how do we get the word out about this side of the web?

[xandra]

i've been thinking about this for a few days now, but it seemed like the pipeline to the yesterweb community was through spacehey and/or looking up tutorials online through sadness' website. coming up on two years within the personal web/yesterweb/web revival space, i'm curious to know how folks found melonland in comparison and, to that end, how do we best spread the word about building a personal website and/or participating in a non-social media web?

[NacreousDreams]

I learned about the web revival through Neocities, which I learned about from a MichaelMJD video covering an old website maker that Microsoft released. Made a site of my own (that I really should update soon...), browsed a couple other people's sites, and eventually stumbled upon MelonLand and found out it had a forum.

Besides videos directly covering the web revival, videos that cover subjects surrounding it could help pave the way for interested people to follow the rabbit hole right to this side of the web. It probably isn't a solution on its own, but making and spreading that kind of thing would definitely help.

[Inkerlink]

Well, for me personally, I found Melonland through the Neocities directory. But before that, I found Neocities in the first place by looking up information on Geocities. I'd be curious to know that the most common way of discovering it is though.
To answer the actual topic question though, the best thing we can do as individuals is sharing and spreading the word I think! Sharing our websites with friends and family, sharing other webpages, interesting blogs or articles, or any other interesting personal site we come across. And if anyone shows interest and wants to know more, to point them in the right direction!
Other than that, it may seem antithetical to the yesterweb movement, but putting the word out on social media would help as well I think. Obviously that isn't a requirement or anything.. but word of mouth only goes so far. It may also help to spread the word to any other long-standing websites you still participate in. There are a few forums and websites from the old internet still around that would be more receptive to the idea of Neocities and the yesterweb, which would be better then spreading the word to a place you know doesn't care about it.

[debleb]

i learned about the web revival from neocities, i found out about it from a friend that was using it for a project but forget about it for a few years until we started doing html in my schools coding class and i dug through about seven wikipedia articles trying to figure out what that nifty web hosting site was called lol . that was when i really learned what was going on here on the fun side of the www

so it seems to me like word of mouth is kind of the main way people learn about the web revival. which isn’t exactly ideal i don’t think when a lot of us have mostly stopped using big social media sites and stuff.

[Guest]

After my detransition, I was in a huge identity crisis (of course) so I reevaluated my relation to the world and myself and eventually just started automatically drifting towards emo and scene culture. Through that, I discovered SpaceHey, and from there the "old web", Melonland and the rest of the story is known.

[Swiftpaw]

For my system it went scene revival -> Spacehey -> old web revival -> YesterWeb and after that a lot more opened up, including MelonLand. For getting the word out my system advertises web revival/personal web a lot in nonhuman spaces to the point where we did a panel on it last year for an online otherkin convention. Just linking it should be good enough, and stumbling upon a random link is how a lot of us found our favorite websites.

On a similar note I've been tempted to advertise Neocities or the web revival with stickers. Mostly to cover up the very cursed crypto stickers someone put at a local crosswalk.

[j]

i found melonland through yesterweb, which has a /huge/ repository of links to cool sites; but i mostly found out about the web revival through IRC and joining webrings.

i'm a little biased, but i think if we share webrings alongside links to individual sites, then you're more likely to get interest in the topic that the webring is advertised (over a personal site, where there's no real reason to have a nosy around outside of personal interest).

either way, hope the web revival becomes more well-known! :D

[tarraxahum]

A person on my Tumblr dash was hyping up the whole creating your own website thing, and since I was both a website making kid in the past and very annoyed by a lack of customization and personality everywhere adult in the present, I resonated with that. Someone in the reblog chain linked Yesterweb, and from there it's a very short trip to finding Melonland.

So there are indeed people getting the word out, although amongst the more widely known websites I would guess you have the bigger chance of running into us on Tumblr than anywhere else.

[Guest]

I dunno if we want an influx of people though. It's cozy right now, and none of us want an Eternal September.

[Commodorn]

I actually stumbled across Neocities during one of my browsing sessions on The Old Net. Don't ask me how I found that site because uh.. I... do not remember. At all. For a while, that was where I spent most of my time on the internet.

I was very excited about being able to make a site similar in spirit to all the older ones I loved to look through so much. Especially since, apparently, I wasn't alone! Filled guestbooks, goofy awards, and active personal pages you can link to are still now! I think I found this particular forum on Neocities not long after I started my website. Which was still pretty recently.

Despite how long it took me to find this part of the web, I do agree with /home/user/. I think the best way to spread the word is by recommending or showing this part of the web to the people you think might enjoy it.. whether that be friends, family, or just some guy you met. Spreading the word in a way that makes this place too known to the people who don't understand it very well (or don't care to) could lead to some issues..

[Cele]

I'll be honest and say I didn't even know of any web revival thing before I found here. Making websites was a hobby for me, and suddenly I felt like I wanted to go back, so I started searching for a place where that would be possible. That's how I found Neocities years ago. This place I stumbled into last year while getting deeper into Neocities stuff.

I'm also surprised by so many people on SpaceHey. Is it so lively? I haven't joined since I never had MySpace either.

I guess the best way to "advertise" it is word of mouth so basically, if you have friends who could be interested in it, tell them about it.

[Guest]

I'm also surprised by so many people on SpaceHey. Is it so lively? I haven't joined since I never had MySpace either.

It used to be the central hotspot for scene/emo revival but has kind of been flooded by randoms who diluted the community, now it's somewhat dead.

[Guest]

I dunno if we want an influx of people though. It's cozy right now, and none of us want an Eternal September.

I agree. I prefer smaller communities. MelonLand has actually been growing so quick since I joined that it's been hard to keep up.

[xandra]

loving seeing where everyone is coming from!

I dunno if we want an influx of people though. It's cozy right now, and none of us want an Eternal September.

keep in mind i'm talking about this side of the web, not melonland in particular. i want more people to make personal sites and deplug from social media. i don't want to hang on to the side of the internet like a secret — i want more people to get involved and take back the internet from corporations having a stranglehold on it. keeping it "secret" is a great way for this entire "movement" to be snuffed out eventually by folks moving on/deplugging from the internet/growing up/etc.

[Melooon]

So in terms of practical numbers - I have some vague stats based on the referrals section on my hit counter; 60% of forum traffic comes via Melonking.Net - 20% comes via Google and 20% comes via other web revival sites (cinni, onio etc).

As for Melonking.net - 50% of traffic comes from the Neocities website list - 40% from my other sites (My blog, GifyPet, MoMG etc) and about 10% from other web revival sites.

I think that loosely equates to what other people have said here - the path into MelonLand is Neocities -> A site with a MelonLand badge -> MelonLand forum! I've also noticed that many people like to lurk on the forum for a few months before actually making an account. In terms of this forum, I think I agree with the overall sentiment that we are growing at a healthy rate, I don't think I would want things to be going too much faster.


However, there is another side to this discussion and that's What does MelonLand do to promote the web revival itself? Particularly for people who are not forum members and who might not want to be? - I have mixed feelings here; on one hand I don't really like the idea of being a web missionary who goes out to save people from their Twitter feeds  However I do like the idea of giving people the information they need to learn about website making and to get into it as a hobby or art medium if they think it's correct for them.

Part of the job of the MelonLand Wiki is to provide that kind of information, and it's also why I encourage people to use descriptive titles on forum posts; it's all about making information available, even to people who are not active members here. @WingsOfImagination made the argument that this forum should keep itself public at all costs, and I think that's become a guiding principle!

After that I really believe in promotion through example; if we make sites that are creative, and interesting and weird and chaotic (Chaotic above all else!); then people will be intrigued and the ones who want to know more will come looking for more information. I don't think we can or should go around explaining the web revival to every passerby; we should just enjoy making great websites - the world is so starved of good original creativity, it has no choice but to pay attention

@xandra I think I prefer to call it a Moment instead of a Movement It will end, and it will change, like it already has changed. It's not the job of art to save the world; it's our job to make the world worth saving.

There are a few practical things that I would encourage people to do:

• Genuinly try to push the bounds of what a website is and attempt things you've never seen before.
• Take your site seriously as an artwork, even if you don't consider yourself an artist; send it to local open calls for digital and new media artworks (Feel free to PM me if you ever need advice about that)
• If you think you can teach; then teach! Propose hosting a "Chaotic website" class at a local arts community centre.
• Finally, I know it sounds trivial, but really important to have fun; fun is eternal, and fun is what makes life worth living.

EDIT: I hope this response doesn't come across as too lightweight or naive, or even dismissive - but the world is so heavy, I think being lighthearted right now is radical!