Is my new idea dumb?
So I was raised by the internet, like a lot of you, and I miss the internet of my youth. While I have just started using it less, I also want to do something about it because I want it back, and I think (that's what we're figuring out here) others miss it too.
So let's get into what I'm thinking about building: A new platform. Something that can serve as a hub for what I think will be a growing movement of anti-modern internet. While part of the modern internet's problems are the platform web, I feel I can fix that.
The Platform Idea
So we build a new platform for the Indie Web. It's a place where you can make posts, follow, comment, learn, and engage. All without AI, big companies, algorithms, DRM, or heavy websites.
I'm thinking of making a website that lets you make your own page using *HTML and CSS*. This serves as an index page for all your posts. As for posts, you make posts which can be displayed in your post template, again using HTML and CSS.
Every post could be a product. So you would then set the shipping cost (only flat rate shipping) and the split to the platform ($0\%$–$100\%$) and your price. It could be a digital product or physical. So it's kinda like *Itch.io mixed with Etsy*, trying to fix all the problems with Etsy.
We will host the text and the images, but videos will need to just be embeds.
That gets us our websites for our new indie web: posts and pages.
### *The Feed and Moderation*
Now for the feed. Your home page will be a feed with 3 options:
1. Top viewed (today, this week, month, year, all time) 2. Most recent 3. Random
This view will be for all site content, and your follows will be able to be shown in:
1. Top viewed (today, this week, month) 2. Most recent
Next, we need to moderate this content. Every post will have buttons to report the post. You can report for being *majority AI content* or being *made by a large company*.
Once a post has been reported, everyone who views the post will be asked to vote. The vote will close after 100 (could need to be more like 1,000) users weigh in. And then if the vote finds the post in the wrong, we hide the post.
The whole site would be built with *no front-end JS* to keep the site fast and pure, running on any device or browser.
The Summary
So that's my idea for a new hub for people who wish the internet was like it was in the old days.
- Our feeds are pure and view/time-based only. Anti-algorithms (check) - The voting system takes care of AI content and corporate spam. (check) - Users being able to edit their posts and page templates with HTML and CSS make it not feel so much like a platform. (check) - Making an Itch.io for goods, giving a big middle finger to Etsy. (check)
---
Final Ask
So give me your feedback: Is this a good idea? I know it will be a lot of work. But I have built ground-up e-commerce websites, and I have built platforms that clean HTML from the client. I have 2 other programmers I can get on board. And maybe if people really like it, we can get more help and maybe build it open source.