Does anyone else enjoy exploring the old net?

[Phoenix]

Its been a new hobby on mine recently. It feels like exploring forgotten relics of the past and rediscovering old things. Anyone else do this?

[lianna]

I think that's one of the main pillars the web revival was built upon. In short - yes.

[OneMillionFurries]

Yes absolutely! I have written multiple FA journals of my findings when exploring the old web- I should really get around to putting those as blog posts on my website.

[Melooon]

I actually don't anymore  When I first got into web crafting I was super into exploring old GeoCities sites, getting ideas, stealing abandoned gifs etc - its where a lot of my early site's mood came from - but after a while I kinda felt like I'd gotten everything I needed form those old sites.

On a deeper level, I also find abandoned sites very sad. It makes me wonder who made them, where they are now, how their life turned out and if they remember this site. It makes me sad for the people who are falling into the past, and it makes me sad for the site because it's lost its keeper and its minder. I've seen enough abandoned homes 

That's not a suggestion to discourage people at all; I think you totally should enjoy exploring; and visiting these places does give them a moment of life. For me though I prefer to stick to active homepages these days 

[wygolvillage]

I enjoy looking at old sites, I usually like looking at adoptable pages, fanpages and photo galleries and stuff. One thing I like to do is looking up something on Gifcities and if I notice a unique or interesting gif I'll click it which will redirect me to an archive of the site it was hosted onftgr\yu7 (my cat just stepped on my keyboard and I don't have the heart to delete his contribution LOL) I usually end up really enjoying fantasy themed sites a lot and I take a lot of inspiration from sites where they conceive of each page/section as a location or place. "CLick this link to visit the mystical griffin forest" type of stuff, it's really endearing to me because it calls onto the viewer to immerse themselves in the fantasy of the creator... I dunno it's charming.

[serenefork]

I've always thought of old sites as completed pieces of artwork, or finished diaries. It's really fun to see how how people lived during that period of their life.

[bingus_baby]

I've seen enough abandoned homes 

This used to eat away at me a lot. I'd find a lovingly handcrafted site of some old person from the late 90s and wonder if they're even still alive. It did feel a bit sad thinking that way, but on the other hand it's not just a grave marker - it's also a memorial, almost. Many sites were lost to the sands of time, but many still exist. And for those, it's not just an abandoned home, but a time capsule cataloguing their adventures over the years. In particular I think of sites that hosted family photos, journal entries, and blog posts. I remember in particular a Star Wars fansite some guy made, and it mentioned how he met his wife through the fandom and the site featured lots of cat photos. Even if the owner is long gone or forgot the site, the memory lives on. That's pretty cool. As long as websites like Archive.org live on and us web archaeologists keep digging, the legacy of past webmasters lives on.

And to OP's question, not so much anymore. I've been busy with classes and creative projects. But every now and then I fall down the rabbit hole and I always am glad I did. Personally, the old web never gets old to me. There's always something new to find as long as you know where to look.

[Phoenix]

I actually don't anymore  When I first got into web crafting I was super into exploring old GeoCities sites, getting ideas, stealing abandoned gifs etc - its where a lot of my early site's mood came from - but after a while I kinda felt like I'd gotten everything I needed form those old sites.

On a deeper level, I also find abandoned sites very sad. It makes me wonder who made them, where they are now, how their life turned out and if they remember this site. It makes me sad for the people who are falling into the past, and it makes me sad for the site because it's lost its keeper and its minder. I've seen enough abandoned homes 

That's not a suggestion to discourage people at all; I think you totally should enjoy exploring; and visiting these places does give them a moment of life. For me though I prefer to stick to active homepages these days 

Ahh see I find there is some kind of beauty in it in a way. It reminds me of the digital equivalent of exploring abandoned towns. A strange fascination can be found in it for me

[Seraphim]

Old websites are a lot like old paintings for me. Uniquely of the moment they were made in, with particular techniques of that time, and are the result of someone's labor of love. I will never forget, one day I was using Wiby's surprise me feature and it landed me on some kid's website, which was a shrine to his favorite dinosaur, ankylosaurus (also happens to be my favorite.) It was so in-depth, citing tons of books, and was made in '97. I like to think that kid went on to live a full life, and I feel honored that I got a glimpse into a pure expression of love in this small, intimate moment of his life. I hope he knows that it made someone smile many years later.

I still occasionally fire up Wiby to see what treasures are still out there, but these days my internet exploration is mostly following trails from interesting links on forums like Melonland.

[Phoenix]

Old websites are a lot like old paintings for me. Uniquely of the moment they were made in, with particular techniques of that time, and are the result of someone's labor of love. I will never forget, one day I was using Wiby's surprise me feature and it landed me on some kid's website, which was a shrine to his favorite dinosaur, ankylosaurus (also happens to be my favorite.) It was so in-depth, citing tons of books, and was made in '97. I like to think that kid went on to live a full life, and I feel honored that I got a glimpse into a pure expression of love in this small, intimate moment of his life. I hope he knows that it made someone smile many years later.

I still occasionally fire up Wiby to see what treasures are still out there, but these days my internet exploration is mostly following trails from interesting links on forums like Melonland.

Its quite interesting seeing everyones little passion projects from back in the day. Its just a shame you dont get as much of that anymore with social medias

[Paprika]

I do it when I need to kill time.

I like the old, abandoned websites that are sometimes not working properly because HTML rules have changed or the hosting did an important change. Like several people in this topic, forgotten/abandoned sites are time capsules that I love looking at. It's like browsing your latest pictures on your phones and suddenly you find a folder with pictures from around 1950, a whole different mindeset, different cultures and I can't stop myself from imagining who was behind the website, what was their biggest dream in life, etc etc. I can spend a lot of hours with this.

And it's lowkey the idea behind my neocities, I hope that internet and NeoCities still exist in 2100+ and someone stumble upon my website and wonders who I am and what I like. Just a small blink of life in Internet's galaxy. I remember the Gwenpool comic-book where the main character breaks the fourth wall wondering who is reading and the year it is, saying that she's just part of life and hopes she can be read in a far future even if her series are finished. That's what I want for myself

 

[Phoenix]

I do it when I need to kill time.

I like the old, abandoned websites that are sometimes not working properly because HTML rules have changed or the hosting did an important change. Like several people in this topic, forgotten/abandoned sites are time capsules that I love looking at. It's like browsing your latest pictures on your phones and suddenly you find a folder with pictures from around 1950, a whole different mindeset, different cultures and I can't stop myself from imagining who was behind the website, what was their biggest dream in life, etc etc. I can spend a lot of hours with this.

And it's lowkey the idea behind my neocities, I hope that internet and NeoCities still exist in 2100+ and someone stumble upon my website and wonders who I am and what I like. Just a small blink of life in Internet's galaxy. I remember the Gwenpool comic-book where the main character breaks the fourth wall wondering who is reading and the year it is, saying that she's just part of life and hopes she can be read in a far future even if her series are finished. That's what I want for myself

 

How easy/hard is it to make a neocities site? Ive kinda been interested in the idea

[Paprika]

I didn't knew a single bit of HTML or CSS before trying my hand at neocities. I feel like it's something you have to try by yourself because it's a website for sure but it's YOUR website, there's no competition, no challenging between users. Make it look like what yiu want. It takes time, errors and patience to have it exactly like you want. I haven't built my website in a few days. The site is almost one year old and I'm still learning things. I do believe that in five years I will still be looking around and tinkering to make tests and learning more things about it and it's why it's fantastic to me.

As for myself I used sadgrl's layout builder as a starting point. I did a lot of testing, often screwed up and spent some time to fix my own errors. It took time but it was interesting and I learned something in the process. I also used MiMo to learn basics of coding. Then with Sadgrl and Mimo knowledge combined I built my website, picture by picture, letter by letter. It's really not hard but you gotta be interested by HTML to make it work. If that's not your cup'o tea, fine, there's a lot of blog/website builders around.

Keep in mind that a NeoCities should be thought like a personal space, build it yourself, for yourself. Don't compare your work to other sites, don't pressure yourself into building it like "I gotta be the very best with flawless design". Just be yourself, try, have fun ! To give you an idea, my Neocities has 5 157 updates which means I made changes more than 5 000 times and most of it was just dumb correcting or several touch-ups for grammar and spelling. Now I use Notepad++ before putting the page live and I won't make thousands of updates anymore, not really proud of myself there but it's part of learning something new I guess !

Try it, look around, be patient with yourself and be free ! Website/Blog/etc should remain fun and interesting !

[PurpleHello98]

I do from time to time! I especially join seeing old k-pop sites from when barely anyone in the English-speaking world knew of k-pop compared to today. I also like a lot of these 90s/early 00s k-pop groups so it helps to see fan sites for groups I like! As today fan sites in general, but especially for groups that aren't on the top currently, are few and far between.

[Capybara]

I've done this since I was a kid and probably will never stop! Sometimes it makes me sad for the days I was too young to experience, though