[kebokyo]

The fact that they're trying to cop "smallweb" vibes while being incredibly soulless and flat at the same time is making me. so frustrated. This isn't "weird" in the alt sense, this is "weird" like how you would describe JD Vance.

Hillary Clinton is actively diving her head into her elbow-pit, and we cannot stop her. We can only watch in horror as she destroys the fabric of our universe and merges all that was once "cool" and "hip" into the conglomerate apathetic mainstream.

[bitwize]

Definitely going for that "used to be a Homestuck fan, probably has a Blåhaj stuffie on their bed" dollar. And that copy rings about as authentically as does the narrator on the Mighty No. 9 trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YngbHOz--oc

"Hey! You! Do you like awesome things that are awesome? Then you gotta check out our website, where your profile... is also your website! It's like Wordpress and Notion had a Linktree-shaped baby! Make big tech as mad as an incel gamer on a school-shooting rampage!"

That and the Star vs. the Forces of Evil-inspired art style... think I'll pass.

[hiatus]

What does Hilary Clinton have to do with this?

[spencerflem]

Its someong taking something that exists in culture and is "cool" (dabbing) and doing it in a weird / lame / cringey way.

Similarly this site has a lot of the astehtic trappings and language of indieweb et al. but (IMO) doesn't stick the landing. And it comes off a little as the cool culture being exploited by someone who doesn't get it.

Idk if they're doing it in a greedy or sinister way, like when corporations co-opt social movements or big brands use the "quirky local indie" astehtic. It's probably someone well meaning with different taste than me. But the site does rub me the wrong way regardless

[hiatus]

Wow, thank you for the explanation. I was taking it literally and had no idea what the parent was talking about.

[kebokyo]

i am grateful that at least one person other than me got the memo on my bit lmao

you're right, it might not be intentionally malicious, but it still comes off as wrong due to the visual and mechanical design of the service. if you want to support smallweb, it's better to host a VPS service than a shittier linktree.

[duncancarroll]

idk if I agree, it feels genuine enough to me, plus you can self-host so it's not like they're just trying to own your content.

[kebokyo]

Their main page didn't say a single bit about their code being open source. I had to dig through the creator's GitHub to find it: https://github.com/erlend-sh/weird

That doesn't really inspire confidence in them wanting people to self-host.

[spencerflem]

yeah I can't quite place if this is sinister souless or unfortunate souless - there's no AI or blockchain or obvious monetization - but the vibes are definitely off.

[rchaud]

What about the giant marquee block halfway down the page about "Agentic Developers" and rolling their own protocol?

[Nullabillity]

The "barefoot developers" link that they cite as an inspiration is heavily steeped in AI bullshit ("First, that language models will create a golden age of local, home-cooked software and barefoot developers.").

[spencerflem]

yeahhhh. my current read is that the people making it are good people making it for genuine reasons as a service to the world. So I really don't want to be harsh or discouraging, and I hope it succeeds. but they also read as being surrounded by silicon valley style culture a lot more than most indieweb projects and that is reflected in the tone of the marketing copy and other places.

& fwiw I'm a huge AI hater, but if we _must_ have it, using it to let people make tiny apps for them and their friends easier is about as good a use as there gets. Its a shame to lose the culture of craftsmanship around code itself but if you want to make something your friend will like that's cool even if I'd have done it differently.

[kebokyo]

yeah, the "Angetic Developers" section of their site feels. very out of place. and it's the main reason why i hate this product lol