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Does anyone remember websites?

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Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#181

Post by fasquoika »

dogcow wrote: post #161
tree_of_item wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you find these Gopher sites? Is there a Gopher search engine, or is it just a hand-updated list?

Gopher is a great protocol. I never really used it back in its heyday; I'm not sure I knew it existed at the time (I didn't really get "real" Internet access until 1995 or so). I recently discovered it after having similar sentiments as the author of this article concerning the state of the WWW. After you get your Gopher client set up (lynx in the terminal works great), a good starting point is gopher://sdf.org There…

On gopher://sdf.org:

"Many people think the http protocol deprecated gopher, but that just isn't true. Where do you think gophers live? underground"

Edit: more gold

"After dumping linux and x86 in favour of return to real computers, we have not had any major security issues"

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#182

Post by minikomi »

I've found amateur ham radio stations are a good thread to tug on to find that older weird-internet.

- Look for the sites with 4-5 letter callsigns on them

- Go to their links page

- Keep going down the rabbit hole.

EG. here's a few I just found googling:

http://www.qsl.net/kp4md/

https://k7nv.com/

http://www.w8ji.com/

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#184

Post by Zhenya »

dogcow wrote: post #167

Check out the search engine at http://wiby.me From their about page: Search engines like Google are indispensable, able to find answers to all of your technical questions; but along the way, the fun of web surfing was lost. In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercia…

My favorite website: http://www.otherhand.org/

And my favorite article on it: http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hun...

(No association)

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#185

Post by ashark »

heydonovan wrote: post #154
rayiner wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is not great for finding stuff. I’ve complained at length about how bad it is for doing research, but recently I’ve also found it’s totally useless for finding things like reviews of products (unless it’s something like the new iPhone). It’s like legitimate reviews are a casualty in the war between Google and clickbait SEO crap.

People don't search the same. For example, if I'm looking for something, I rarely use Google. Always Reddit, which will take me to a specific community with a wiki, and discussion. My Girlfriend will type something into Google, without using an Adblocker, and click on the first thing (which is always an ad), and filled with SEO garbage. I'm assuming most people search this way as well, which is why it's so lucrative.

I’m still surprised the resistance-to/wailing-about Google’s placing ads inline with search results died down as quickly as it did. It’s a total shitbag move on their part. Bottom-feeding scum behavior, right there in your face at the top of search results screens. Maybe the worst, because so effective, dark pattern on the entire web. That anyone from the company gets away with speaking in public without being shouted down by hecklers is a bad sign for tech and for society in general.

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#186

Post by ashark »

dEnigma wrote: post #117
ambrosite wrote: post #30

I do remember those websites. For me, the difference is that now the Web is much more useful, but back then it was a lot more fun. True, you could sometimes waste hours following random links hoping to find something good, but the thrill of discovery when you stumbled across a gold mine of information was a huge part of the appeal. Nowadays, anyone with a basic understanding of search engines can find almost anything…

I recently tried to search for certain Nintendo 64 ROMs because I wanted to try out an emulator. The first couple of results on Google all lead to horrible, ad-infested websites that claimed to offer a download but either kept on redirecting me to more ad-filled sites, or tried to get me to download some sort of "download helper", "media codec" or "PC cleaning software". Then there were the sites with dozens of fake…

archive.org is the unofficial official source for ROMs on the Internet now, FYI.

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#189

Post by donatj »

always_good wrote: post #73
outsidetheparty wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what we have now is a paradise compared to what we had then Here's how I recall it: Back in the day, you'd search for subject {$foo} and you would find mostly websites written by some cranky bearded weirdo who is obsessed with {$foo}, who has devoted weeks of his time to personally collating his every thought about {$foo} into one ghastly-looking site. Nowadays, you search for {$foo} and find mostly beautifully tem…

> Nowadays, you search for {$foo} and find mostly beautifully template-designed pages of text written by indifferent fiverr freelancers who had about 20 minutes to stuff in as many keywords into as many column inches wrapped around as many ad slots as possible before moving on to the next subject. Yeesh, does anyone else have this opinion? I sure don't. It's never been more trivial to find good, enriching content. Ho…

Having worked for a company that helped a myriad of other companies write shitty clickbait content, I agree with the commenter. The majority of content on The web now is written by people who don’t really give a shit about the topic and have nothing new to say on it, the only reason it exists is to drive clicks, SEO.

It used to almost entirely be populated by people who actually cared.

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#190

Post by spc476 »

dogcow wrote: post #167

Check out the search engine at http://wiby.me From their about page: Search engines like Google are indispensable, able to find answers to all of your technical questions; but along the way, the fun of web surfing was lost. In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercia…

That site reminds me of a Douglas Adams quote: “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
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