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The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

entrances2hell.co.uk

101–110 of 148 posts

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#101

> "© J H Irvine 2002" Yes. This is a taste of what the web was like before it became shit. And it's the way it should be again. Weird, quirky, fun, no ad-tech, no trying to hard sell anything. God, I miss this era.

Part of the problem is information discovery is dominated by big tech, between Google and social platforms. Mojeek is an alt search engine with an independent index that returns this site so obv indexed. https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=uk+entrances+to+hell I see another one there for Dutch locations http://pkazil.free.fr/e2hnl.html disclaimer, I used to work at Mojeek.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with the search results as compared to Google? https://www.google.com/search?q=uk+entrances+to+hell

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#102
post #49

> "© J H Irvine 2002" Yes. This is a taste of what the web was like before it became shit. And it's the way it should be again. Weird, quirky, fun, no ad-tech, no trying to hard sell anything. God, I miss this era.

I wonder if it would be possible to filter out the noise of the “modern web” by black listing big tech the same way we block ads. Might be an interesting project.

I would use a search engine that only indexed sites that have zero ads, tracking or referral links.

Not sure how useful it'd be, but I would use it!

It would probably be like Google circa 1999-2000

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#103
post #98
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it would be possible to filter out the noise of the “modern web” by black listing big tech the same way we block ads. Might be an interesting project.

If a search engine were to penalize ads, I bet a lot of those old sites would surface. The old web was an "amateur" web, people created sites to share content they were excited about, not to monetize it (or to allow a platform to monetize it). If search engines also make most of their money from advertising, they have a big conflict of interest. We need an open source search engine owned by a non-profit organization…

> If a search engine were to penalize ads, I bet a lot of those old sites would surface.

Maybe using an ad blocker to build a list of "websites that serve ads" (in addition to domains those ads are served from), and using that list to filter out results from an existing search engine API (like Duck Duck Go) would get you part of the way. But you'd probably need to search really far before you start finding sites that don't serve ads.

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#104
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem is information discovery is dominated by big tech, between Google and social platforms. Mojeek is an alt search engine with an independent index that returns this site so obv indexed. https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=uk+entrances+to+hell I see another one there for Dutch locations http://pkazil.free.fr/e2hnl.html disclaimer, I used to work at Mojeek.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with the search results as compared to Google? https://www.google.com/search?q=uk+entrances+to+hell

90+% of people would use Google to find stuff via search, it's useful to have other means. As you can see by their results they tend to favour 'fresh' (nee recycled content) pages rather than older and original sources.

//added

which is often the case as per comments in this thread with people generally feeling the commercial web has gobbled up original and niche content. Surely it can only be that way because the gateways to the web have made it so.

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#105
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did we stop explicitly welcoming people to websites (literally: “welcome to my website!”) . The same era that “going on the internet” was an actual activity. I miss that. It’s like we all stopped being excited by the web.

Content should speak for it self. Welcoming people to a website is same as starting a IM conversation with: "hi!".

Valid point, but there was something charming and innocent about "the welcome to my website" that I miss.

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#106
post #49

> "© J H Irvine 2002" Yes. This is a taste of what the web was like before it became shit. And it's the way it should be again. Weird, quirky, fun, no ad-tech, no trying to hard sell anything. God, I miss this era.

I wonder if it would be possible to filter out the noise of the “modern web” by black listing big tech the same way we block ads. Might be an interesting project.

I find this CSE quite usefull for finding old websites https://www.oldestsearch.com/

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#107

If that's too scary for you, you could always look at "Pylon of the Month" https://www.pylonofthemonth.org/ The website was set up by an Englishman, of course, because that's what us British do best: quirky and underwhelming. I heard a fund manager in the energy sector the other day who said that PotM was the thing that fascinated listeners most. Spoiler alert: January's pylon is from Cadiz in Spain, has its own Wiki…

Turns out there's a Dutch equivalent also: https://www.hoogspanningsnet.com/

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#108
post #23

> "© J H Irvine 2002" Yes. This is a taste of what the web was like before it became shit. And it's the way it should be again. Weird, quirky, fun, no ad-tech, no trying to hard sell anything. God, I miss this era.

That web still exists. Even though it has been eclipsed by the siloized monstrous goos, those independent, quirky, greenfield sites are still very much alive.

Finding a path to that still-existing web is like trying to casually hike into the fairy realm or something. It's all around us and invisible, inaccessible.

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#109
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much like saying ancient Rome still exist, you just can see it through all the gentrification

I love the comparison with gentrification. It’s not the same though. You can still see the old web untouched, it’s just almost impossible to find. But if you do find it, you don’t see the gentrification. Maybe it’s more like Rome being surrounded by hundreds of miles of malls, and parking lots, and highways, and those highways (and Google Maps) only leading you to those parking lots and malls. You’d have to stumble u…

Part of it is, SSL certs. Google downranks, heavily, websites without SSL.

Some of these sites will never see SSL, and so they are indeed as roads not on a map.

(It isn't relevant how easy or hard ssl and obtaining certs are. The reality is, these older, static html sires sometimes don't have ssl, and will never have ssl.)

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#110
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That web still exists. Even though it has been eclipsed by the siloized monstrous goos, those independent, quirky, greenfield sites are still very much alive.

Much like saying ancient Rome still exist, you just can see it through all the gentrification

  The empire never ended.
     —PK Dick.
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