Why Personal Websites Matter

latif writes "Lately personal websites have fallen out of fashion. Some term them as vanity sites, and others are scared of privacy concerns. The article Why Personal Websites Matter discusses some reasons as to why they have to be embraced to stay competitive." I see the personal website as the virtual equivalent of the front of one's home, except that most virtual homes have large signs in the front yard that give a running play-by-play of the inhabitants. Just like one's home, it may be prone to vandalism, but it's far easier to make one's website be an expression of oneself, than to put up large signs outside!

Comments

Re:hmm

[supersam]

but, in practice, there are far too many useless, egotistical homepages

But those are just a reflection of the personality of the website's owner. It takes all kinds to make up the real world. Likewise, it takes all kinds of websites to make up the online world.

The analogy of a website being the online home of a person is very valid. You'll see so many garishly decorated homes in real life... while a few tastefully done, organized and neat houses. That does not mean one should go around criticizing the unorganized, tackily decorated ones. Its a matter of personal taste. After all, thats why they're referred to as personal websites.

Smartness has very little to do with taste!

Blogs, on the other hand, are like standing on the porch and talking aloud... airing views... sharing news.

Kinda split on the issue

[Quietti]

On one hand, I admire the boldness of some people who go right ahead and discuss at lenght their life as a [goth, bisexual, etc.] and post samples of their own [erotica, nudes, contreversial opinions on various issues, etc.] and who, surprise, don't seem to run into any problem resulting from this, because a few people actually do respect or fear those who are that bold and upfront about everything.

On the other hand, I cannot help but notice how running into the wrong person [politically correct employer, boy/girlfriend, football coach, bad cop, etc.] with excellent Googling skills, can easily manage to ruin your life completely, by marginalizing you out of existence, to the extent that nobody wants to hire or date you and where even your old highschool pals fake not recognizing you on the street, because whatever you posted on your website went against the grain.

This leaves open the question of whether freedom of speech and democracy really mean anything anymore.

The game used to be played along this famous French writer's motto that "I might vehemently disagree with what you are saying, but I'll die to preserve your right to say it." Likewise, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau once told his son (quoted at the funeral) to "Never attack someone personally. You can publicly attack their ideas, but never touch their dignity as a human being."

Unfortunately, in a world where anything you say can and will be used against you at some point, before you have been accused of anything, even whenever you have not broken any law, simply because people fear the stigma of guilt by association, it appears that we have reached a point where those old standards of respect are no longer true.

This being said, lately, I've been asking myself why I even bother maintaining a diminutive website:

I haven't created much in terms of music, photography or ever writings in ages, which already puts a big question mark over whatever content might qualify for publication. Then, already, I've had a few employers actually mention having a problem with me stating boldly on my About My CV... page that "I am quite competent in Windows 3.11/95/98/NT/2000 administration and in Office 95/97/2000 usage, but flatly refuse to use any Microsoft product."

[of course, in a world where the majority thinks that getting a job should be the only priority anyone ever had, and where companies can fire anyone for the most laughable excuses, standing up for your beleifs and values, by refusing to work in certain fields or within a certain framework, has become suicidal, but that's another issue entirely - then again, it says a lot about how little freedom capitalism actually offers: choose freedom or money, but you cannot have both unless what you think is whatever the Ministry of Disinformation has rubber-stamped]

Given the combined current lack of content and problem in stating preferences for anything non-mainstream, I'm starting to think that the only thing left to put on a website is a politically bleached version of my CV and a generic photo to recycle with job applications and such. Then again, might as well upload the damn thing to Monster's CV repository and start using throw-away e-mail accounts for anything, at which point nobody needs an ISP or personal website anymore. *sigh*

Damn! I beleive I just created a second dot-com doomsday scenario... Sorry to all startups who will close shop as a result! :P