I posted a thread on 4chan's /g/ board encouraging others to share their own personal websites like my own and, while I primarily made it to find like-minded people, I did get a few responses about fridg3.org.
There were a few responses complimenting my website, saying they liked the design and find it inspiring (which is always nice to hear) but a few less positive responses that kinda stuck with me.
There was one guy posing as me saying that I was trans. Not sure what I expected, considering /g/ is basically just a worksafe version of the /b/ board at this point, but someone else reinforced the idea by mentioning my website looks like it was made by someone unbearable while including a screenshot of the homepage.
Hearing this, I had to ask myself a really important question.
Do I care? Should I?
Who am I really doing this for?
Think about the blog posts and compare them to a Twitter post. My website doesn't have any kind of metric tracking in the form of page views, post likes, comments or anything that indicates whether there's 3 people viewing my posts or 3,000. Not even Cloudflare provides me with any kind of metric data.
But that's the thing, maybe it's a subconscious design intention. I think any implementation of metrics would make fridg3.org more of a product for other people to consume, rather than an outlet of creativity and fun for me. This website was never and never should be a way for me to validate myself in the form of likes or views because, while a high view/like count would make me feel nice, receiving less likes or views than usual would leave me worried about delivering content that people actually enjoy.
And can I be fully honest? I really don't care if people don't like my projects, page design, blog, music or anything I have here. If you look at my old Cactile songs, you could probably criticise a million different things but I didn't make the songs in hope of making it big as an artist; I do it because making songs, album art and publishing is fun. I make things that I know I'd enjoy, and I publish them because maybe someone else enjoys them too. But if they don't, that's okay.
Honestly, it's a hard mindset to fixate yourself onto. Social media has basically hardcoded us (or at least, me) to always want to seek out metrics such as likes or views because they tell you what you're doing is awesome. But the truth is, "awesome" is a subjective word and you're fully capable of breaking out of the system and writing your own definition of "awesome" without influence from any metrics, or anyone else. That's what I think fridg3.org should be about. Creating content that I like, and not worrying about what other people like.
Oh yeah, and some people said the art on the homepage makes me look like a furry. I don't care.
Useful criticism
Believe it or not, it exists
Believe it or not, I actually received a few valid points of criticism. For example, someone complained about how the screen flashes white when you load a page if you're on dark mode, which is an actual issue I intended on fixing but then got so used to that I forgot about it (but if "MY EYES" is your reaction to the issue, maybe don't sit in front of a bright screen in a dark room).
Someone also said the original fridg3.org design and the idea of it being an ARG type thing was cool and it's a shame I abandoned it. I do agree on the design being cool but I honestly prefer this design more, and the ARG idea feeds more into making content for other people rather than myself. I like ARGs, but making real-me blog posts is more fun for me. Also the ARG scene is oversaturated and boring, zzzz......
Trolls
I don't really like the word "trolls" but it fits best
Imagine the trolls are an electrical fire, and you're a bucket of water. Turns out, the less you respond to them, the less they'll respond back. And even if they keep trying to get your attention, they'll look like an idiot talking to themselves.
4chan is a dangerous place to share your own content on, because the people looking to seek out anonymity in a public space often have a lot of hatred to spread. There were some cool people who came across my site after seeing it there and emailed me with nice comments, but you're more likely to be the target of a group ambush if you're brave enough to share things there.
If you're looking to actually broaden your audience or receive useful feedback, go to a website where the content is regulated further than "no porn". There are probably tons of forums out there, and Reddit probably has a few boards dedicated to this kind of thing, so in hindsight,
...literally anything would've been better than 4chan. Well now I know I guess :P
Honorable mentions
a.k.a People who actually stayed on-topic
Thank you to the few people who *actually* shared their websites on that thread and didn't contribute to the cesspool of off-topic comments. I checked out a few of them and they were all really cool!
You should be able to create projects or content you enjoy making without worrying about what other people think.
That's what fridg3.org is about, and that'll never change.
Oh, and never use 4chan if you value your self-worth.