DISC TWO REBIRTH
by lele || 28/11/2024
After a long hiatus in which I made a 50 minute video that I took down (story for another time) DISC TWO is BACK!
The reason why it took me so long to update this site is simple: I'm having a cartoonishly surreal year. However, without fear of disappointing our most nosy of readers, this is not the subject of this post. This post is about why I've decided to spend time working on other projects to bring this site back.
In an analogous way to the current global situation: There has never been more creativity in the internet, and there has never been a worse ecosystem for it to thrive. The major social media platforms aren't artist friendly. The problem is not only centralization, it is that centralization allows the centralized platforms to get lazy. We have social media inundated with bots, AI slop, useless discourse and amidst all that we have to /dig/ for the good stuff. I don't even have to explain why this sucks, it just does. There is tons of writing all around neocities and old-web revisionism circles about why the current state of the internet is fucked up, and how bringing back certain aspects of the old web is beneficial for us all, so I won't delve too deep into that. The point is simple: If we want to create a better internet, we can't wait for corporate interests to magically align with our ideals, we have to create it ourselves.
I have long abandoned most social media. Twitter and Tumblr were the only ones I used, if we don't count messaging apps or YT. However, the recents events have made Twitter nigh unusable and the mass migration to bluesky led most people I cared about away from it. On bluesky, amidst hundreds of liberal gringo flavored facebook-like posts (I feel the need to clarify i'm a non-american leftist) and endless trash talk towards /that fucking guy/ I found something cool. People were getting genuine engagement, people were interested in talking about things in a non-confrontational/clout-based way and people cared about art. Of course, I'm not dumb, I know the people I follow affect the content I see, but seeing a good amount of people spreading that attitude towards social media was refreshing.
It was also scary. I don't believe it can last forever. Don't get me wrong I believe and hope that site (if it stays relevant) won't soon turn into 'the everything app part 2' but I do believe that the refreshing spirit of community still has ways to go before it finds a place to settle down. As I said I believe the way forward is for people to create spaces for themselves. So when I read Aftermath's Gita Jackson's excellent article "For Love of God, Make Your Own Website" I was sufficiently inspired to bring the DISC TWO website back.
I know webmastering and communities like neocities are niche stuff, I know the odds of them ever going truly mainstream again are low, but.. I believe everyone with an artistic inclination can see the value of creating and nurturing a space that is /yours/. It's a little, tiny step towards a better future for the internet. It's also very fun in the now. With DISC TWO I aim to create a place not only for my personal expression, it's also a community. It will feature work by more people. You can do this now with your friends, or just make a site for just you. It doesn't even have to be a site about yourself directly, it can be a fansite or a cool art project...
It can be whatever you want!