Lately, the Neocities public feed has been telling a familiar story. I see a lot of posts from people who describe coming here to learn the basics of HTML/CSS and create a web presence away from social media, but as their ideas grew, they began to feel limited by the early-web capabilities of a static host. They want something where their ideas can flow and expand easier.

It's fascinating for me! The evolution mirrors almost exactly the mass exodus from GeoCities decades ago, when half of us thought it was a good idea to "get a domain," then later point that domain to a CMS that allowed standardized templates. If history continues to repeat itself, we already know what happens next: Many will leave for more "powerful" pastures, only to realize 6-8 years later that they've lost the creative spark that made them love the web in the first place. (I hope not, maybe the more modern web technology will help them thrive somewhere else. I hope they don't feel the loss of that thread that many web folks felt in 2008, after abandoning HTML for PHP.)

When you move from a static host like Neocities to a more complex environment you're usually chasing a specific feature like easier updates, a database, or a more "professional" framework. However, I think it's easy to forget how a change in environment will fundamentally reshape your creative process.

If I were to try to outline it narratively, this is what happened before:

1. The static site phase: You are limited, but those limits force you to be an artist: every page is a canvas you've built from scratch, tinkered every detail, and had to (sometimes tediously) match in all 100 files on your site.
2. Finding "efficiency": You move to PHP or scripts to manage content more easily and spend more time debugging and managing data than designing.
3. The realization: After years of focusing on content management and "ease of use," you realize you haven't actually coded anything purely creative in a long time.

As someone who has been through the entire cycle (HTML to PHP hobbyist, to professional web designer, to CMS guru, and back to HTML), I've seen the pros and cons of these shifts firsthand. The most important thing I've learned is that your environment shapes your thoughts and designs. When you change your hosting or tech stack, you aren't just "lifting and dropping" your files into a new location; you are changing how you think about sharing your life online. Everything takes a new shape, from the way you design to how you compose your thoughts.

There's no "wrong" way to grow, but I do think it's worth asking: In your desire to eliminate some of the more manual tasks of static sites, are you willing to give up the opportunity to force more creativity? Is the new environment going to help you create, or will it just give you more content and scripts to manage? I don't think there are any universal answers to these questions, it probably depends a lot on your "why" for making sites. Writers may find more purpose in a CMS approach than graphic artists, for example.

It's worth examining the benefits AND limits of a new platform, especially if you're on the younger end and your life post-school is about to start. Sometimes I think part of why all my friends and I migrated off GeoCities was because we simply didn't have time to maintain HTML sites, but wanted to continue connecting via online spaces.

I myself am very curious to stick around and see how things evolve in the "indieweb revival." Are we going to see the same patterns, or will things end up different this time?