My Mission
My goal as a webmaster is to make the internet more unique, one website at a time.
In the past year I deleted a lot of my social media apps and accounts. I noticed that scrolling thru memes wasn't making me happy like it used to. I often felt.... overwhelmed, for lack of a better term.
Then I realized that the social media I was using in the 2020's wasn't nearly the same as the internet I used around 2007-2013. The algorithms are now built to leech as much of my time as possible, rather than simply displaying my friends' posts in chronological order. There are way more ads than I ever remember there being. I was spending more and more time online and getting less and less joy out of it, which is what drove me to finally quit from social media, and regress to the old 90's model of personal sites.
Plus, if you have uBlock Origin installed on your browser (which, you should) you would know that the internet has basically become a minefield lined with trackers, ads, and unwanted cookies.
See the below image. That was after a few minutes of editing a google doc.... There is no way that I should be subjected to 87 different trackers, scripts, data-miners, etc while trying to edit a document.
And that's exactly what capitalists like Jeff Bozo and Mark Fuckerburg want. They want us to be addicted to the internet, and they want it to collect data from us and then use that to draw more money and more from us.
This does not mean I'm going to take the boomer stance and declare that the internet and technology is bad.
Because the internet and technology are NOT bad.
Capitalism is bad and it's what sucks the soul out of things like the internet. I have plenty of fond memories of being filled with wonder at all the things my computer could do as a kid. I really liked making videos, (even if I was mostly just editing together slideshows of leafeon or making bad speedpaints). And I wasn't doing it for money. I was just a dumb kid trying to figure out what I could do with my 'puter.
So, here are some commitments I am holding myself to on my website, in order to protect your experience and to uphold my beliefs.
No more
Look at how upset she is. Nopony wants or needs this much money. Except maybe Filthy Rich, but do you really want to be like someone who has "filthy" in his name?
I will NOT offer any items for sale, or use ads on my website.
I do sometimes offer art commissions, but I would prefer you contact me through another avenue (i am working on this- stay tuned!) so we can keep elamea.com capitalism-free
You are free to LEAVE!
Don't be sad and tired like Glimmy. Look at how sad and tired she is.
I do NOT want you to be addicted to this site. I want you to stop by like it's a gas station. Spend whatever amount of time fulfills you here, and then move on. Maybe come back in a few weeks to see if the snack selection or the slushee flavors have changed. Idk. That was a better metaphor in my head.
This is a (mostly) static website with a finite amount of content
There are no algorithms. You are entirely in control of what content you see via use of the sidebar buttons.
𝖎 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖈𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖉𝖆𝖙𝖆 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖒𝖞 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊
Actual photo of me warding off evil scripts and defending you from big tech
This website will NOT include ANY data trackers, to the absolute best of my knowledge and abilities. All embeds must be properly vetted by elamea, and must contain NO scripts that are blocked by any of the following services
A) Firefox's built-in privacy enhancer
B) uBlock Origin
C) Privacy Badger
This one has actually taken a surprising amount of effort to commit to, but I do it because it's really important to me.
It means cannot embed anything with Google Analytics, and, holy shit guys, Google Analytics is in everything these days
You may have noticed that videos are embedded via Invidious rather than YouTube. Invidious is an open-source and privacy friendly front-end for YouTube that you can read more about on their website.
Some other files (such as music) are hosted on catbox.moe which is another elamea-approved service that raises no privacy/security concerns