Finding the Old Web

de-commercialized and personalized internet experiences

Maybe every other month now there's some think piece about how the old web was better in some way; more quirky and personal, not beholden to tech company's aesthetics, etc. Here's some stuff I've collected about a) finding the old web, b) archiving the old web once you find it, and c) creating a new old web.

Add “reddit” to a search term; this will bring up people having discussions (on Reddit, obv.) about the thing rather than companies trying to sell you the thing. Search string: site:reddit.com [TOPIC]

Bonus: try “forum,” it'll do a similar thing. Or try Boardreader, a forum searcher.

Use Millionshort to filter out the top # of sites. When I did this I stumbled across Ty Collector, a Beanie Baby collection website run by a father/daughter duo.

StumbleUpon used to be a good way to find random, cool websites, but has since turned into something else. StumblingOn is a clone of the old, original SU.

Wiby searches “old internet” webpages, e.g. Tripod.

“What's murdering the old internet is the lack of links. Everyone is posting screenshots, twitter/facebook/etc all hijack links, and we're surprised we can't find the sites.” [source].

Make blogrolls! Create a list of links to your friends' sites.

Move away from relying solely on likes, hearts, kudos, etc. Connect with people through discussion, through email, comments, tweets, whatever. Talk to people!

Use RSS to subscribe to people's websites. You can self-host a reader using Tiny Tiny RSS, or you can use Dreamwidth's built-in RSS option.

If you have a website, make an RSS feed obviously available for people to subscribe to. If you have a blog, most blog software includes an RSS feed. Otherwise you'll have to make one.

Convincing-looking 90s fonts in modern browsers.

Neocities; create a free homepage, 90s-style.

Nostalgia for the 2000s; a collection of pixel art and things circa 2002.

• Rediscovering the Small Web; a history of web design.
• The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet; building spaces for discussion that are non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified.
• How the blog broke the web; the introduction of standardized blogging software made things easier for users, but also killed early internet creativity (this is a common theme).
• Indeed, it seems that Google IS forgetting the old Web; how Google's search results have stopped indexing older websites.
• Why isn't the internet more fun and weird?
• 404 Page Not Found; the new internet is capitalizing on the nostalgia for the old internet.
• We Should Replace Facebook With Personal Websites.

Originally posted on Dreamwidth, October 31, 2019. Updated October 21, 2020.