oh no its this guy

[krys]

heyyy there!! im krys, 30yo, he/they, queer. im puertorican x cuban, originally from puerto rico but now living in pennsylvenia. super excited to be here. i have been looking for a retro forum like this one for so long. this feels like a special secret i uncovered or something. it makes me so happy to see corners of the web still embracing the wackiness of the internet.

in a world where even cyber space has become bland in design and expression, stumbling on places like these fills me with excitement and inspiration to keep being creative. i dont have the coding skill to create my own website (i would like to learn), but i really like browsing others sites (specially neocities). it really feels like im traveling thru different worlds.

i really miss the times where we had dedicated computer rooms. it was like going thru a portal into the internet. coming back from school and sitting on the big squeaky chair, and booting up the dial up. i really miss the novelty and special feeling of it. im always very nostalgic for retro stuff like computers and toys and just stuff from the 80s + 90s. old stuff in general feels very meaningful and sentimental to me. i love collecting old books, comics, toys and tech. maybe i can show you guys my cool stuff later on.

some stuff about me: i like to draw and play video games. i have a senior dog, and a very entitled 4yo bird.

thank you so much for having me 

[WraithGlade]

Hello kyrs!

Coincidentally, I am brand new to the forum as well and was just about to make my own intro thread when I saw yours here posted just a couple minutes ago!

I definitely agree with you sentiment that it is nice to find a place that pays homage to the old internet.

As for myself, I'm ~35 years old and thus just marginally older than you.

It was certainly interesting to see the internet and computing tech evolve through the phases that it evolved through.

For example, do you remember when New Grounds was the closest equivalent to YouTube and video was too slow so Flash's vector graphics were kind of necessary for sharing animated videos?

I am also old enough to remember using Alta Vista as my preferred browsers for a few years before Google came along.

Anyway, I too feel inspired by this kind of healthier web environment here.

Dedicated computer rooms and nicely clunky devices and no phones to keep in one's pocket all the time was great I think.

I also am often struck by how strange it is how much slower modern UIs often are.

I remember reading an article where someone actually used a high speed camera to test the reaction times of computers after typing keys and it was generally faster on the older computers. Modern tech has taken some unexpected turns.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on so much. I'm often verbose.

Here's to the future for both of us newbies! 

[krys]

Hello kyrs!

Coincidentally, I am brand new to the forum as well and was just about to make my own intro thread when I saw yours here posted just a couple minutes ago!

I definitely agree with you sentiment that it is nice to find a place that pays homage to the old internet.

As for myself, I'm ~35 years old and thus just marginally older than you.

It was certainly interesting to see the internet and computing tech evolve through the phases that it evolved through.

For example, do you remember when New Grounds was the closest equivalent to YouTube and video was too slow so Flash's vector graphics were kind of necessary for sharing animated videos?

I am also old enough to remember using Alta Vista as my preferred browsers for a few years before Google came along.

Anyway, I too feel inspired by this kind of healthier web environment here.

Dedicated computer rooms and nicely clunky devices and no phones to keep in one's pocket all the time was great I think.

I also am often struck by how strange it is how much slower modern UIs often are.

I remember reading an article where someone actually used a high speed camera to test the reaction times of computers after typing keys and it was generally faster on the older computers. Modern tech has taken some unexpected turns.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on so much. I'm often verbose.

Here's to the future for both of us newbies! 

please feel free to ramble some more!! im excited to be here and chat about this sorta stuff. its comforting and fun.

i remember browsing google images for hours, thinking that it was google itself that owned all those images and not realizing it was just hyperlinks to other sources lol. having to click on each image individually and painstakingly wait for them to load was such an endeavor. i remember printing out all the images i liked, and getting on my poor mother's nerves for spending all the ink.

i would print anything that i liked and would put everything in a binder for safe keeping. i would also write down the super long urls, and even on christmas, i would be sure to include some urls on my wishlists 

oh and about new grounds, i actually never used it as a kid. i was definitely a youtube 7 part anime watcher. i also didnt use popular sites like deviantart as much either. instead there was this one page called "elfwood".



sadly its been closed for a long time now, but i remember having my first ever digital art exposure there. i had no idea how people would draw on their computers, so as a kid, i thought they would draw with their mouse and i just couldn't believe it lol.

oh and on my very early web days, i remember my mom having my brother and i use the aol browser. we also got our first ever emails and mom had set us up with incredimail. it was such a fun way to send and receive emails, because it had so many customizations and quirky sound effects.

man, i really wish the web was more fun and interactive like before. all websites look the same, just like buildings and general architecture   

[WraithGlade]

Interesting! 

What did you parents get you when you wrote URLs on your Christmas wishlist? 

Also, I've never heard of or seen Elfwood before. Looks nice.

I briefly used Deviant Art in college but only ever made a few posts a pretty much missed that boat entirely. Plus, I've been a programmer and "non-art" person for most of my life, so I had less reason to use it too. I'm trying to expand my art skills recently. I'd previously done some digital sculpting and 3D modelling but am trying my hand at painting a bit now.

Yeah, drawing with a mouse is hard, although more manageable if you use a "pulled string" smoother on your mouse input in your art software or else use do vector based art (e.g. Inkscape) so that you can adjust lines after the fact freely.

I do wish there were more "whooshy" and "just for fun" touches in modern software such as sound effects and quirky icons and design choices. The "flat design" stuff of modern design is so stale by contrast, and also harder to visually distinguish and work quickly with. I always hate it when I update a program and see that all color has been removed from all the icons and everything is then less usable thereafter. 

There are at least a few domains that still use heavy skeuomorphism (complex artistic UIs), of which the best example is music composition and sound design software. Indeed music and sound software are the greatest bastion of still-used skeuomorphism. They haven't changed really at all in that respect since the 90s. Look up the user interfaces for DAWs (digital audio workstations) and VSTs and synths and samplers for example. You'll see some wonderfully creative user interfaces that are basically the exact opposite of modern stale/soulless design. I wish all UI were still like that. It'd be so much more fun and diverse! 

[Paprika]

Welcome aboard the MelonLand forum, comrade ! 

[gloomystudent]

Hi krys!    I agree that joining this site feels like joining a secret club or something. I'm a bit younger than you so I never got to experience the old internet for myself, but I do remember the days when kids would learn HTML to customize their MySpace pages (is that the old internet??).

I've also experienced a fresh burst of creativity and inspiration from the small web movement. I find that I feel more comfortable here than I ever did on social media sites.