Consider me Clarity (ˈkler-ə-tē ) Yes, that’s clearly an alias. I’m sure you understand, though?
I’m a stray cat. Maybe you didn’t realize that? Cats don’t often answer to the names people give them. Most of us have our own extra names, just in case we need ‘em. This is one of mine: Clarity.
When I was a kitten, a book in my school library warned me against giving out my “real” name online. That was in the mid-1990s. I’m reasonably sure most millennials received similar warnings, either at home or school. Many ignored that advice, but my feline instinct still says to keep to that. For a stray cat, instinct are important, after all…
I wasn’t always a stray! As a kitten, I ran away to the Internet and I never returned. I started with America Online's WYSIWYG website builder. This was a way of making your own site on America Online, of course. Pawing around it, I made my first site. It was about small dogs. I may be a cat, but I’ve always admired dachshunds.
When I got a little older, I made a geography-themed webpage for a school project. Yes, stray cats still go to school sometimes! I was able to pretend to be human.
In 6th grade, I used a WYSIWYG editor known as Claris Home Page. My instructors wouldn’t let me add dachshunds to my schoolwork pages. I devoured what was available in the school’s technology section, alongside the books about internet safety.
I slowly became conversational in HTML. In 1999, I created a couple detailed, yet messy fansites for my favorite characters, including La Femme Nikita and Alex Krycek of The X-files.
Many of my earliest sites used linkware graphics provided by an artist (well, she preferred the term artiste) named Moyra of Moyra.com. Moyra eventually disappeared. She continued to own that domain, which just had a stylized photo, for a decade or two after closing her linkware site. Her work, being full of metaphor, and based on borderless-tables, is a mess by modern standards of course, but her aesthetics, unwillingness to compromise on quality, and sheer drive inspired me for years to come.
I launched a small, goofy blog a couple years later, when I finished middle school. This was, ironically, hosted on Geocities, but using Blogger, back in the brief moment when that was a possibility. Stray cats do love free web space. It's always nice to have a small space to curl up in. We all need a place to be, even online, right?
I followed a “how to make a blog” guide written by one of the Digital Divas, a women’s technology group. Like Moyra, they were mostly creators of linkware graphics and other online resources for websites.
It was hard not to look up to the Digital Divas at the time. Their sites were beautiful works of complicated and colorful art. These sites were ridiculous by modern standards, but so, so beautiful at the time. Plus, they once fought Microsoft over their domain name (and won!), something we can all be proud of on any day.
On my sixteenth birthday I got my first domain. I also got hosting space. Finally, I had my own little online territory to prowl. I shifted to CMS tools like Greymatter, MovableType, and WordPress.
Then Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr appeared. They sure seemed lovely to me initially, but cats like me aren’t always smart. Social media sites soon became more a cat carrier that takes you nowhere.
And the algorithms stalk you like predators. They’re always lurking. A lot of people are trying to abandon these sites. It’s difficult. I’m deeply drawn to the culture of the “indie” web. Or, as I optimistically call it, with a tail flourish, the “new web” or “small web.”
I don’t expect today’s “small web” to be much like the internet I experienced as a kitten. I don’t expect to “get good” at coding either. I’m just a silly stray cat, padding through the Web. I also enjoy sniffing and pawing through the Internet Archive. I know it’s a complicated, yet subtle thing to allow yourself nostalgia. I try to avoid what I call “Golden Age” thinking, though.
This site, launched April 20th, 2024, is my way forward. I am a stray cat wandering the World Wide Web, happily so.
I know that not everyone is an “internet” person. Not everyone swims this deeply in the World Wide Web. But even the most offline of people must’ve noticed how the internet has changed our entire civilization, and not always for the better. But the future is still up for grabs, dearies!
Say meow (or hiss at me) if you like! Fellow cats (…or humans?) can leave pawprints in the askbox, find me on Discord (@ClarityAnne), or use the contact form. My email is clarity (at fabled.day, of course).
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Not a Cat, NOT A FURRY
I’m obviously Not a Cat IRL. I don’t identify as one, as a couple people on Discord went and quickly asked. Okay I have spiritual beliefs about animism to be sure, but I don’t believe I’m some kind of feline entity in human or anything like that. If you want to know what I do believe about that sort of thing, I encourage you to ask me privately. It’s far too complex to explain here. Not catkin Shoutout to actual catkin, I guess? I’m also Not a Furry. In short, I’m not a cat, I just play one online LMAO.
I’m definitely not named Clarity nor Claire. I chose that name during my time with an online sapphic Conservative VR cult in Second Life for a while. Oh, and in fact, a lot of how I act on here is, yeah, kinda like being a character of sorts. Stray Cat Claire is definitely me. But Claire is me thru a certain deep mask. What else can I say? Real cats can’t type so I’m obviously not really a dusty gray cat. The concept of being one, though? It’s fun and helps me be more chill with people and take things in stride. That’s what I’m trying for. Cats are, after all, very online, yet still really sensible critters. I’m also Not A Furry.