I want to find the best internet hiding hole sometimes.
Sucks to be an author, a game designer, a sort of public figure in a world where work can’t stand alone. I have to post online because that’s the only way people will see my stories. I have to be a brand. Bluesky is fun to use, still, but I often have feelings where I want to withdraw for a while and stay off all internet social spaces.
Those smaller spaces online are exactly where I withdraw to. Discord communities, small websites, obscure fanpages.
Real life awful stuff is making the internet worse in a lot of ways, and I see it seeping into even those internet hiding holes. People I talk to online have become increasingly radicalized and inevitably I have to leave different spaces. The fun casual places keep getting infested with horrible people who want to spred misery online. As much as I keep a curated RSS feed for news, as much as I keep a positive atmosphere online, it’s hard to avoid these days. People are more combatative, more ready to attack each other, more ready to openly call for violence towards randos.
Makes me want to cultivate an even deeper internet hiding hole somewhere, intentionally insulated from major popularity, somewhere niche enough that the toxic elements will never find it.
Even this site has seen a few instances of that toxic atmsophere seeping in, especially with the more popular posts. Earlier this year, I was harrassed online for a few days by some very sad people who I hope improve their depressed lives that they take out on people. And last year, I was attacked in the comments of this site by a former member of one of my online communities pretending to be an anonymous troll. For months after these incidents, just logging onto beatricebaker.com sent a little bit of dread in me. If this place can’t be fun for me, where can?
Maybe I need to make an old-school internet forum after all. Relax with only cool people and play forum games or something. And ban everyone who is even a little bit rude… Yeah that sounds like the life.
