In a bid to be more reflective and responsive with my indie-web usage, I've decided to join JulyReply 2026.
I'll be keeping everything in this single page and updating it every now and then. The last update was 1 week, 1 day ago.
Replying to Let's call doomscrolling what it is
Nobody building GeoCities pages in 1999 sat around asking, "How do we improve session duration by 18%?" They were asking, "How do I make this cursor sparkle?" or "Why is guestbook not using the scrollbar hex I just put there?" 😄
I never had a "geocities" phase. Philippines was a bit behind on social sites and what boomed on our end was friendster. I remember having a myspace account, but that was made as the website itself was already on its last legs of popularity.
I completely agree with this post's point of how the language of interacting with the internet has changed post-pandemic and how this new syntax has had a generally negative impact on the population.
As someone having problems with my own internet "addiction" and is on the road to rehabilitation, this post serves as another reminder that I am not alone in this experience. A lot of us have lost control with how we use the internet and I'm glad there are those trying to return to the days where the internet worked FOR US, not against us.
And lastly, yes. Boredom good.
Replying to are "no AI" disclaimers really necessary?
I only disagree with one paragraph here.
If someone thinks my work is LLM-generated, then my work is probably shit and doesn't have a distinct voice. It's boring. And it might as well be AI because the difference doesn't really matter at the end of the day.
This is a take only someone who is confident with their writing can say. I believe it matters at the end of the day. A shitty attempt at writing by a human is still better than whatever an AI churns out.
For the rest of us still finding their style or trying out new things, saying that what we're creating "might as well be AI" is low-key insulting.
Anyway, the post motivates the reader to hone their skills to a point that their work is not misidentified as AI, but that is completely subjective. I'd argue that even well-composed posts can be misconstrued as AI precisely because it is well composed and there's a few em-dashes in it.
You don't need to have established your voice and style in order to post. In an exaggeration, I say that reading human stupidity is much better than whatever slop Artificial Intelligence comes up with. So be honest with your writing, polished or not, and keep posting.
Replying to Japan design details
Oh my god. I thought this would just be a post strictly along the lines of the title. The topic of Japanese design details already interested me, but it turns out it's an in-depth look at 90% of the things I love about the country.
Reading this post (which is actually a thread of tweets), made me miss my favorite country to visit.
These two weeks in Japan made me wide-eyed, and happy, and amazed, and lost, and overwhelmed. But one thing that surprised me most: it also made me kinder.
At some point, I started going above and beyond to come back and say “thank you,” or to fix the shoes facing the wrong way, or to do whatever little I could to make things better in this culture I still understand so poorly.
Japan had a similar effect on me. My daily life is far from ideal, but I make do with trying to remember how I felt when I was in Japan and that gives me a bit more energy to keep going.