That is SO COOL that you're doing your own gallery for your art. Very clever. I'd love if it caught on with other artists. Is it hosted somewhere, or are you building it yourself?
I've got my own website and hosting, and I'm using third-party software to run my gallery.
I would love to see more of the old school web galleries catching on, but the biggest hurdles today are 1) finding web hosting, and 2) knowing how to build a site.
Neocities is a superb place to learn, and they have generous free hosting and extremely affordable membership options, and no ads, ever. They're funded entirely by their supporters, rather like AO3, so they're not beholden to ad companies—which means they don't have to police content (apart from the typical "nothing in violation of state/federal/international law" as stated under the Offensive Material and the Lawful Use section in their Terms). It's actually a fantastic place for artists to upload their mature art*.
*But you can't hotlink without being a paid supporter. Hotlinking is embedding images on sites outside of where the image is hosted. So if you wanted to use Neocities as a place to upload your nsfw art so you could post it on AO3, you'd need to pay for that ability. But still, having a gallery where you can direct people to your art is pretty sweet.
The only drawback to Neocities that I've seen is that you're limited to doing everything with HTML/CSS and Java, and for experienced web devs who are used to managing their own databases and working with PHP and installing whatever software they want, basically having complete control over every aspect of their site, Neocities is a bit limited. But for new and intermediate web builders, this shouldn't be a problem. There are lots cool ways to build your own website and have a gallery and just play around and pretend it's 1997 again. (Again? For some, maybe.)
I've got a Neocities site that I occasionally tinker with. Who knows, maybe if enough people join up we can start a DP web ring or a Pompep Club like how fandom used to do back in the early internet days.
(I am not associated with Neocities.org or being paid to promote their services. I just really like what they're doing.)
