I think that even despite being a trend, some people can discover their long-term identities through it. Some will jump off, sure, but some will also simply find a great time and a new facet of themselves. Like people who start getting into books because of "dark academia" aesthetics, and then genuinely find they like it beyond just the aesthetic. Or hell, even my career, linguistics, I only found because worldbuilding was an online trend and that got me into constructed languages and theoretical linguistics, which I realized was a true interest of mine.

Sometimes these trends can make people more authentic, not less. But people have to be aware of it and how it happens when it goes wrong. In the past, I have done this "add this to my identity for a while so I am more interesting" thing with plenty of identity parts, subcultures and even mental illnesses and neurodiversities, which is obviously problematic both for myself and when it comes to ethics.

Yes to all of this. There's nothing wrong with exploring fads and one's identity and it's definitely not dishonest to participate for a bit and then drop off. Some experiments will stick, others won't. That's what our younger years are all about (and adult as well, but especially when we're young), discovering who we are by testing out new things that appeal to us at the time.

There are a lot of fads I got into when I was younger that I felt passionate about for a few months and then never engaged with them again. I dressed semi-goth/punk/glam in high school and got really into abandonware and software preservation in college, and playing around with those things contributed to who I am now, but they're not actively a part of my present persona. And then there are things that stuck with me to today, like my love of media and general spookiness.

I find that a lot of conflict comes from people having their personal/public identities challenged and they dig their heels in to preserve that identity rather than adapt. It's good to have a sense of self, but also to be flexible so you can deal with new things.

My favourites are tiger and bubblegum, which everyone else I know think are disgusting. Tiger is only good if you like black licorice, but I don't know what people dislike about bubblegum. Maybe it's a texture issue with the hard chunks of gum?

I've noticed this too, and my assumption has been that the retro web is a neat little fad to some people, sort of like the viral trends on TikTok and Instagram.

It coincides with the 80s nostalgia revival and how young adults seem to be dressing like it's the 70s again. (Does this mean disco is finally coming back?) Retro is trendy now.

This isn't to knock against anyone who signed up here, posted a welcome message and then never came back. It's not for everyone, but anyone who is looking to add "retro revivalist" to their public persona isn't going to get the same validation loop by posting on a retro forum as they would by going back to social media.

I like dogs, but I would never adopt one because they are too high maintenance.

That sounds even worse to me now that I've put it into words. I'm am awful person.

I spent more time on Expage than I did on Geocities, and I liked it better too..

You're the only other person I know who remembers Expage (or at least who has mentioned it). That's where I got my start making websites and I definitely spent more time on it than Geocities too. But Angelfire is where I spent most of my early life online.

I'm one of those "previous era" people. A lot of the sites I used to visit closed down as the owners got busy with other things, lost interest, had personal tragedies in their lives, or just couldn't justify continuing to pay for a web space that hardly anyone visited. I closed my own site when I finally got full-time employment in software development. I spend so much time programming in front of the computer for work that it killed my interest in doing it as a hobby.

But there are some that are still around. Dinosaur Dracula is a new-ish blog by the guy who used to run X-Entertainment (not a porn site). Both are/were general geek-culture sites focused on retro toys and videos.

YTMND (the original "gifs with sound":wink: closed down for a while but actually came back a few years ago. Content is all user generated and largely unmoderated, though, so be wary if you decide to visit. There was a period of time years ago where the front page was filled with racist memes, and I spent a lot of effort creating my own sites to try to push them down.

But that's really not many that I can think of off the top of my head. I think most people who wanted to make a living off of the internet moved to social media to promote themselves better, and either let their personal sites die or go un-updated for long periods of time.

WOLFCLUB does not sound like vaporwave at all to me? It's pretty standard synthpop.
Not bad by any stretch, but I think vaporwave is something entirely different: slower, slowed vocals, reverb, mixed-in advertisement jingles and digital sound effects, playing with mid-90s synthesized music sounds.

I actually didn't realize there was a distinction. Vaporwave is a much more specific sub-genre than I thought. Thanks for pointing that out.

You might like the youtube channel NewRetroWave. They post a lot of vaporwave music.

My favourite band that I found through that channel is W O L F C L U B, and this is definitely their best song.

I found the first few by browsing the Neocities tags for different interests like "scifi", "retro", etc. Then I found the rest by clicking every external link those sites had.

I included Webrings as my third choice. I haven't really found any great sites through them, but I love the concept and know that someday I'll find the bestest site ever through a webring.

Granted. Your anxiety plans a nice trip to Mexico with all of your friends but leaves you behind to water its plants.

I wish I didn't need coffee to function in the morning.

I'm a big Dark Souls fan, but it takes so long for From Software to make a new game that I always get a craving in between. There are a lot Souls-likes, but a lot of them aren't very good. So let's compile a list of the good ones.


Ashen



I love the art style of this game. Everything has a faceted look with sort of impressionist textures. The coop is a bit like Journey, where you just stumble on other players who are in the same area, but I don't think many people are still playing it so you're more likely to come across NPCs. You're not really meant to tell which is which.


Death's Gambit



This is the only 2D Souls-like I really enjoyed. I don't think the Souls-style combat translates well into 2D, but Death's Gambit is more of a traditional platformer with Souls-like elements so I think it works out pretty well.


Jedi Fallen Order



When EA first showed this game, I thought it looked lame. EA's track record definitely didn't help. But if they had just said that it was a combination Star Wars/Souls-like/Metroidvania game, I would have been instantly sold. It's definitely the best Souls-like I've ever played.

The only album I ever received in the mail is actually the first album I ever bought, which is this classic:



The most recent album I bought in general, if we're not counting individual songs, is "Runaways" by W O L F C L U B, which is a retrowave band I got into a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moB6qyCUVos&list=PL7HqQBNhiEfg-VlqZZ8umv5dgMjurBT9r

Including individual songs, I bought "Alligator" by Of Monsters and Men from the album "Fever Dream."

I was in high school during what I consider to be the golden age of webcomics. There are still a lot today, but most only get posted on social media and follow a meme-friendly format.

The first webcomic I ever read was Angst Technology. I only came across it because there was a short storyline about the game Dungeon Siege, which I was big into at the time. Before that, I didn't know webcomics were a thing. The comic is no longer ongoing, but the author has thankfully kept an archive on his new(er) website (also no longer updated). It's nice to revisit it every once in a while.

I got really into webcomics after that and had dozens of sites bookmarked. Most of them are long dead, and some only exist as stubs on wikis like No 4th Wall To Break, Comet 7 and F@nboy$. Looking For Group still has a website that has been recently updated, but the archive appears to be dead.

A few others that I can think of that still have an archive up are A Lesson is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible, Men In Hats, Boy on a Stick and Slither, Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life and 8-bit Theater. Action Figure Graveyard still exists on DeviantArt, but the original website was taken down for exceeding the bandwidth limits of their host. Gone With the Blastwave occasionally comes back to life for a single page and then dies again.

I also used to read MegaTokyo, which is still ongoing, but I stopped reading it after the co-creator left because it turned into too much of a sappy self-insert drama. I'm pretty sure it will outlive us all, though.

The ones I still read regularly are Penny Arcade, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Awkward Zombie, Cyanide and Happiness and The Perry Bible Fellowship.

I also tried my hand at making a few of my own webcomics, none of which are still around though.

Edit: I keep thinking of more, and some of them are still around, so I'll add them as I think of them.

Sam and Fuzzy
Topato
Dr. McNinja
Hark! A Vagrant
Chainsaw Suit and Checkerboard Nightmare
Nedroid Picture Diary
Little Saiyalings
The Non-Adventures of Wonderella
Three Panel Soul and Mac Hall
Little Gamers
Wigu
Chopping Block

Keep in mind I haven't read any of these in, like, a decade, so I can't vouch for the content. Some of them may be nsfw or offensive.

Granted, but every time you shapeshift someone else you know does too, irreversibly.

I wish cartoons were real, ala Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Creative Writer. It came with my parents' Windows 95 computer. It's not really much of an art program, since it was just a bunch of clipart and fonts, but it let you design and print birthday cards and stuff like that.



I also had Wacky Worlds Creativity Studio on Sega Genesis.

For the entirety of 2022, have been trapped listening to JUST one band (okay yeah I do listen to other bands but not as much as these guys), Major Parkinson. I've been mostly listening to their album Valesa pt. 1 over and over again, especially the tracks after "Jonah" because they all follow each other very well. Their songs are just so pleasing to my senses.

This gave me major Trans-Siberian Orchestra vibes, specifically "The Snow Came Down".