ve dabbled with it for personal use, the more I’ve found it to be a great aid in a lot of things. I figure at the end of the day, I’m only using it here for personal use so it’s not like I’m putting anyone out of a job. It’s either I use AI, make my own art which would look terrible, or find free graphics online so no matter which route I go it’s really not benefiting anyone else anyways. I agree though, it’s definitely proven to be a great tool for artists now as well, and I’ve also recently discovered there are ways for artists to protect their work from unauthorized AI training. With problems come solutions and this era is still young. Hopefully we will find plenty of solutions to the challenges we’re facing on the AI front and adapt to it in ways that can benefit us more than harm us.
Thanks so much again for stopping by! And if you happen to return sometime soon, I’d love to see your website as well and leave a comment in your guestbook (if you’ve got one set up)!
All the best,
Aev
Hi! I finally got around to writing a reply. My site still doesn’t have a Guestbook yet (I’m working on it…slowly, lol) I do have some art and things, as well as a link on there to my comic I’ve been working on. It’s over at https://kzuich.com
I hope you’ll take a look if you get a chance! 😀
I know exactly how you feel about doomscrolling and things like that. I’ve been slowly stepping back from even reading news because so much of it is specifically to evoke a reaction (usually negative…). I try not to be completely blind about things that are happening, but limiting my consumption has been so helpful.
I hope you’re having a nice summer! (It’s sweltering here already ^^;)
Hey Kzuich! I apologize my reply is a bit delayed as well. We’ve been in the process of moving and unpacking the past month and finally have things in order, just starting to get caught up and settled back in to site stuff.
Your site looks awesome so far! I took a peek at your artwork and comic as well. You’ve got an amazing talent for drawing, keep up the great work! 😀
I know what you mean. I’ve been doing the same with limiting consumption and it has drastically improved my mental health. I think a lot of folks are kind of of the same mentality of sleeping with one eye open though. xD Good to know what’s going on but strike a balance because it can be easy to be consumed by all the bad news.
It’s been super warm here lately as well, feels great to have summer back. Try and stay cool and have a great summer! ☀️☺
I found your website through the book webring and it’s so charming! I recently made a neocities because I’m fed up with all the major sms platforms. The resources you have collected here are so helpful! Thank you for making this magical place <3
Aw thank you so much for your sweet words, Jo! The feeling is definitely mutual; I’m part of very few mainstream social media sites these days, and the few I’m part of I hate. Web weaving your own space is so liberating and honestly just so much fun. 🙂 I try to add any useful resources I find to my site, but if you have any questions about anything, feel free to reach out anytime. Enjoy this new journey and I can’t wait to see what you create! ❤
– Aev
the use of ai images makes this site far less charming and cozy than it could be 🙄
I’m sorry you feel that way, Vermis! I understand though. A lot of people have really strong feelings when it comes to AI, and rightfully so. AI is coming for people’s jobs, and as a graphic designer myself, I know first hand they’ve already come for my job. It’s a sad reality we’re all facing right now that we’ll all likely one day be replaced by it. But I think you’ll be happy to know the AI images are mostly just fillers for now until I can replace them with ones made by real artists. I covered this in a status post about a month ago here, but once I have the Café up, I’ll be holding contests for artists to help me start replacing the AI images. 🙂 Lots of exciting things on the way! Web development just takes time.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! 🙂 I hope you have a great day!