Why bear?
I really dislike social media, and have done so for a while. At first my dislike began mostly with technical and ethical aspects of it; I disliked the constant surveillance and information gathering, the ads, the "attention economy" (read: capitalism). Nowadays, I just dislike it in general. It feels weird to scroll, and it feels impersonal learn what my peers are up to through four-second-clips and cherry-picked polished images - and that's if people even share instead of only looking at reels and other "content"1. I felt that there was no conversation anymore, instead being replaced by a heart-less heart-button without any real meaning.
However, I do still really like sharing things. I like making things, writing things, taking pictures. I like documenting what I am doing. I like doing deep-dives into certain topics that require a writeup, or showing in-depth some projects I'm working on that I don't have time to individually show to everyone I know. Having my own platform for this (without any data collection2) that I can design how I want3 allows me to do this on my own terms. When I want, how I want, and the way I want with no other limits than my own skillset.
I also really enjoy the idea of independent websites4, and moreso websites that arent filled to the brim with ads and distracting banners. It saddens me to see how more and more websites decide to adapt the exact same design, turning "the web" into a loose collection of what is essentially just contact cards linking you towards their profiles on the same few websites.
Ever noticed how similar all the Wordpress themes are, or how more and more people have replaced personal websites with linktree and other link-in-bio tools5?
As Angie wrote on her site:
honestly, i'm just kinda sick and tired of being put into boxes (and being constaly tracked and served ads) on social media. i think its almost impossible to fully express yourself on places like facebook, instagram, and twitter. you can only control who you follow and what you post and nothing else, but with a website, everything is made by you, for you.
if i want a page to talk about my interests, i can do that. write some blogs? sure! put all of the images i've collected over my time on the internet? hell yeah! make pages obsessing over things no one else i know irl cares about? absolutely! there's just so much more that i can do here than i can do anywhere else.
Hot take (I think?): I think that everyone should write. It's a good way to collect your thoughts, and a good practice to keep your language intact. It is also fun. You don't have to become an author just to keep a little diary, write a review, or create a writeup of something you're into - same way you don't need to become an athlete to walk or learn computational engineering to open a web browser. As someone very prone to mind wandering, writing is also a good way to properly finish a complete thought, even if it takes time; when it's written, it's written. No matter how many times I do something else during the process, the written material stays a fully collected, complete thought.
And more important than anything else, writing is fun.
Okay... But why exactly bearblog? Why not self host?
Well, the short answer is...
Because I don't really have the time. At the time of writing I'm both studying, playing, and working with music, all while preparing to move to the other side of the globe to, well, study, play, and work with music. As much as I'd love to dig deep and create and host everything myself, I find the canvas provided by bearblog to be sufficient enough for the time being. It's also currently much cheaper than renting a VPS, as hosting on my own hardware isn't a viable option for the time being.
note: I have learnt that bearblog has become source available and not free software after a license change I was unaware of, but will still stay here for the rest of 2026. I will probably find another provider or host on my own hardware once the year is over
See the full license here
Great! What should I expect?
Well... Nothing, really. I'm going to write when I feel that I have something to write, and share when I feel that I have something to share. Other than that I don't have any concrete plans or commitments when it comes to this site. This place is first and foremost a personal outlet, somewhere to stash, document, and make sense of different thoughts and experiences while escaping the horrors of the modern internet. Who knows, maybe this will change in the future. Or maybe not.
runarcn, 31.12.2025.
yes I wrote this on new years eve
Footnotes
About the word "content": I do not like it. It's a corporatisation of what we create and share as humans, where creativity and expression is dumbed down to a gray, indescribeable mass. I want to share a conversation, look at the photos you took, share a video with you, play a game, or listen to music - I could go on. It's a gray and boring word which deliberately hinders expression. Imagine if restaurants referred to their food and drinks as "content". Expect a longer writeup about this in the future.↩
Assuming that I've configured everything correctly - I encourage you to prove otherwise!↩
Yes, I know this is hosted through bearblog and thus not "truly independent". However, I do not view that as much different than through neocities, nekoweb, etc. See: Bear manifesto↩
Linkstacc is a free software, zero-cost alternative - by the way, linkstacc commits the same sin of soulless modern design (though I must admit it is practical for it's use case)↩