Feeds and algorithms have freed us from personal websites

26 November 2025

For another point of view, sorry POV, which I suggest you should read in full, Germany based linguist and writer, Burk:

People stopped typing URLs. Entirely. No one goes to “juliawrites.com” anymore. They go to TikTok. Or Substack. Or Medium. Or Twitter. Or anything that has a feed and an algorithm.

Well most people stopped, obviously. But I still sometimes type “juliawrites.com”. And “TikTok.com/@juliawrites”. Rather than using the TikTok app (yet to install it), so I can see the page of the person I want to, instead of the algorithm serving up what it decides to.

Ditto “Instagram.com”, where the website trumps the app when it comes to user experience any day. I see only what I want to see. And then leave. I seldom go to Substack. I do look in on Twitter sometimes, and Medium, where I have an (unused) account, and read Burk’s article.

I don’t hear too many people saying they like algorithms, at least in a web content context.

But this is the web, and if you want to write something like that on your website, your Substack and/or Medium page, or that algorithm infested swamp that is the socials, you’re free to do so.

As for “forcing” readers to learn the “design quirks” of your personal website, you could always encourage them to subscribe to the RSS feed instead (even if it’s an algorithm-free feed).

Via Michael Gale, whose personal website is here.

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There's 4 comments on this post

  1. On 26 November 2025 at 3:18 PM, MJ said:

    So, personal websites need too much maintenance?? What century are we in? Good webhosts take care of all this nowadays. Giving up on a self hosted personal website becoz they’re too much work is like saying I’m not gonna buy a property to live at becoz i have to raise loan finance and sign legal docs, and maintain it afterwards. Best I never leave home, just stay at my mom and dad’s place becoz it will be easier! I get it: not all people are technical, but too many of them want it all handed to them on a platter, no heavy lifting needed!!

    1. On 30 November 2025 at 1:26 PM, disassociated.com said:

      Thanks for the comment MJ. Some people do consider having accounts on the socials as renting a home (or staying with the parents), while a website with its own URL and on a web host, is more like owning a property. But setting up this sort of website can be daunting for many people, and ways to make the process more accessible need to be considered.

  2. On 27 November 2025 at 8:22 AM, fLaMEd said:

    I’m with you on this. Calling a Medium or Substack profile a “website” misses the whole point of owning your own space online. Sure, platforms are fine for distribution if that’s what you want, but they aren’t a home. A personal site is still the only place where you’re not renting space inside someone else’s feed.

    We need to keep pushing back on this, loudly.

    1. On 30 November 2025 at 1:33 PM, disassociated.com said:

      Thanks fLaMEd… that article was an astonishing read, considering most of what I see is encouragement to get OFF the socials, and platforms like Medium and Substack, not ON them. But it made people look, and talk about it, which was probably the idea.

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