Where do "web shrines" come from?

[John]

Sorry for the strange question; I'm new to the indi web and during the old web days I was mostly browsing German sites, so I'm not very knowledgeable about international internet culture and lingo.

Now, I'd like to create a sub-page on my website about one of my favourite computer games, Morrowind, where I talk about the game world, show off my fan art and so on. This would be a web shrine, right? It's just that calling it a shrine sounds really ... foreign, strange, a bit awkward to me.

I know I'm under no obligation to use that lingo, but I'm curious about its origins and might come around to it, if I know more. Is it a new indi web term or was the concept around in old web days? This article from the 90s talks about web shrines, but describes them as memorials for deceased loved ones, places of solemn remembrance—not a page where I show off some fandom I'm part of.

Or am I mistaken about the nature of modern web shrines and what I'm planning doesn't qualify at all?

[grubbyfox]

I dont know the actual history of shrines, and I dont remember it being called shrines either back in the early 00s. Maybe it was called shrines by the actual "community" but I didn't see that word around at least as a simple viewer of homepages.

But I guess it could have been called shrines or similar, and anecdotally what I thought/assumed/figured was the idea, was that you'd make a "shrine" for something either as an individual page, or you'd have one or more shrine-pages on your homepage.
And they were often sort of, works of art that you finished and left to be viewed as it was. So if it was a shrine to just like a tv series that ended, or a deceased pet, or like a boat or car or just something that you owned and loved etc. You'd make the shrine to your liking and then leave it as is. Obviously someone would re-do it from time to time, but afaik it wasn't supposed to be actively updated or worked on after being uploaded. Obviously there wasn't a rule against that, but at least that's what I picked up from just spotting these in the wild both back then and during the web revival era. It's a sort of place of rest/place of memory/place of thought/love etc so it kinda makes sense in my head at least that it was to be a finished piece of art, rather than how they'd update and work on other aspects of their website.

Idk if that many any sense. It was honestly rare that I came across "shrines" back then, but the ones I did, that was the vibe I was getting at least.

[lakes]

I'm not sure where the term "web shrine" comes from. I've seen it a lot, but I personally prefer the term "fanpages" or "fansites" because it feels more straightforward to me. If I just say "shrine" to someone who's not into indie web stuff or are new to it, they might be confused.

[John]

I think I'll probably go with 'Interests' as menu item and then have a couple of sub pages about different things I'm interested in.

[Valery_04]

There was a webshrine hosting service called "waifu.ist" that was a good tool for hosting interactive webshrines without having the harsh of paying Neocities supporter plan for enhancing the widgets and these things. Now the page is not found because the developer affirmed their computer stopped functioning and lost all the files of that page itself.

I hope there was a revival of waifu.ist because I finished a webshrine dedicated to my fav character and it actually has the WebAmp widget with a skin of the character and obviously the theme songs of the character that are such bangers. And I'm a Neocities user with free plan so the WebAmp goes without the skin 

[Tiffany]

So, Shrines are more like a personal version of a fanpage or fansite, and they are much much smaller, and there is more of a community around them. I can't say for sure where they came from but they have been around for as long as I've been on the internet which is 2000, and I've always seen them closely intermingled with fanlistings. Which I've seen many fanlistings what were also Shrines. One of the old Shrine directories Amassment has more information.

[stephan_e_perez]

Sorry for the strange question; I'm new to the indi web and during the old web days I was mostly browsing German sites

Hallo/Servus/Grüzi!

This article from the 90s talks about web shrines, but describes them as memorials for deceased loved ones, places of solemn remembrance—not a page where I show off some fandom I'm part of.

Or am I mistaken about the nature of modern web shrines and what I'm planning doesn't qualify at all?

Its meaning as a sort of fanpage was definitely a thing in the late 90s / early 2000s... I remember, as a horny 13/14 year-old visiting some website that had "shrines" in the name which were collections of hentai fanart of characters from various anime and videogames.

The article you linked to is interesting... I especially like this part:

But the electronic fragility of the Web shrine -- like the sacred flames of antiquity -- somehow seems wholly appropriate: shrines bear witness both to the virtues of the departed and to the continuing devotion and memory of those who tend the site.

lvpart.com, linked in my signature, is this kind of shrine, though I don't call it such.