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.

Absolutely, and the phrase "add xyz to their public persona" hits very close to home.
I fully admit that originally, I came here on the same note, attempting to add to my identity of sorts, but in doing so I have realized that this identity chasing is also a product of this modern social media and way of life. In constructing a public identity, I have found that constructing an identity itself is an issue. I realized I am genuinely in fact much more comfortable here. It feels like home again, honestly, probably also because I grew up in forums.

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.

As someone who writes these regularly, honestly I'd write it somewhat like this:


Dear X,

unfortunately due to xyz reason, I was unable to do zyx task in the allotted time frame.
I have now however finished the assignment and am hereby submitting it for grading.
I apologize for the additional hassle this has caused and wish you a good weekend/week/...

Sincerely


My Name

I like various styles of pizza. Spinach, maize, feta cheese, raw tomatoes, and agaricus mushrooms are all great on it.

bnuuy

I personally like and , but I rarely get to use all of them.

I dunno, it has kind of always been like that. People register for one whim perhaps, and then never come around to check the forum again, or they do and just don't vibe with the posts until they forget about it.

Maybe people kinda also forgot how to use a forum; checking the unread posts and replying on your own terms instead of having an infinite front page.

I personally check Melonland every day because it's my primary social. Others might forget it in their bookmarks.

I don't see the issue much. In chatrooms, there's regulars and randoms, and in forums it's the same.

These are incredible and super reusable. Amazing work.

Feel free to!

Heya,

I just found this fun little toy to play around. Put in any normal website and this web app distorts it to "look like a 13 year old's GeoCities website".

http://www.wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/

I think the most obvious answer is that they changed with the times. I know plenty of people who are absolutely embarrassed by having had a MySpace account, being on Geocities or having a LiveJournal. They call it their "emo phase" or blunder years, and are nowadays posting recipes and dog pictures on Instagram.

Plenty of people who used to be in these scenes consider the old web an embarrassing eyesore these days.
They simply grew out of it.

In standard HTML, this is not possible.

However, if you want to venture into controversial territories, use iframes, which is exactly what you want:
https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_iframe.asp

However, on the original old web, this was very controversial, as frames took forever to load, only worked in a few browsers, weren't indexed by search engines, and generally were seen as a distortion and commercialization of the web:
http://www.verycomputer.com/295_345a51d5e0752b58_1.htm

Especially because navigating through frames doesn't change the URL, so knowing which specific site you are on just by looking at the address isn't possible, breaking the user view, bookmarking, and linking.

There were even blinkies/badges to put on your website:

I just have this habit of "restarting" my online life when it gets "too much".

Absolutely, same, I go through the same things.
I don't know how many accounts I have deleted because I dragged myself into overzealous political debates or general narcissism and "identity showcasing". When I still considered myself trans and was in that larger social bubble, I talked about nothing else, posted selfies every day, did PSA posts all the time, attacked people for the most minute things, blew up with really aggressive political posts, and tried to go "viral" with callouts, and even talked myself into various neuro-diversities like plurality and autism n stuff so I could put them on my profile even though I literally (in retrospect) just imagined it because I wanted to be interesting and fit in with the cool goth kids so badly. Of course I have to mention that none of these things are bad in isolation, but believe me when I say I was absolutely obnoxious at the time.
I still consider myself nonbinary these days and am diagnosed with ADHD, but I try to make my personality less only centered around these things and less obnoxiously loud about it; instead trying to make myself more about what I actually enjoy doing and what my skills and hobbies are. Personal preferences though.

I noticed a few years ago that the unhealthy behavior that drives me to be like that on social media literally only happens with mainstream sites for me: Instagram, Twitter and so on. Ever since I stopped using them and retreated to forums, things have gotten wayy better. On forums, I feel like I think more before I post, which is way better than shouting out every thought in seconds using just a few sentences. On Twitter, I feel tempted to write a provocative post whenever I have a strong emotion, and since it only takes a few seconds, I don't think before I act.

Puppy

I'm sorry if tbis does not exactly fit the question, but I faced a similar conundrum a while ago.

I used to run an instagram account when I was 13-17. It was a "meme" account, even though it never got more than 40 followers which really just gave me more of an excuse for posting whatever. At one point, I just stopped posting entirely and used the stories feature to post whatever thoughts were on my mind at the time with white text against a black background, kinda like an impromptu twitter.

My problem was: A lot of the memes or thoughts I posted in the earlier days were really edgy, problematic and frankly embarass me to this day. While I never intended to return to instagram, I wondered: Should I delete this account, or leave it? I mean, it was a HUGE part of me. It's the only place where I really got to speak my thoughts, the only place I had to vent, and to this day the only place where I came out as bi.

I settled on using instagram's archive feature, while deleting the more problematic stuff. Maybe I should not have deleted anything, but I guess it's done now. I guess the internet makes us face versions of ourselves that we don't like.


I come back to it sometimes. And you know what? Some of 16 year old me's jokes are still funny and most of his videogame opinions are still correct.

I think your solution was good. We need to remember that the things we share can influence people, and the more problematic memes are just normal memes floating around the more people are going to be subconsciously influenced by them thinking they're fun "taboo but funny" opinions to have. I think deleting or commenting offensive and harmful things is a good step.

Today I found myself before a difficult choice.

I have been in a certain fan game's fandom ever since I was only 12 years old ten years ago; until when I was 16 in 2017, I left the fandom because I lost interest.

Now in 2023, being almost 22 years old, something has sparked my interest again. So, I wanted to rejoin the fandom and the associated forums for it to interact with the community once more.

But... should I go reactivate my old account from when I was 12, or make an entirely new one?

The choice is made more difficult since a lot of the things on my account from back then are now embarrassing to me, or even outright problematic. I used to be a very confident little shite with ignorant opinions and a bad sense of humor, and honestly some of the things from 2014 in particular make me uncomfortable nowadays. I do not want anyone to associate me with these old posts. They were not incredibly bad, but problematic enough to make me wince.

So, I came to a conclusion.

I decided to reactivate the old account and write a new re-introduction where I also mention that I no longer feel like I did when I was 14, and that I grew as a person.
My thought process for this decision was as thus: I think it is important to build a legacy with your accounts if you can handle it, because that way you can show people that people change, and that they grow maturer with time. I don't think the old posts should just age there uncommented, as if I just went offline and never changed my opinion. Even if these old posts are uncomfortable to me now, I can show people that that's okay, people change, and I no longer hold these opinions or would make these jokes. Some people might see that the world is changing for the better, and that ignorant kids on the internet are not going to forever be ignorant kids. I think it was a somewhat good step to own up to it.

Thoughts?

OMG this is awesome - thank you for making it!!

Oh don't worry about it x) It took like five minutes.

I also made these ones recently for my socials: