I think everything said in this article is true, but most of it really doesn't bother me. You just gotta see Neocities as a hobby, not as a retro revolution social media alternative, even if that's how it advertises itself. Because socially, it's got the vibe of a rehab center: you've got your handful of regulars versus a mass of people coming and going, some of them mabye returning for a short stint a few months/years down the line. Most people quickly realize that webmastering is not for them, and that's okay! It's a hobby, that's how it goes. But it just doesn't lend itself to forming coherent communities or even movements, certainly not on the platform itself, so if that's what you join for, you'll quickly be sorely disappointed. As the article says, it's very hard to reach anybody with your page, the amount of people who will see it is inevitably way smaller than it would be on social media, and you have to put a ton of work in to even get to that point, which makes it inefficient if you just want to share your stuff with people. Still, I think there is something extremely rewarding about building your own twodimensional space which you have total control over out of ideas, words and images. And I say this as someone who sucks at designing and hates coding! If you manage to tap into that (and actually have some things to put on your page), you'll have a good time, regardless of how many people engage with your page.

The only thing that really bothers me about Neocities is how intransparent and negligent its managment is. Like this whole "follow" update: There was no announcement anywhere, someone had to dig through a github to find a small comment explaining things, and it's the first update made since that stupid blue checkmark bit, while there are many known issues which have demanded fixing since forever. Sometimes, the whole platform will be down without any warning or explanation for days at a time. It really just feels like Neocities might suddenly blink out of existence one day, and all the work we put into our little pages would be irretrievably gone. It feels like we're building on quicksand...