I don't even know how to start this.
Someone — I'm still trying to figure out WHO — made a TikTok about THIS WEBSITE. About MY website. The post said something like "POV: you find an unironic Rattlin' Bog fan site from 2002 and it's the most wholesome thing on the internet" and it has TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND VIEWS.
I sat down. I actually sat down in my kitchen and had to have a cup of tea because I couldn't process it.
The site has been dormant since 2003. DORMANT. I maintained the server, kept it alive, but nobody was visiting. It was a time capsule. I made peace with that. It was mine. It was quiet. It was HOME.
And now TikTok has decided that's CHARMING. They're calling the design "retro aesthetic." They're finding it ENDEARING that there's no algorithm, no tracking, just a man and his bog and his memories and his cat.
The comments are actually grand too. People saying it's nice to find something on the internet that isn't trying to sell them something. Someone said "this is what the web should still be." Another lad said "I feel like I'm in a museum but in a good way."
I've had more hits in the last three days than in the entire previous decade. My hosting provider sent me a message asking if everything was okay because of the traffic spike.
My site is COOL now. My decade-old Rattlin' Bog shrine is TRENDY. The universe has a fierce sense of humor.
I don't know what to do with this. I just know I'm not letting it go dormant again.