February 23, 2026
DIY web meets LOL irony
A simple web we own
Take back the web? Commenters cry hypocrisy, privacy fears, and self‑promo vibes
TLDR: The article calls for a user‑owned, simple web powered by tools like Markdown, not Big Tech platforms. Commenters clapped back, flagging moderation without identity, privacy leaks, and the irony of hosting on Microsoft, arguing the real battle is social trust and practical hosting—not just simpler software.
The author dreams of a simpler, people‑owned web—less Big Tech, more co‑ops, using easy tools like Markdown (a way to write web pages without coding). But the crowd came in hot. First up: hypocrisy alert. One commenter spotted the site is hosted on GitHub Pages, a Microsoft service, and the irony went viral. The vibe: “Own the web… with corporate cloud?” Ouch.
Then the thread split into two spicy camps. One side warned that without verified identity, moderation collapses and you end up back under a big company’s rules anyway. The other side shouted privacy panic: IP (your internet address) and DNS (the web’s phonebook) can expose where you live; you’ll need a proxy, which means paying a host—so aren’t we back to square one? Meanwhile, a peacemaker chimed in: co‑ownership isn’t a tech problem, it’s a people problem—trust, power, decisions. Amid the drama, a commenter plugged their “make hosting simple” project, the cheerily named potatoverse, drawing chuckles. The thread turned into a meme‑fest of “tenant vs product,” “enshittification,” and “Markdown saves the day,” with the crowd debating whether DIY web is empowerment—or just a new route to the same old landlord.
Key Points
- •The article argues large corporations and some governments dominate the Web and Internet, creating a surveillance-driven environment.
- •The author hypothesizes that individual and cooperative ownership of hardware and simpler software could positively influence the Web’s political economy.
- •Most web content is created by individuals, despite perceptions that only large companies can provide easy publication.
- •Early web authoring with HTML was difficult to learn; Markdown simplifies authoring and can be converted to HTML using available tools.
- •Past attempts to decentralize often mirrored centralized platforms and remained challenging, though some achieved limited success.