I really want to come up with something that will enable small local businesses to have websites again. I don't know how to do it without just being another freelance full-stack web designer, which I've done but never really enjoyed. I don't want it to Scale, I don't want to get rich off it, I just want to give people a chance to escape from these walled gardens, and for whoever makes it to get a fair recompense for the time they spend.
re https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-personal-websites-matter-more-than-ever/ from @Daojoan
@petrichor What would be the difference of such an endeavour, with things that already exist like Wix?
(I'm asking this less out of curiosity, and more as a prompt that might help to narrow down exactly what problem you want to solve)
@joepie91 I mean, this is pretty low down on a very long list of things that I "really want" to do... 😅
But I think the difference for me is about the human factor. Sure, there are lots of free/cheap and (mostly) easy but so many small businesses still make do with just a Facebook page: why do they do that?
I have theories — e.g. the marketing industry spends a lot convincing us that a website needs to be slick and frequently updated, which is pretty intimidating — but not much evidence.
@petrichor "but so many small businesses still make do with just a Facebook page: why do they do that?"
From what I understand, the answer to that is very simple (but probably not the one you want to hear): Facebook is where people are, and so it's where you market your business, and barely anyone still clicks through to a website (also because platforms like Facebook de-emphasize that) and it's just not worth the time and effort to maintain a site that essentially duplicates the information on Facebook.
What drives a business is typically not personal expression, but rather economics and marketing incentives, so something needs to have a return-on-investment to do it.
@joepie91 Yup, and it sucks but I get it. Search engines being universally awful also plays into this, because even if a small business does have a website, it's usually buried by search results from social media and various scammy "business directory" websites.
It's not something I can fix with the amount of time & energy available to me, which is why it's not a high priority, but I still want things to be different nonetheless!
@petrichor The conclusion from that is that the tools are there already, but the economic incentives are not, and this is unlikely to change until Facebook is dethroned as "the place where everything happens and everyone is".