I haven't seen anyone mention this and I do love a little rant, so I'd like to add: Links to the webmaster's social media, especially if those links are on the homepage.

At least in web revival circles, I didn't come to someone's personal website to get directed back out to instagram or the like. I get why people do it -- a lot of people have the majority of their backlog and following on various social media sites. It makes sense to just say "Hey, there's a lot more of the things I've made on these other sites" rather than repost it. But still.

Oh wow, this is so cool! I haven't been on a oekaki board in years. Used so many between 2003 to 2009ish. Show specific ones like Teen Titan, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Codename: Kids Next Door. There was one giant board that I remember using, but I can't remember the name. It had a sketch board, a spam board, a novice, intermediate, and advanced board... I think it might have been related to the Naruto forums, but I can't say for sure.

Anyway! Definitely gonna go draw something.

Oh, A-frames. Literally my favorite kind of architecture. A little magic side-dimension on top of a sky scraper with my cabin in the woods would be peak.

Thank you for the welcome, Melon!

I got my start posting on the internet back in 2003, on a LEGO Bionicle forum called BZPower, which is still around today actually, though a fragment of its former size. It was huge back then, with a devoted community and a very strange, specific culture. They had a relationship with the main writer of the toyline, who would answer fan questions, but he was only allowed there by LEGO if they didn't allow any links to social websites outside BZPower-- nothing with so much as a comments section under an article. So it was a strange, insular place, but with an incredible flourishing of art, LEGO models, and long-form fiction. A lot of incredibly deep, abstract nerd conversations about whether free will existed in the universe of the story, or whether destiny predetermined everything. We were daily bugging the writer with questions like that, which I'm sure he never expected from his toy-writing gig.

~~~

These days I'm just rediscovering webforums after a long absence. I've recently started posting on Dream Views, a site dedicated to lucid dreaming skills. What other active communities are you guys aware of?

Ohhhh, time to get nostalgic and a little embarrassed. I lurked on quite a few forums without joining back in the early 2000's. A Naruto forum whose name a can't recall comes to mind. My two big mainstays were both cartoon-focus: A Danny/Sam forum for Danny Phantom (also in 2003!) and a Codename: Kids Next Door a bit after that. Both are definitely defunct by now. I remember the Danny Phantom forum was called "Invisable Love". Yes, misspelled exactly like that. It had a purple animated stars background that I thought was cool as hell and definitely would mess you up if you had any photo sensitivity issues. I still think animated star backgrounds are cool as hell, won't lie. Love the way this forum looks.

The C:KND also had a direct line to ask questions to one of the show runners! We would send him emails and then post the responses to the forums. No idea in retrospect if it was legit. I can't image someone who's making a Cartoon Network show having so much free time to respond to randos on the internet or the freedom to respond to the kind of questions we asked with about zero over site. But who knows! It was a different time. That forum actually had a surprising spread of ages on it -- there was at least one popular poster on there who was an adult woman, married with elementary aged children. I was in my mid/late teens by then and honestly I'm a bit embarrassed to have been that old and that into KND.

And of course there was Gaia Online. That was truly the place to be for me and my high school friends. Sometimes I think about going back and making a new account, as the old one has very much been purged. I'd still be there mostly for the avatar dress-up, though.

Can't say I know of too many current communities. Yesterweb has one I know, but it still seems to be getting off the ground. Dream Views sounds really cool! I've lucid dreamed about 5 to 8 times in my life. I should check it out later!

Hello, hello! I'm here and I'm ready to make that everyone else problem. (Not really! _Unless...?)

Around these parts I go by Jollyswoosh. You can call me Jolly, Swoosh, JS, or anything else that makes you smile. Names are just like, a social construct, dude.

I draw (sometimes), write (sometimes), sing (more than people would probably like), and stare into the void (constantly, as we all must). I also overuse parenthesizes, so I hope that doesn't bug you too much. I enjoy kitch, anime and cartoons, the occasional book, thinkin' 'bout the tiny home in the woods I'll probably never have, and watching youtube video essays with my partner. I have a NeoCities site but it is very much a WIP, so forgive me for not linking it just yet. There truly isn't much to see.

I found this forum the way I think many do, which is mostly by clicking through links in the yesterweb/indieweb/oldweb? circles. Thought I'd join. I'm quite new to the movement, so I'd appreciate being helped out with terminology :> Thanks in advance!

What I like most about making things on the web is the feeling of control. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm the most excited about learning HTML or CSS -- I think of it more as a means to an end. But I'm definitely completely fed up with how... stuck I feel on modern, money-focused websites. I can feel how they try to manipulate me and it's been a long time since I was willing to deal with that. Making my own website and exploring outside of the corporate web has made me more excited about the internet than I've been in years.

Thanks for having me! 0v0