Web History

Previous/Current Domains

• Current: Nanyate.Com, LanguageDiary.Com, IvyTan.Net and ToiletRev.Com
• Personal Sites: Aiwei.Net, Tsui-Mong.Org, Mezza-9.Net, Style07.Net, IvyTan.Ca, MyFuzzyLogic.Net
• Portfolios: Chinese-Maiden.Com, UrbanExhibit.Com, Mezzascape.Com, IvyTan.Net
• Misc: Ascetik.Net, Ascetik.Com, HyoleeFanClub.Com

The Geocities Days: 1996-1999
I started Web Design back in 1996 when Geocities started. I had my own Geocities URL (/SunsetStrip/Stadium/4680). I still remember the days when I had to wait for the right time to sign up so I could get a nice URL with something like (SunsetStrip/Apartment/8888) instead of (Hollywood/Shack/8133).

I was inspired to make my own website when I saw a very famous (then) Backstreet Boys fansite hosted at Geocities. So, from the basic HTML builder, I learned the very basics of HTML. My very first graphics were made in 1997 where I opened up Microsoft Paint to make two guestbook buttons and animated it with Microsoft GIF Animator.

I can’t believe I still have it! Anyway, I had almost 40 different sites hosted at many different freeservers like gURLpages, Chickpages, Angelfire, Fortunecity etc. Some are actually still online. Try and see if you can find them.

My last site on a freeserver is still online. Of all my personal sites, this was the one that became quite popular. There were more than 100 hits per day at its peak. It was then I decided to buy my own domain.

The First Domain: 1999-2002
AiWei.Net was my very first domain. It was originally made to become another one of my personal homepages. Then the blogging trend started. It was 1999 and a new site had sprung up called Blogger.Com. I was pretty reluctant to blog at first since it meant daily updates, and that I had to write frequently. In the end due to the pressure, I gave in.

Hiatus: 2001-2003
As with internet these days, people were rude with their comments and loved copying layouts. So I decided to move and to stay on low profile with Tsui-Mong.Org and Chinese-Maiden.Com. C-M.Com is where I started ‘vexeling’. It was a vexel of a a flower, which took a lot of time.

Age of Mezza-9.Net: 2003-2005
Then at the beginning of 2004, I became bored with the low traffic. So I jumped back into the world of blog, design and drama. And I think most people would know my story from this point onwards. Thus came Mezza-9.Net. I didn’t mean for it to become so popular. I still don’t know what made it so. Thinking back brings mixed feelings of pride and anguish. Maybe it was the layout-whoring. This was where I started to bloom as a designer, where my real creativity was expressed. This was when I fully maximized the potential of Adobe Photoshop and learned new languages like PHP.

At Mezza-9.Net’s peak there were more than 300 visitors a day and it had a Google PR rating of 6. If you typed in just my first name ‘Ivy’, Mezza-9.Net was ranked #1 on Yahoo and #7 on Google beating out Ivy League and the band Operation Ivy. I received tons of fanmail and hatemail. I was overwhelmed; partly exhilarated, partly scared. I didn’t want to lose my ground. I didn’t want to be searched so easily. Blogging also started becoming a chore. At one point, it wasn’t the real me blogging anymore. It was just the Ivy that everyone wanted to see. The site became both a pride and a misery. Not to mention the amount I had to pay for overage bandwidth. So with a heavy heart, I closed it. Never revealing my new website. I couldn’t take it anymore.

IvyTan.Ca: Philosopher’s Dawn: 2005-2006
So I made IvyTan.Ca. It was a pure blog. No content. No layout whoring. My blog entries had much to do with philosophy and politics. The crowd was different. Much older. Mostly white educated men. It was a nice relief from Mezza-9.Net. And I thought it was going to last forever…

IvyTan.Net: Professional, Not Personal: 2006-Present
But it didn’t. At that point, I was confused where I morally and politically stood. But not anymore. And I was ready to venture to the outside world; the world beyond the walls of tertiary education. With that realization, came the birth of a new site, IvyTan.Net, which which houses my portfolio and my old blog at Miss.IvyTan.Net.

Nanyate.Com: Revival : 2007-Present
But alas, it was too stressful to write with my full name on the URL. I didn’t feel motivated to blog as a result. Hence came Nanyate.Com.

And so the adventure continues.