Ode to the old web

[claudeb]

I first got online in 1999. One of the first things I did was to create my first website (on Geocities), painstakingly updated from Internet cafes. When I retired it in 2006 or 2007, the whole thing still fit on two floppy disks. All 20-odd pages, plus some of my early 3D art. Nowadays, that's smaller than the average web page. And it all still works perfectly in a modern browser.

The old art of handcrafted HTML and CSS isn't dead yet. Young people rediscover it all the time. We just don't seem to be so good at finding and promoting those websites that work to keep the old flame alive. Neocities tried to make it a thing again, but they remained an obscure niche for some reason. That's too bad.

Now I find myself on Dreamwidth, along with many new arrivals, and lo! Here, the spirit of the old web never died off. Might have something to do with how the interface invites us to poke at it, change everything and express ourselves. Is it too technical? Maybe. But as I wrote elsewhere, how are newbies going to learn if you don't give them a chance to discover what's possible? So what if that means breaking stuff now and then.

People say it looks ancient. I say it looks clean. People say it lacks features. I say it loads quickly. How much do you need, really? Besides, I thought minimalism was all the rage this side of 2010?

Oh wait, that's just Apple fans. And only when it comes to appearances.

More recently, someone on Mastodon suggested going back to the roots. Defining a subset of HTML that doesn't need a modern, bloated browser engine to render, but something much simpler. To bring back genuine competition.

Something... like what text-based browsers can display?

Let's celebrate those websites that work well in Dillo. They don't even have to give up much. Mine for instance all have Open Graph support. And mobile support. The latter doesn't bother anyone. On the contrary. It makes a website work better for everyone.

Just make sure people can actually read the text, and disable animated GIFs if they need to. Otherwise, the web needs little of what's been piled up on top of its essence for the past decade.

Comments

[kalium]

I think DW looks not only clean but functional. I don't feel forced into using it one specific way.

Neocities needs more love. I've tried to get more people into it but they get put off by the lack of familiar social media features. I don't think a lot of people are even familiar with the idea. I recall seeing one person asking if you could comment on "Geocities posts" so I wonder if the basic idea of static web hosting is confusing?

[claudeb]

Good point! And I've been circling Neocities myself for a while now, but didn't join because I already have two websites, complete with domain names, paid for out of pocket. What am I supposed to do with a third? Wouldn't mind finding an answer, really.

As for other people, yeah, can't blame them. Many of them likely never knew anything outside of corporate social media. Showing them that we can have a different web, and in fact we used to, is part of the challenge.

[kalium]

I also have a domain that I use for hosting my for-sale art. So when I picked up Neocities I realised I was missing having a site for all my personal stuff. I put things like writing and personal artwork on there and other random junk like rambles or a page about the local cat cafe. Stuff.

I've actually recced it as a good host for writing, particularly original works, but again people get put off by the lack of interactivity. But for me it's not about that, it's about a fully customisable home for your work. I can see the idea of having a website with full control, and using social media to say "hey I updated" and having that be a conversation space. It seems workable.

[claudeb]

Yep, that seems to be the best way to go. I started doing it recently, and it works like a charm. It's what the IndieWeb crowd calls POSSE, but does it really need a fancy name? To me it seems like a form of common sense.