The web of our time is dominated by platforms. Every aspect of the platforms is built iteratively by large groups of people over months or years of time, resulting in interfaces and experiences that "just work" as expected. This obviously applies to social sites like Facebook, but it is equally true of content management systems (Wordpress, Medium, Substack) and website creation tools (Squarespace). The operator of an account can manipulate its content to a degree, but the form is bounded all around by a tortured thicket of styling and scripting.
The original structure of the web was a network of interlinked documents. As connectivity and hosting became more widely available, the number and eccentricity of the documents ballooned. Somewhere on the path from linked documents to linked open data, however, the landscape was inclosed—so throughly in fact that it feels more like the rooms of a cluster of airport hotels. The rooms witness passion, violence, and grotesquery, but rarely joy. The occupants are sometimes ejected, and move to the hotel next door. There is no outrage in the offense, nor in the disciplinary act.
I am simply building a house where I may paint my own walls. May it endure through the strength of its materials or the brute simplicity of its construction.