What Makes an Independent Website Important
In 1990, the first web browser was written by Tim Berners-Lee, the very same person who had invented the World Wide Web a year earlier. The web, a hot new medium that would change the lives of hundreds of millions, spread like wildfire, but it did not really reach critical mass until Netscape Communications' spectacular initial public offering in late 1995. Backed by strong positive publicity after its IPO, Netscape's blazing fast and full-featured web browser, Navigator, quickly became the de-facto standard for surfing the web. It did not take long for creative people to realize that they could upload their own work to the web, and share it with the rest of the world with a minimum of cost or effort. Never again would they need middlemen to realize their dreams; they could publish whatever they wanted, no matter how infeasible or whimsical it was in the old world of print publishing. This led to the creation of the independent web, alongside its counterpart, the commercial web of the "dot-coms".
Everything seemed to go well for dot-coms at first, but they started to fall, one after another, in late 2000. Unfortunately, the failing dot-coms took some independent websites with them as well. Typically, the only way to support an independent website, especially one that needs considerable time and money to maintain, is through advertising. The dot-coms had been the biggest sources of advertising revenue on the web, and when they died, so did many of the sites depending on them. Although the web community lost some good independent websites, many have survived, and there remain many small independent sites out there today. Many of these sites require little investment beyond the time it takes to maintain and update them, but they mean a great deal to their followers. An example is worth a hundred words, so here is a short list of independent websites I find interesting:
- Exotica
A comprehensive site that offers exotic Amiga music, demo information, game box scans gallery, utilities, diskmags and other nostalgic and historic Amiga items. Online since October 1997. - GFXZone
Claims to be "the biggest demo scene graphics site on the Net." Has some very intricate artwork inside. Online since late 1996. - Graphical User Interfaces Gallery
Offers historical information about GUIs, including Windows, Apple, Linux, and OS/2. Includes plenty of screenshots; and also has many links to related sites. Online since June 1999. - MobyGames
An extensive historical archive, documentation and review project for computer games. Mainly relies on user contributed information. Online since February 1999. - PolyKarbon
Well written, nicely illustrated manga drawing and digital coloring tutorials, an image gallery, and even some basic Japanese lessons. Online since March 1998. - The Skeptic's Dictionary
Over 400 skeptical definitions and essays on the occult by Robert T. Carroll, professor of philosophy at Sacramento City College. Online since 1994. - useit.com
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen's personal website; contains an archive of all of his AlertBox columns. Online since 1995.
Commitment
Brewster Kahle is the founder of The Internet Archive, an exciting library of billions of web pages dating to 1996. According to Kahle, "the average life of a web page is 100 days," and this is not good news. A web page, no matter how insignificant it is, deserves a longer life span than that. The single most important thing for a website is commitment. Even if you no longer update a web page, the information on it may help someone in ways you cannot easily think of beforehand. I don't think there is a single Internet user in the world who has not experienced the frustration of clicking on a search engine result or bookmark and seeing an error page. I chose the sites above not only for their interesting content, but because I can access them whenever I want -- they have been around for quite some time, and I believe that they will not fade into obscurity overnight, like some "me too" web pages out there. Before moving on, I want to share the silliest excuse I have ever seen for discontinuing a website. It went something like this: "I made this site to learn HTML. Since I have achieved my goal, there is no need to work on this site anymore."
Originality
Commitment is just one part of the story -- an independent website must have other qualities that set it apart from the crowd, as well. Being original is the second most important criterion. Unless you have unique content, it is pointless to launch a website. This line of thought applies to design as well. As the editor-in-chief of Wow Web Designs, I have had to reject many web design submissions not because they were bad, but because they failed to bring anything new or fresh to the field of web design. Launching yet another game-cheats site or designing another website that mimics the latest design craze does not help at all. All of the above sites have unique content that you cannot find somewhere else. Where in the world can you find screenshots of Windows 1.x or thousands of old Amiga game tunes?
Updates
Updates are what keep the web alive and kicking. Robert T. Carroll, the man behind The Skeptic's Dictionary, nicely explains the wonder of the web regarding updates: "I can change things every day. I can add entries, correct errors and make other modifications at will. If I regret tomorrow what I publish today, I can delete it. If I learn something tomorrow which would enhance an entry I published yesterday, I can modify the entry immediately."
This unprecedented degree of freedom lets webmasters create dynamic websites that they can expand and enhance over time. A new website may have little to offer to its visitors at first, but if the webmaster does his job well, the amount of content will increase cumulatively through time. Since there are virtually no storage or size problems (other than bandwidth -- but that's another story), a website can grow almost indefinitely. For example, The Skeptic's dictionary began with only 50 entries in 1994, and now boasts over 400 entries. While understandably not very popular in web design circles, Jakob Nielsen's personal website useit.com allows anyone to read more than 100 of his previous Alertbox columns on usability. All those columns did not appear overnight -- they were the result of the work he has done during the six-plus years since the inception of his website.
User Contributions
One of the most empowering aspects of the web is that it enables people to collaborate. MobyGames pushed web -based collaboration to its extremes by allowing any registered user to contribute game entries to its database. MobyGames had only 100 game entries in May 1999, but it now has thousands, complete with tens of thousands of related pieces of information such as trivia, box covers, and developer credits. They did a great a job documenting their progress by announcing all major feature and content updates. Of course, not all independent website owners have the technical skills of the people behind MobyGames, but user contributions via bulletin boards, guest books, feedback forms, and every other conceivable manner of interaction play a vital role in keeping the contact alive between a webmaster and a site's visitors.
Usability
You may be a committed webmaster, your website may be original, you may update it all the time, and you may even let your visitors actively contribute to your website, but if it takes ages for people to figure out how your site works, you are definitely not letting them get the full experience. When designing a commercial website, you may need professional advice on usability, but when it comes to your own site, feedback from your friends and the site's visitors should be enough. Remember, the web is a dynamic medium. Your site's interface and design might not work at first, but if you listen to the thoughts and reactions of the people who actually use the site, nothing can stop you from making it better.
