What's up with all the cool Australian websites?

The Internet is a vast space—of which I can claim to have explored only a tiny, tiny bit.
And, as previously mentioned, I've discovered that a good bit of the small, personal websites on the Internet are, in fact, quite cool. 😎

However, not all cool websites are small, personal websites. There are some cool websites made by groups of people as well! And also, there are cool, personal websites, that are actually rather "large"—ranking near the top in search results!—even if they are in many ways part of the small, quiet web.

Something I can't figure out, though, is why it feels like there's such a disproportionate number of cool websites made by Australians and/or New Zealanders. Granted, Australia and New Zealand are home to one of the larger English-speaking populations around the world, which would explain why I might stumble upon Australian-authored websites when exploring the English-speaking internet. But, as exemplified by the 3 cool websites I'm about to share, I have yet to see dedication equivalent to that of small groups of Australians in maintaining cool websites.

And honestly, that puzzles me. Surely people across the ocean on that mythical land down under are not that different, culturally, in today's globalized age, that it would impact how they publish things online... right? 😮

^A stylized globe of the earth, with Australia popping out. Vaguely based on a screenshot of Globe.gl.
A stylized globe of the earth, with Australia popping out. Vaguely based on a screenshot of Globe.gl.

But puzzles aside, on to the sites themselves!

🥾 Ian's Shoelace Site

I've forgotten what first led me to Ian Fieggen's website, but: it's a real gem, a survivor of an older epoch of the Internet when people shared the things they love with others through their websites—and did not feel the pressure to monetize every single bit of their life from the get go.

The part of the website that stands out the most would be Ian's Shoelace Site—a section in which Ian shares a wide variety of lacing shoes. Some of them are meant to make a brightly colored shoelace stand out and look cool (my favorite is the perspective lacing), others are meant to be functional, making tying/untying faster, distributing pressure for a more comfortable fit, putting the knot away from a bike chain, or just shortening extra string.
In addition, the site is home to a few descriptions of tying shoes, including ways to avoid easily-untied "granny knots", and a variety of methods of making the classic shoe knot.

Something that stands out to me is the fact that Ian's site uses very minimal JavaScript, cookies, and other similar features of the "modern" 2025 web. Granted, it does feature Google Ads, which is unfortunate, but given the transparency with which Ian discusses his forays into monetization, I think I might give him a pass on that. 😃 (*And keep using an adblocker anyway. I would much rather donate than see advertisements... or suffer to see such a cool site taken down for hosting fees 😅)

🎲 Mezzacotta and Darths&Droids

I believe I found Darths&Droids through... er. that site that one should not link to, TVTropes. At the time, I was really into reading webcomics that featured D&D rules in some way, such as the classic DM of the Rings, and and Darths&Droids was yet another comic I jumped into, ate up all the available pages of, and subscribed to, waiting for more.

Yet, over time, I found that there was more than just Darths&Droids around.
You see, that whole cool webcomic was made by an Australia-based group, Mezzacotta , which makes a bunch of other cool webcomics, in addition to that one!

What I love about their site is the abundance of fun nooks and crannies to explore. Naturally, there's the comics, of which I already mentioned Darths&Droids, but there's also the Irregular Webcomic that I never quite got the premise of, there's the Square Root of Minus Garfield, that remixes all the Garfield comic strips (and that I even got to contribute a few pieces to, pseudo-anonymously), and there's the Comments on a Postcard and Dinosaur Whiteboard that are both good fun to read through. (And apparently, Mezzacotta itself used to be a webcomic, though I haven't explored it yet). But also, there's the fun, geeky Sports Explained page, as well as the Technobabble generator, both of which I've enjoyed quite a bit.

It is rather hard to believe that all of that varied content comes from just one group of people. Harder still: I haven't seen them run advertisements, they selling subscriptions, the whole site is completely devoid of JavaScript, there's not even the occasional cookie. It's just there, on the Internet, for anyone with a browser (or just curl) to enjoy.
Truly stunning.

▶️ Viva La Dirt League / VivaPlus

(Note, VLDL sketches feature stronger language than most links I share. Follow links at your own risk.)

..And, on the topic of Australian arts related to D&D, I can't help but mention Viva La Dirt League—a comedy sketch group from New Zealand that makes excellent short video sketches related to video games, retail, roleplaying, and more.

Picking favorites from VLDL's sketches is a bit hard—for there are so many!—but I am generally a fan of the Epic NPC Man line of sketches and I've quite enjoyed following their playthrough of the social deduction game Blood on the Clocktower.

Now, usually, I wouldn't mention a channel on a centralized platform like YouTube in a top-N-websites list. However: somewhat recently, VLDL decided they had enough of YouTube's algorithmic nonsense, and launched their own video platform! For all I can see, that custom video platform is not based on PeerTube or another similar open-source technology—but they do offer RSS feeds to members, so there is plenty of decentralization at work, there!
And that's great—the more small-group websites pop up, featuring individual creators, their work, and their communities, instead of huge behemoth websites that feature automated recommendations and rampant advertisements—the better!

Conclusion

As mentioned, I have no idea how Australians manage to be so dedicated with making websites and maintaining them long-term.

In the case of Ian's Shoelace Site, it's a story of Ian starting from a hobby page, expanding it with more information, making virtually the one and only best place for learning more about lacing and tying shoes, and then persevering despite the opportunity costs of maintaining it.
In case of Mezzacotta, it's a story of group of geeks, nerds, and roleplayers making webcomics ever since 2002, setting them free for the whole Internet to enjoy, and then keeping at it to this day.
In the case of Viva La Dirt League, the longevity of their platform is yet to be seen, but one can see the courage of the group to step out and establish their own studio, publishing mechanism, and web platform—something which I'm not aware of other comedy/sketch groups doing or attempting to do.

And... I'm not going to close out with something sappy, such as how we should all aspire to make websites like these three—for I'm sure that the individual circumstances (like prior careers or grateful fanbases) have influenced how those websites turned out, and we're only seeing the websites that have been successful.

What I would say, instead, is that I still haven't seen many other successful websites independent of large platforms, similar to those three, and I would love to see more such websites! If you know of other websites like that, and would like to convince me that, no, actually Australians are not the only ones putting out cool stuff on the Internet, feel free to reach out! And I will share your thoughts in the comments section below! 😊

This has been my 27-th article of #100DaysToOffload. Trying to pick up the pace, but let's hope I don't end up with 50DaysToOffload or 75DaysToOffload instead 😅

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