There is no reasonable justification for this blog.

I already have a blog that I write with friends - Sunday Night Dirtbags - to capture all my thoughts about tabletop roleplaying. I also have a Mastodon account I use all the time. In theory, those buckets should be plenty for holding all the thoughts I want to get out into the world.

But like the man says - and yet…

I keep reading posts from other people on other platforms about bringing back the small web. About making the internet chaotic again. About how even a dumb little blog about dumb little stuff can be a bit of a bulwark against the privatized, optimized, capitalized, algorithmically-driven and engagement-focused nightmare the net has become.

I remember the blogosphere. I remember MySpace. I remember forums. I remember USENET.

Last night I found myself clicking around Livejournal alternatives, which is interesting because I wasn’t that invested in Livejournal, even back in the day. But I do remember how nice it was to read them - some weird combo of diary and blog and fan site. My wife’s a big Tumblr user - seems like maybe that’s where that experience lives now. I tried. Didn’t stick. But still…here we are.

I came up with the name Accidentally Old School when I was thinking about blogging about my journey into the OSR gaming scene. But if I’m honest, that’s not the only place I’m going old school.

I’m buying vinyl again. I’m buying DVDs. I’m reading big, clumsy paperback books. I’m going to places with people and talking.

I think we’ll see more of this. Whether it’s too many ads, too much anger, too many billionaire creeps, or too much AI to trust your own eyes, people are going to start drifting away from being online in the way they have been.

Let’s hope so.