Been around for a while, but never formally introduced myself!

[nintendowii99]

Hello! You can call me Sammy. I've been on Melonland since 2022, but I have never formally introduced myself, so I thought I would make a post here and say hello to everyone!

I love Melonland because I am very passionate about the indie web/web revival scene, though I guess you could say my interests are more in line with a general anti-social media/web 3.0/late stage capitalism sentiment. Despite not being a web developer/super active on neocities, I have found a home in the web revival community because of my similar interests and goals. I enjoy the stimulating conversations that we have about these topics on Melonland.

While I don't have my own website, I like to think that I participate in the scene in other ways. I am a big advocate for the "analog world" as opposed to the digital: I don't use any social media outside of the occasional search on reddit, I use CDs/VHS/DVD for media (no streaming services!), I use an old iPod to listen to music, I use paper maps and read newspapers, etc. In the future, i'd like to get a dumbphone, I just haven't taken the leap because I need to do more research with my phone provider first. Hopefully this summer I will! That being said, I recognize that the digital world has its positives as well!

I also have a big interest in old tech in general. I collect lots of 90s-early 2000s tech, like CRT TVs, old versions of Windows software, old PC games, etc. Windows XP and 7 are my OS of choice and I use them daily  I also collect old toys. I don't have a big collection of any one toy, but I have a general "early 2000s" theme and collect anything that reminds me of that era. One of these days i'll get around to posting a photo of my collection on here!

As for more general info about myself - I grew up in the 90s and early 00s, so I think a lot of my participation in this community stems from my nostalgia for that era. While I was young during the web's early days, I was active online for my entire childhood, and the web has always been a subject of curiosity and love for me. I'm in graduate school where I study biology (my thesis is on dolphin behavior!) but I also work as a teacher.

I'd love to get to know people on here more, so feel free to leave a comment or message me if you ever want to chat!

[DiffydaDude]

Hey, welcome to the forum. I agree with that thing about using a lot more physical stuff these days instead of a phone, tell me more about it!

[Paprika]

Just saw I missed that intro ! Welcome to the Melonland Forums !

Analog tech is really neat I think, no need to have a website to take part in the forum ! I'm considering going back to cassettes/tapes at some point.

[DiffydaDude]

Just saw I missed that intro ! Welcome to the Melonland Forums !

Analog tech is really neat I think, no need to have a website to take part in the forum ! I'm considering going back to cassettes/tapes at some point.

I already went back to those. Theyre very nice and are better quality than you think. I could probably tell u tons about them

[Misanthropic Monster™]

Heya Sammy nice to meet you. It was fun to read your post, I find a lot of comfort in hearing other people's reasons for loving web revival and being part of the web 1.0 revival community.

[fancypengy]

Hello!! You've been here longer than me so feels weird to say "welcome" but, nice to meet you! Hope this is not too weird to say but I kind of love everything you said and you sound like kind of an icon LOL. Though, taking the plunge of getting a dumbphone was one of the first things I did to break away from modern tech and all of that, and it's been kind of fantastic (been using it since ~August 2022). If you have any questions on that topic or just want to chat about it, honestly I'd love to!