Why have a website devoid of value?

And to make matters worse, keep it up to shame yourself?

EDITOR NOTE: This is an old writeup made by an old friend of mine. You may be wondering why I'm not only reuploading it, but putting it next to my own writeups rather than just linking it in links or misc or something. Tbh, this writeup, while it may not have meant a lot to my friend since he deleted it, it did mean a lot to me. For one, I took this writeup as a challenge because well...I've made numerous websites in the past I'd consider to be "devoid of value". I also think this writeup, while it may be emotional and self deprecating, does make a good case for why chaos is not always a good thing and that there is such a thing as chaotic evil. Ofc many people will argue about what truly crosses the bar and whats just a moralfag crying wolf, and I don't think this writeup is perfect, but I do think its very interesting and has refreshing takes in it as he also seemed to be very "anti-nothingburger" and wanted to get real shit done.

I don't believe I offer any substantial thoughts regarding philosophical questions. Despite this, I am not asking for mercy, even though that is the only reason why someone would self-deprecate in such a manner. Feel free to rip on me about getting my mediocre website off the Internet.

All right!

Then again, if someone really did that, I'd have to run a Protocol Zero and delete my entire Internet presence, because it's a fact shaking a hater-stalker off my back is basically impossible and something I wouldn't help worrying about every time I'd sit on my computer. (Nice wording, this way nobody will know I actually do nothing else all day). Who's to say it hasn't happened to me before? This could well be damage control. It's all damage control. Nobody wants to have some crazy Polish/Turkish/Russian/Ukrainian/American/Peruvian/German NEET/broke-middle-life-crisis/(middle/high)-schooler twink/overweight/obese kid/chomo sociopath(s) following you around.

And remember, if you get kicked off your job (LOL! Job? Who am I kidding), the cops called on you, your family harassed, and you suicide^*, it's your fault for being an actually honest dude with your heart in the right place.

But then some devil's advocate will come and say you're being totally delusional, or that like, you know dude, just roll with it, it's totally fine, right? Having to cover your butt at all times, lest you get bullied until you're off the Internet or dead. At best, you'll lose anything you seriously worked for. At worst, you'll suffer great emotional trauma, having been psychologically tortured with a lie of codependence you were blackmailed into.

The truth of the matter is,

Yes,

the Internet is a cruel and horrible place. -- Unknown

Yet, here you are reading this, and I hope you think it's not OK, either. Then, how does one cope with it?

This saying does not mean you won't get anything truly valuable out of the Internet, which you wouldn't get otherwise. If you're reading this, you likely already came a long way learning about technological topics, and it's no doubt the Internet had something to do with your learning to some degree. But it's also highly probable you didn't reach out to anybody to help you doing so, instead utilizing public resources such as wikis and ... books.

So why even have a presence on the Internet in the first place?

Do you just want to, in the most formal sense, research and get help worldwide, likely free of cost? Then you'd be well off idling in IRC (or some other less-reputable service) and having nothing but a disposable handle on a couple of servers; sticking to your plan and not goofing off at all. You won't even need to conceal any personal details. This is, in my opinion, the most responsible way to use the Internet. More on this later.

Or, do you also want to bring something to the Internet? Your very own opinions on topics you deem important? Some software, perhaps? Then you will need to be less frugal. For instance, you'd need to find a website provider; a project host, for version control, maybe even a mailing list. However, things will start to get risky when you put up something to be seriously held liable for. I want to show this example:

A DAW suite called Non was completely sabotaged and stopped being developed due to a group of hostile developers conducting something akin to an Embrace, Expand, Extinguish campaign.

The moment you commit any efforts, any comments, any media, any software... Any content, to the Internet, you are submitting yourself to the possibility of being brutally bullied, colonized, stalked, you name it. So if you want to avoid the trouble, you must avoid saying or doing anything on or for the Internet. Obviously, that gets in the way of a lot of us, who have a sense of conviction and even responsibility, helping out others worldwide as you might have been helped before.

I could keep expanding on that but it would become a rant on political correctness. I don't want to do that. I want the focus here to be, how to avoid being part of an online scandal?. It's simple.

Don't respond to anybody getting your buttons pushed (in other words: not helping).

Just focus on helping, but not those who are pushing your buttons as they are not seeking help, and encourage others to help too. But how do I tell something reasonable from a taunt? If an individual's contribution depends solely on you making a response to them regarding you or the way you run things, it's a taunt; in other words, if you were not to respond, this person would have contributed nothing.

Always encourage others to help as well.

Anyone who doesn't help is automatically singled out.

The Internet is serious business and not a bar. It's a conference.

But dude? How am I gonna have fun with my Internet friends? If you do so, you're going right into the danger zone. Don't do anything whimsical. You have been warned.

Don't push people's buttons.

But dude? How am I gonna know what bothers people?
First of all, don't play that game, you know what does. But if you happen to accidentally step on someone's foot, don't apologise.
But how am I going to make an epic satire on our society?
You can push an idea's buttons, and if someone comes after you, you can treat them the same as the ones that don't help.

With these simple rules, you're safe. If you get involved in the risky art of debate, be a gentleman.

That doesn't answer the title question

It does. If you're on the Internet just to talk out of your butt, day in, day out, that is totally weak. But if you want to help others, go ahead. It is the ultimate purpose of having a website. In short: Haters gonna hate, just do what has to be done (what's right).

What about blogs?

Weak and lame.