The internet sucks right now. We’re all spending an unhealthy amount of time scrolling feeds and counting followers and checking who liked our posts.

I used to love the internet. It had such potential. I used to spend my days making friends in small forums and browsing personal websites and making my own little projects. It was great. There was no pressure to perform, we all just hung out and had fun.

Twenty and some years ago I made my first online photo diary. I was an enthusiastic hobby photographer and I knew a little bit of PHP, so after a friend asked me if it would be possible to make a system to organize his “a photo a day” project I made the “1095 photo diary” system. That system has been running Perou’s secret diary since 2005. Still going strong.

A few years went by and I became a professional photographer for a while, but my passion for photo journaling never went away. I hooked up with some friends and together we built and ran the photo diary website Phiary for some years. It wasn’t huge but the users loved it.

Life eventually got in the way and we had to prioritize “actual work”, so Phiary died about 15 years ago.

This wasn’t supposed to be the story of me building diary websites, but I guess it’s useful context for why I’m once again building a diary website…

Phiary died.

The idea didn’t.

So, as I was saying: The internet sucks right now. All the popular sites are either overrun by nazis or designed to push the most viral short videos from people you don’t know. Engagement is everything, and it sucks.

I've been building websites since the last millennium, so I feel like I’m capable of making a space for us to just be us. A space where you don’t have to perform for the masses in exchange for likes and shares.

I want Minner to be a space where you go at your own pace. A space where a day is just a day.

Why am I making Minner?

Because I miss what the internet used to be.

And I think some of you do too.