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Old Internet. False nostalgia and a vague vision

A couple weeks into isolation I had watched every movie and TV show I'd been meaning to, and I had read every article I pocketed for later. I scrambled to add more to my lists so that I would never reach an end. Eventually I had to admit that I didn't know what else to do on my computer.

Why was it so hard to entertain myself online now, when in high school I gladly spent 6+ hours online a night?

My quarantine loneliness first recalled how the "open lot" areas of forums, profiles, and IRCs had let me build a sense of self and a sense of community. Realistically, I'm too tired as an adult to go back to this type of internetting. I can't invest time somewhere where I don't have a pre-existing connectedness and where I can't trust that everyone has a shared progressive understanding. I also don't have the community organizing ability to build somewhere sustainable (and Discords / FB groups I've seen don't either). So I accept these types of spaces as a fond, finished memory for me.

Even after ruling out long-gone internet community spaces and old games, I still miss a lot about the old web. Surfing websites was an active activity. Websites were fucking weird! And they led to so many other weird places! It was a never-ending nest hopping around links. It was a version of losing hours on Wikipedia, but instead each link led to a glimpse of the inner-workings of someone you could only assemble a sketch of.

The sites

Trying to relive surfing websites like it's 2005 helped me understand what I'm drawn towards:

Personal DIY sites

  • fujichia.com is an experience that takes the form of the writer's personal castle (make sure to take the Stairs once you enter!). There's a central blog with lots of different nooks. I stumbled onto this site one year ago, and it's been so endearing to see the castle grow and morph over time. The changelog updates are written as a castle groundskeeper. The blog posts are full of whimsy like this one on index card buildings or preparing for the site's 1000th anniversary. And there are purpose-specific rooms. It's all very charming to me.
  • coolguy.website this site completely scorched earth and built anew since I first wrote this page. I like how this site has a bit of everything, all with a different scope. From manifestos and zines to a journal and small pages.
  • harmonyzone.org A game dev's personal site with levity as shown by their design and their pages like the Ball with Feet Fanpage. I'm glad to see The Low Tech webring keeping the webring tradition alive.
  • tombubul.info, and particularly the random stuff in his dungeons.

I love how personal sites can feel like you're watching a collage in the process of assembling. Crucially, they don't hide the unused snippets as an attempt for superficial polish.

The less someone knows about web development, the more I enjoy their site that was patched together against all odds. There was a great spirit in early web profiles where it didn't matter if it was coded well or even if the end result was beautiful, what mattered was that an attempt was made. 12-year-olds on Neopets or Myspace were encouraging expressive web communities. Fully owning your site gives a huge range of possibility that we largely forget.

Blogs / Mailing lists

What makes these feel old-web-y is how they are refreshingly humble. The authors are writing to express themselves rather than to make a Brand of their online Personality. They're elevating the mundane without trying to be aspirational. I love the spirit of just putting words out there that have no inherent use to the reader except that maybe some piece might stick for them.

Having a casual writer's work be all in one place gives it a weight it wouldn't have if the pieces were published as stray posts on aggregator sites.

Dilligent niche labors-of-love

  • kickscondor.com Cataloging the new old internet.
  • minigolfguide.wordpress.com This guy spent 3 months travelling to all 50 states to find the best minigolf course in the country. I would take a bullet for him. Each post gives the glimpse into who the person is, how their travels are going, and of course specifics of minigolf courses. I mini golf is the only acceptable form of golf, so I love to see the commitment.
  • erich-friedman.github.io the stereotypical eccentric math professor's site. Really endearing of wide mix of his personal endeavors he put a lot of effort into, and more informal personal silly pages.
  • World Carrot Museum has just so many detailed pages about carrots. Just click around and you'll stumble on some absurd pictures, like the collector's page for Romana.
  • showaspotmegri.cocolog-nifty.com I forgot about the feeling of "travel" you can get from visiting some sites.
  • Douglas Self's Museum of Retro Technology I was introduced to this page through his archive of N-Wheeled Cars. It was so satisfying to then discover that this massive page of information was one tiny link in a massive collection.
  • Ray Dunakin has a ridiculous amount of posts and videos of his abandoned mine explorations
  • HORG establishes a detailed taxonomy of plastic bread clips
  • CARI aesthetics research cataloging 1970s-modern visual aesthetics. Gen X Soft Club is the term I've needed for a while.

I love how these sites exude the creator's enthusiasm. The nicher the better.

Weird, weird shit

I love the absurdism of these sites existing. It's hard to find any remaining site in this category (beyond the classic conspiracy sites that I do not have the emotional energy for now). Some contemporary artists intentionally go for this angle in a forced self-hating irony, but the real ones achieve the effortless outsider art without being damaging.

Misc inspiration

What do you find fascinating on the web? How do you get your online sense of community? Email me