This article on the BBC news website today reminded me of the MySpace phenomenon which, along with the likes of Google Pages, has made it very quick and easy for ordinary plebs to get a presence on the web, whether it be for their band, products, artwork, or personal bletherings. You simply log in, write something, load an image, and there you are, you’re on the web!

Call me a snob or geek, but I wonder how good these developments are. I know it’s opening up the world’s greatest and most dynamic form of information and expression to a mass market, but I can’t help thinking that the internet is not necessarily becoming better for all the crap poets, angsty teenagers and bored housewives uploading their grammatically appauling blogs or pointless musings about nothing; it’s simply becoming bigger.

This contrasts with the heroically and pointlessly laborious way I update my website at the moment:
1. Open Notepad.
2. Open the file I want to change (usually this one).
3. Write the changes using raw HTML (the very fiddly code/language sites are written in, which I have only a basic grasp of).
4. Save the file.
5. Publish it from my filespace to my server, using a WS_FTP whatsit-thingy which I vaguely understand.

I’m quite proud of the utterly archaic way I do things because it shows commitment, dedication, and a desire to really feel like I’ve “made” this website myself. Granted, if I am ever to get RSS or a comments feature on this blog, or an interactive map on the photos page, I will have to “sell out” and find a different way of doing things.

But in the meantime, I’ll battle on the way I am: if webpublishing is electricity, then I am the tilly-lamp. Sad I know, but at least it means I’m nowhere near tech-savvy enough to be legitimately called a geek.