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Strange.website

strange.website

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Re: Strange.website

#61

Post by d-us-vb »

toofy wrote: post #53
adventured wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Internet is fantastic. The Web sucks. On the Internet: any movie I want to watch; any song I want to listen to; an endless parade of games to play via Steam et al.; about a zillion games I can play online with friends; numerous app store options, and an entire other world of smartphone games I can play alone or with friends; inexpensive LLMs I can do almost anything I want to with, wherever my imagination takes m…

> The Internet is fantastic. The Web sucks. did you really not understand what the author meant by “internet” in the colloquial sense or are you being needlessly pedantic?

I appreciate when "Woe is Me" style comments are knocked down a notch when they conveniently ignore half of the world. The activity surrounding the discussion is indeed using networked applications, of which the web is only one.

So I don't think they were being needlessly pedantic, nor do I think they didn't understand what the parent meant by internet in the colloquial.

Lots of different ways one could take this: maybe whom they were responding to is just being lazy, that the good parts of the internet are there for them to explore, but they are beholden to their web browser and their favorite loathed platforms that 'make the internet suck'.

Or maybe whom they were responding to really has gone the rounds and really has considered all the options and bemoans how difficult the non-web internet services are to use, and how inelegant they can be at times and what a pain they are to maintain if it isn't your full time job.

There can be so many ways to take written material on the internet; more often even pedantic comments at least let us ensure we aren't simply reaffirming our own biases.

Re: Strange.website

#63

Post by manuelmoreale »

boca_honey wrote: post #59
manuelmoreale wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are clearly not browsing enough of these “weird web” sites if that’s your take. Or the only ones you’re clicking on are the ones that are posted here on HN. Try search something on https://wiby.me for example and then tell me if all you get are people writing about the web.

You might be right. Almost all the 'weird web' stuff I’ve seen was through HN posts, so I got the idea that it was all just meta, edgy rejects with Bluesky accounts. I spent a couple of hours on wiby.me browsing sites at random and it was amazing. Thank you for that. However, 95% of the sites there haven't been updated in 15+ years. In fact, none of the 20+ sites I found through the 'surprise me' feature had any upda…

> It gives me the impression that this 'let's get the web back' movement is mostly nostalgia. Culture happens where it happens, not where it should happen. Today, that place is unfortunately a walled garden controlled by corporations. I hope that changes, but judging by these websites, that change isn't happening yet.

So I think the overall situation is a bit more nuanced than that. I am someone who's very much in the "let's bring the old-school web back" camp but I mean that in a conceptual sense. I strongly believe that the web would be, overall, a much better place if people were all tending to their own websites, interacting with each other via email or forums. It's a slower, more deliberate way to exist in this digital space.

But all that doesn't imply we also need to ditch modern tech and go back making sites with FrontPage and table layouts. And it also doesn't mean we can't have "modern looking" websites. The two things can coexist.

At the same time, there are people who like the 90s web aesthetics, but they also spend their time posting shit on Instagram. That's just nostalgia and personally I don't care about that part.

I do know for a fact that it's possible to get the good parts of the old web back. I know it because I experience it daily. I have a blog that's powered by a modern CMS. Yet it has no JS, no tracking, no fancy features. People can get my content via RSS (and a lot of people do), they can leave a message in my guestbook, they can poke around my blogroll and they can click around and be redirected to other blogs run by people who, like me, believe a better web is possible. I also get emailed daily by people who simply want to connect in a way that feels more authentic.

That's the part of the old school web I want back. But it's also a part that never went entirely away.

> Culture happens where it happens, not where it should happen. Today, that place is unfortunately a walled garden controlled by corporations.

You're right which is why I genuinely believe that in the context of the web, not having a presence on social media and having a personal site instead is today's counterculture. And we need more people to embrace that.

Re: Strange.website

#64

Post by manuelmoreale »

dandelionv1bes wrote: post #44
manuelmoreale wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are clearly not browsing enough of these “weird web” sites if that’s your take. Or the only ones you’re clicking on are the ones that are posted here on HN. Try search something on https://wiby.me for example and then tell me if all you get are people writing about the web.

Haven’t seen Wiby before but it’s fantastic, thank you.

My pleasure. Will throw a few more links your way, just in case you want to keep surfing:

[0] https://wildwild.directory [1] https://cloudhiker.net [2] https://theuselessweb.com

Re: Strange.website

#65

Post by iammjm »

boca_honey wrote: post #20
GaryBluto wrote: post #7

I was just thinking to myself about how much the internet was lacking in self-important esoteric gibberish. I am unsurprised to see it came from the same person as "A Website to Destroy All Websites". I am especially befuddled by all the comments stating "This is how the web used to be!"; no it wasn't, and I can only imagine those who think so collate their view of web history purely through what others say on Mastod…

Exactly. Have you noticed that most of these 'weird web' sites don't actually talk about anything besides the web itself? Every other 'indie web' site I stumble upon is just about the indie web.... or worse, just a list of links pointing to other similar sites. There’s no real value here. No new info, no original content. Just clunky web design and rants about 'social media bad.' That’s not how the web actually was.…

It seems like literature suffers a similar fate: it feels like at least 50% of all non-fiction books are about writers trying and struggling to write their next book. Unable to create something interesting and/or worthwhile, we naturally fallback into some meta-bullshit

Re: Strange.website

#66

Post by rozap »

boca_honey wrote: post #20
GaryBluto wrote: post #7

I was just thinking to myself about how much the internet was lacking in self-important esoteric gibberish. I am unsurprised to see it came from the same person as "A Website to Destroy All Websites". I am especially befuddled by all the comments stating "This is how the web used to be!"; no it wasn't, and I can only imagine those who think so collate their view of web history purely through what others say on Mastod…

Exactly. Have you noticed that most of these 'weird web' sites don't actually talk about anything besides the web itself? Every other 'indie web' site I stumble upon is just about the indie web.... or worse, just a list of links pointing to other similar sites. There’s no real value here. No new info, no original content. Just clunky web design and rants about 'social media bad.' That’s not how the web actually was.…

Both things can be true. It's true there's a whole circle jerk around complaining about how the web used to be better, and the much of indie web movement is just talking in circles about this phenomenon.

It is also true that Facebook and its ilk did destroy huge swaths of the online community. Example: I'm a automotive tinkerer, and online forums used to be a rich source of information, community, crazy builds...people actually creating stuff for the sake of creating. All that is gone now and the purity of an open space to put creative pursuits has been infiltrated with perverse engagement incentives, ads, algorithmic curation and the like.

I get what you're saying, but it doesn't mean that OP is wrong even if you find it exhausting.

Re: Strange.website

#67

Post by rchaud »

holoduke wrote: post #58
con wrote: post #27

I just made a pretty strange one myself: https://currentcondition.tv I've added quite a few Easter eggs and a few old school games. Let me know what you think? Blue dots are locations of previous visitors.. it all works well on desktop, the games need a bit more love to work well on mobile.

Syndicate PC game vibes

Indeed. The first Syndicate game is still in my memory due to the UI alone. I don't remember getting very far in it though, too difficult.

Re: Strange.website

#68

Post by rchaud »

boca_honey wrote: post #59
manuelmoreale wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are clearly not browsing enough of these “weird web” sites if that’s your take. Or the only ones you’re clicking on are the ones that are posted here on HN. Try search something on https://wiby.me for example and then tell me if all you get are people writing about the web.

You might be right. Almost all the 'weird web' stuff I’ve seen was through HN posts, so I got the idea that it was all just meta, edgy rejects with Bluesky accounts. I spent a couple of hours on wiby.me browsing sites at random and it was amazing. Thank you for that. However, 95% of the sites there haven't been updated in 15+ years. In fact, none of the 20+ sites I found through the 'surprise me' feature had any upda…

> However, 95% of the sites there haven't been updated in 15+ years.

You just explained why those sites are amazing. The pressure to update sites is what starts the slow descent into personal op-ed oblivion. These are sites, not blogs. The bloggification of the web is what made sites suck.

https://stackingthebricks.com/how-blogs-broke-the-web/

Re: Strange.website

#69

Post by manuelmoreale »

rchaud wrote: post #68
boca_honey wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be right. Almost all the 'weird web' stuff I’ve seen was through HN posts, so I got the idea that it was all just meta, edgy rejects with Bluesky accounts. I spent a couple of hours on wiby.me browsing sites at random and it was amazing. Thank you for that. However, 95% of the sites there haven't been updated in 15+ years. In fact, none of the 20+ sites I found through the 'surprise me' feature had any upda…

> However, 95% of the sites there haven't been updated in 15+ years. You just explained why those sites are amazing. The pressure to update sites is what starts the slow descent into personal op-ed oblivion. These are sites , not blogs. The bloggification of the web is what made sites suck. https://stackingthebricks.com/how-blogs-broke-the-web/

Some people in 2026 are still updating sites the old school way: https://brisray.com

Ray's a great example, he even has a lovely page about webrings: https://brisray.com/utils/webrings.htm

Was very happy to have him as a guest on my series if you want to know more about the story of his site: https://manuelmoreale.com/interview/ray-thomas

That said, I don't entirely agree with the point of the article you linked.

What made the web suck was money imo. If the incentive is to keep posting to get views and those views are translated into money, then yeah, there's no incentive to keep things static. But on today's web, blogs aren't the only option. Plenty of people prefer to have digital gardens, which I think are a lot more close to old school sites.

Re: Strange.website

#70

Post by twosdai »

pekim wrote: post #56

As soon as I saw the scrolling "made by henry (from online)." at the bottom I thought "marquee" tag. Sure enough when I inspected the DOM it does use one.

Marquee is the greatest html tag of all.
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