Happy Anniversary!
Tokimeki.memorial turns one!

Post 00041 | July 4th 2023

I just renewed my plan with the hosting provider. That should keep the website running for another year. An anniversary is a good occasion to look back at the year that has passed as well look towards the future.

When I started the website, I had two goals in mind. One, I wanted a void to shout into. Up until that point, this void was offered by Twitter, but with its takeover by Elon Musk looming on the horizon, it became obvious that finding somewhere else to post my ramblings would be a sensible thing to do. A little website seemed like the perfect fit. I didn't have to worry about changes in management or policy. There would only be me and hosting provider and if the latter started acting up, it would be simple to just move the website.

The second goal is a bit more personal. When we were emptying my grandparents house after they died, we stumbled upon a worn book. Turns out my grandmother had been keeping meticulous records of visits and whatnot in the form of a diary. I always found the idea very sweet, but I don't really live a life worthy of paper. That said, I definitely had this in mind when I built the site and decided to go for a blog style design.

The two goals are very different, but they do have one thing in common; It's not something you would usually share with other people. I keep writing with the assumption that I have no audience. That said, looking at the statistics my hosting provider shares, the website has had 22000 hits during its first year. I'm sure most of them are caused by a couple of overly eager RRS clients and people accidentally adding a dot between Tokimeki and Memorial when wanting to google the game. Still, this is more than ten times my wildest expectations and I can't help feeling a humbled by it.

Thank you if anyone reads this. If you wouldn't mind, I would love it if you would leave a comment in the guest book. If nothing else, it would disprove my hypothesis that nobody reads the blog.

So, what's in store for the site in the future? Short term, I am working on an archive section. When I designed the site, I wanted it to be low spec; Something that would be accessible on almost anything with a web browser. While the code is simple, the front page has a summary of every single post I have posted so far. At the moment this is more than 15 MB of space, which is more than the current front page of the New York Times. This is a lot for an older browser to handle, so instead I want to make an archive where posts will end up after a while. Posts will either by sorted into categories or be listed chronologically. It is taking some time to implement, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. I'll keep you updated once it's live.

Thank you for sticking with me through this first year. Here's to hoping for a smooth second year. :)