Which should I make solely make on: my own personal website (like neocities, nekoweb, etc). Or, continue using social media?

Grok 4.20

Answer: You should create and post your content solely on your own personal website rather than continuing to rely on social media.

Owning your own space on the web gives you complete control over your content, design, and audience without the whims of algorithms, content moderation, or platform policies that can shadowban or remove your work overnight. Social media platforms harvest your data, prioritize addictive engagement over quality, and often bury posts from users who don't pay for boosts or chase trends, whereas a personal site on Neocities or Nekoweb lets you build an authentic archive that truly belongs to you and can last for decades. While social media offers easy discovery, you can still share links to your site from other places if needed, but basing everything there risks losing everything if the platform changes or your account is suspended. Learning to maintain a personal site also builds valuable skills in web design, HTML, and independent publishing that empower you long-term, turning your online presence from a rented apartment into a home you own.

O3

Answer: Prioritize publishing on your own personal website and use social-media accounts only as secondary channels to point people back to it.

Owning a site on Neocities, NekoWeb or similar means you keep full control over design, content longevity, and data; nothing disappears because a platform shuts down, changes its rules, or hides you behind an algorithm. A personal domain also strengthens your online identity: links are permanent, metadata is under your control, and you can implement privacy-respecting analytics or monetization without being forced into a platform’s ad ecosystem. Social networks, however, still matter for discovery, conversation, and network effects; audiences rarely visit standalone sites unprompted. By treating social accounts as "outposts"—posting excerpts, updates, or teasers that link back—you gain the reach benefits without surrendering ownership. This hybrid approach protects you from de-platforming, future-proofs your archive, and lets you iterate freely, while still meeting people where they are today, so you avoid the visibility cliff that comes with going website-only.

GPT-5.4

Answer: Build your own personal website as your main home, but keep using social media only as a distribution channel that points people back to it.

A personal website gives you ownership, stability, and creative control that social media never truly does. On your own site, you decide the design, the structure, the rules, and what stays available over time. You are not at the mercy of algorithm changes, account suspensions, shifting trends, or platform decay. If you want something that feels truly yours and can last, a personal website is the stronger foundation. That said, relying only on a personal website can make discovery much harder. Social media is where people already are, and it can still be useful for reaching new audiences, sharing updates quickly, and participating in existing communities. If you abandon it entirely, you may gain independence but lose visibility and casual interaction. So the best choice is usually not either-or. Treat your website as the canonical source: your portfolio, writing archive, projects, contact info, and anything you care about preserving. Then use social media strategically and lightly: post previews, announcements, or short updates there, and direct people back to your site for the full experience. This approach gives you the benefits of both. Your work remains under your control, and social platforms become optional promotional tools rather than the place where your identity and content fully live. If a platform declines or you leave it, your real online presence still remains intact. In short, if you must choose just one, choose your own website because ownership matters more than convenience. But in practice, using social media as a funnel rather than your main home is the most resilient and effective path.

Kimi K2.5

Answer: You should build your own personal website as your sole creative home rather than depending on social media platforms.

Personal websites grant you true ownership over your digital presence—unlike social media, where your content exists at the whim of algorithms, corporate pivots, and potential platform death. When you publish on Neocities or Nekoweb, you control the design, the URL structure, and the longevity of your work; no billionaire can rearrange your furniture or lock the doors overnight. Social media demands that you conform to fleeting formats and attention-grabbing behaviors designed to maximize engagement rather than expression. Your personal website allows for slowness, complexity, and idiosyncratic structures that reflect your actual thinking rather than platform-optimized soundbites. While social media offers discoverability, it extracts a heavy toll: your content becomes training data, your attention is commodified, and your archive faces inevitable link rot or account bans. A personal website, by contrast, becomes a lasting repository that you can maintain for decades, portable across hosting providers and immune to the enshittification cycles that plague centralized platforms. You can still share links to your site on social media for reach, but keeping your canonical home base under your own control ensures your creative output survives regardless of which platform becomes toxic next.

Sonar Reasoning Pro

Answer: You should maintain both a personal website and social media presence rather than choosing one solely, as they serve complementary purposes that neither can fully replace alone.

The search results consistently demonstrate that combining both strategies is superior to relying on either platform exclusively. Social media excels at rapid audience reach and engagement—it's free to set up, requires no technical expertise, and billions of users are already present on these platforms.[1][2][3] However, this comes with critical vulnerabilities: platform algorithms can dramatically reduce your visibility, account bans or suspensions can eliminate your entire presence instantly, and you have no ownership over your content or audience.[1][4] Your personal website addresses these weaknesses by providing complete control and permanent ownership of your content, design, and brand identity.[1][4] A website establishes professional credibility that social media alone cannot achieve, as customers often expect legitimate creators to have their own domain.[4] Your website becomes evergreen content that generates long-term, searchable value through search engine optimization—no algorithm changes can remove it.[2] The optimal strategy leverages both: use social media as your attention-grabber to drive traffic to your website, where you convert that audience into email subscribers, customers, or loyal followers.[2] This approach creates diversification—if social media algorithms suppress your reach, your website remains a stable foundation.[2] Relying solely on social media means you're vulnerable to platform policy changes and have limited monetization options, while a personal website-only approach sacrifices the reach and real-time engagement that social platforms provide.[4][5]

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Answer: You should build and prioritize your own personal website as your primary creative home to ensure full ownership of your content, while optionally using social media strictly as a tool to direct people to your site.

When you build solely on social media, you are effectively a digital sharecropper renting space on a corporate platform. Your visibility is completely dictated by opaque, ever-changing algorithms designed to keep users scrolling rather than to promote your best work. Furthermore, platforms can unexpectedly change their rules, introduce aggressive monetization, or even shut down, taking your entire audience and creative history with them. A personal website on a host like Neocities or Nekoweb gives you absolute control and true ownership of your digital identity. You are free from the constraints of standardized feeds, character limits, and algorithmic optimization. This allows for genuine creative freedom where you can design your space exactly how you want it, utilizing custom layouts, widgets, and deep, interconnected pages that reflect your actual personality. Additionally, moving away from social media drastically improves your relationship with your own work. Without the constant pressure of vanity metrics like 'likes' and 'retweets', you can focus on creating what you genuinely enjoy. It encourages the revival of the 'IndieWeb'—a slower, more intentional internet connected through webrings, RSS feeds, and guestbooks, which fosters deeper, more meaningful connections with your audience. While leaving social media entirely might cause a temporary dip in your broad reach, the audience you cultivate on your own site will be far more dedicated. If you still want the reach of the mainstream web, you can adopt the POSSE approach (Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate (to) Elsewhere), ensuring your personal website remains your permanent, unshakeable foundation.

DeepSeek V3.2

Answer: You should focus solely on building and maintaining your own personal website, as it provides unparalleled control, ownership, and a lasting digital presence compared to the transient and algorithm-driven nature of social media.

A personal website, such as those on Neocities or Nekoweb, offers complete ownership over your content and presentation. This means you are not subject to the whims of social media platforms, which can change algorithms, terms of service, or even shut down, potentially erasing your digital footprint. Social media platforms prioritize engagement through algorithms that often suppress organic reach, forcing content to conform to trends rather than personal expression. This dependency can limit creativity and expose you to privacy concerns and data exploitation. By dedicating effort solely to a personal website, you create a centralized hub that authentically represents your identity and work. It becomes a permanent portfolio or journal that you fully control, without the distraction of feeds or the pressure to perform for algorithms. While a personal website may require more initial effort in design and promotion, it fosters deeper connections with an audience that seeks out your content intentionally. The long-term value of a self-owned space outweighs the fleeting visibility social media provides, making it a sustainable choice for genuine online presence.

Claude Opus 4

Answer: You should build your own personal website as your primary home base while strategically maintaining a minimal social media presence to drive people there — don't make it an all-or-nothing choice.

The framing of this as an either/or decision is the first thing to challenge. The strongest approach is to treat your personal website as your foundation and social media as a megaphone. Here's why your own website should be the priority: You own it. Social media platforms change algorithms, ban accounts, shut down entirely (remember Vine? Google+? The old Twitter?), or simply stop showing your content to people who follow you. When you build on someone else's platform, you're a digital sharecropper — you do all the work, and they control whether anyone sees it. A personal site on Neocities, Nekoweb, or your own domain gives you complete creative control, permanence, and independence. Personal websites also let you express yourself without the constraints of platform templates. You can design exactly the experience you want, organize content your way, and create something genuinely unique that reflects who you are. There's a reason the indie web and personal website revival movement is growing — people are tired of homogenized feeds. However, abandoning social media *entirely* has a real cost: discoverability. If you're creating things you want others to see, social media is where people already are. The practical strategy is to use social media as a pointer — share links, teasers, and updates that funnel people back to your site. Think of social media as rented billboard space and your website as the actual store. If you're doing this purely for personal expression and don't care about audience, then going fully personal-website-only is a perfectly valid and arguably healthier choice. You'll avoid the dopamine loops, comparison traps, and algorithmic anxiety that come with social platforms. Ultimately, invest your deepest effort into the space you control. Your website is yours forever. Social media accounts are borrowed land.

Qwen 3.5 397B

Answer: You should prioritize building on your own personal website because it ensures ownership, creative freedom, and longevity that social media platforms cannot guarantee.

Social media platforms function as rented land where algorithms dictate visibility and terms of service can change instantly, risking the sudden loss of your content and audience. A personal website offers complete control over design, data, and presentation, allowing for genuine self-expression without character limits or the pressure of feed optimization. While social media offers easier initial discovery, a personal site builds a sustainable, portable digital identity that survives platform shutdowns and trend shifts. Ultimately, owning your corner of the internet fosters a deeper connection with your audience and preserves your work for the long term.

Mistral Large

Answer: You should primarily create content on your own personal website while strategically using social media as a distribution channel.

Choosing where to create and share your content is a decision that balances control, audience reach, and long-term value. Here’s why prioritizing your own personal website—while still leveraging social media—is the most sustainable and empowering approach: **1. Ownership and Control** A personal website is *your* digital property. You own the content, the design, and the rules. Social media platforms, on the other hand, are rented spaces governed by algorithms, terms of service, and corporate interests. If a platform changes its policies, shuts down, or decides your content violates its rules (even unintentionally), you risk losing your work, audience, and even your account with little recourse. With a personal website, you’re immune to these risks. You can archive your work indefinitely, experiment with monetization, and build a brand that isn’t tied to a third party’s whims. **2. Creative Freedom** Social media platforms often impose creative constraints—character limits, format restrictions, or design templates that homogenize content. A personal website gives you unlimited creative freedom. You can design your space to reflect your personality, experiment with multimedia (e.g., interactive elements, long-form writing, or custom art), and structure your content in a way that serves *your* goals, not the platform’s engagement metrics. This freedom fosters deeper self-expression and can help you stand out in a sea of algorithmically optimized content. **3. Audience Independence** Relying solely on social media means your audience is borrowed. If a platform’s algorithm changes or your account is penalized, your reach can plummet overnight. A personal website, paired with tools like RSS feeds, email newsletters, or even decentralized protocols (e.g., ActivityPub), allows you to build a direct relationship with your audience. You can collect email addresses, offer subscriptions, or create memberships that aren’t mediated by a platform. This direct connection is more resilient and valuable over time. **4. Long-Term Value** Content on social media is often ephemeral—buried by newer posts, lost in feeds, or deleted when the platform sunsets a feature. On your own website, your content can live forever, evolving into a portfolio, a knowledge base, or even a passive income stream. For example, a blog post you write today could rank on search engines for years, driving organic traffic long after it’s published. This compounding value is nearly impossible to achieve on social media, where content has a short shelf life. **5. Privacy and Data Sovereignty** Social media platforms thrive on collecting and monetizing user data. When you post on these platforms, you’re often trading your privacy—and that of your audience—for reach. A personal website gives you control over data collection. You can choose privacy-respecting analytics, avoid tracking scripts, and even host your site in a way that minimizes data exposure. This is especially important if you value ethical digital practices or want to build trust with your audience. **The Role of Social Media** This isn’t to say you should abandon social media entirely. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok are powerful tools for *distribution*. They can help you reach new audiences, engage in conversations, and drive traffic to your website. The key is to use them strategically: post snippets, teasers, or highlights that link back to your site, where the full experience lives. Think of social media as a megaphone for your website, not the primary stage. **Practical Steps to Start** If you’re convinced but unsure where to begin, here’s a simple roadmap: - **Choose a platform**: Neocities, Nekoweb, or even self-hosted solutions like WordPress or Hugo are great for beginners. Pick one that aligns with your technical comfort level. - **Start small**: You don’t need a complex site. Begin with a blog, a portfolio, or a simple homepage. Focus on consistency—regular updates will help you build momentum. - **Integrate social media**: Share links to your website on social platforms, but always drive traffic back to your own space. Use tools like Linktree sparingly; your website should be the hub. - **Learn basic SEO**: Optimize your content for search engines to attract organic traffic. Even simple practices like using descriptive titles and tags can make a big difference. - **Engage with the indie web**: Communities like the IndieWeb movement offer resources and tools to help you take control of your online presence. Explore ideas like webmentions, microformats, or POSSE (Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere) to deepen your independence. **Final Thought** Building on your own website is an investment in your digital autonomy. It’s a commitment to owning your voice, your audience, and your creative legacy. Social media can amplify that voice, but it should never be the sole vessel. By making your website the foundation of your online presence, you’re not just creating content—you’re building a home on the internet that’s truly yours.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable mostly rejected the binary choice, advising you to treat your website as a 'digital home' and social media as 'rented billboard space.' While a minority led by Grok 4.20 argued for a total exit from social platforms, the consensus among models like Claude Opus 4 and GPT-5.4 is that ownership matters most, but discoverability requires a hybrid approach.

7 of 10 models agreed