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"older" internet Anonymous 216
remember when, before social networks got huge, everyone had their own little website? a custom made corner of the internet to display your interests and personality? gfx sites with paint shop pro tutorials?
the only comparable thing I can think of today is Tumblr, but it seems like personal websites have died out.
Anonymous 217
Untitled.png
I miss Paint Shop Pro. I still used it in college (~2009-2013) to make graphics for tumblr/LJ. I found it easier to use than Photoshop, and I'd get so salty when my friends were using something else.
I made my dad buy me a domain when I was like 12 (so this is way older, like early 2000s) so I could be one of those cool kids with "affiliates" and practice CSS. I literally just made everything table-based. I learned about FTP, that was sort of cool, I guess. Everything seems really dated now. I should have kept learning.
Also, remember:
>LJ layouts with huge headers/graphics
>LJ icon communities
>Character shrines
>Fanclubs/fanlistings
Anonymous 237
>>216I miss those times.
Back then I had a site with friends when we were 13/14 where we wrote short stories.
Later I had a personal blog for edgy goth things.
I do like Tumblr because at least you can customize layouts but since you mostly use your dashboard you don't really get to see much of them.
Most people today seem to focus more on (re)posting pictures than writing things which often doesn't show a lot of their personality. But I understand people not wanting to share that since it might make you look bad or offend someone and most people don't like to deal with the consequences that can have.
Anonymous 267
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Oh god yes. Yes.
When I was 13 I learned HTML off of coding these things. I had my own little website running off of the Freewebs servers called defeateddarkangels.freewebs.net where I uploaded weeb tunes and generic anime wallpapers, stuff like picture related. Anime art was a lot purer back then; so much nekomimi schoolgirl.
Anonymous 268
>>217lmao all of my shit was table based too.
Were you a slut for drop-down menus as well? I had those things EVERYWHERE.
Anonymous 269
>>268Different anon but my shit was iframes and imagemaps.
Anonymous 271
>>268I loved using dropdrown menus for my navigation. Made them super cute with dashed borders.
Anonymous 321
20170613_215417.jp…
I think I had over 20 fanlistings at one point, mostly for video game characters, j-pop singers, etc. just so I had an excuse to make beautiful layouts in Photoshop. I ran so many fansites and media sites, I wish I had screenshots of them all. :(
Pic is of my favorite anime layouts site back in the day. Does anyone happen to remember the name of that popular website you could submit free layouts to? It was THE site of that era mid 2000s to find so many of those type of layouts. Also Aethereality.net
Anonymous 322
>>321Me again, also OP so glad you made this thread. I once tried on that graphics board they introduced later on on 4chan and no one knew wtf I was on about
Anonymous 325
>>321>>322>Aethereality.netI used to plunder sites like that for my Neopets profile and guild layouts! I miss those days, when the internet was so convoluted and disorganised and before Google went mega-corporate.
Anonymous 354
>>325Me too, and I remember scanning manga pages to colorize them and make graphics, lol
Anonymous 392
If anyone wants to browse some cute lil homepages that are somehow still up:
http://www.bookmice.net/Anonymous 397
I still run one of these sites and miss the scene badly. I really wish there were more personal web pages around.
neocities.org seems to be the perfect platform to revive all of this. Anyone in?
Anonymous 398
>>397Oh my god, this is great. I was going through some of the sites and found this:
https://cherrychan.neocities.org/home.html
>Update 2/15/2016 - iluvcatgrls999999999 and im_k were married today to Felicia and Yukiko (respectively.) What a joyous day!
>Have you ever wanted to marry an anime character? Well, now you can! Just fill out the form below, and I will email you your marriage certificate! You can put this certificate on your website to show your love to the whole world. I am actually an ordained minister, so your marriage will be legally and spiritually binding on heaven and on earth!I can't tell if this is parody or not, but I'm glad this exists in 2017. The updates are from 2016. I didn't think weeaboos were even like this nowadays? This seems very early 2000s and I love it.
Anyway, what sort of site do you run, anon? I actually really like this platform. I might sign up.
Anonymous 405
Am I too old or does anyone remember Piczo (around 2004?). So many glitter gifs your pc would crash and you wouldn't be able to talk to your crush on msn lollll
Anonymous 412
>>216Geocities up in this mf lol
Anonymous 416
>>398My site isn't much at the moment- it's horribly outdated (I've been running it throughout multiple instances since I was 10.) If it was newer and didn't have blatant cringe on the older pages I'd plug the link.
I've always wanted to start up a new site, just for fun. You should definitely sign up, anon- it's a blast :)
Anonymous 419
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I think I just stumbled across the personal webpage of a schizophrenic. There's quite literally hundreds of diary entries on this site filled with nonsensical ramblings on politics and god. He has links to 14 individual Facebook profiles and 8 other sites filled with diary entries.
https://zegord.neocities.org
>my Black list below shows individuals had been fooling around with me while I was under their supervision & brain connection. Each one of them has a story with me! The question is why they have to interfere with my life, destiny & soul? They hurt me much & were not giving me my privacy, secrecy & put me under their brain attack!
>They really so shit in doing this to me since a long time back & up to now! Not stopping! Other than TV electronic harassments & to my brain! Their comments in whispers that I hear other than people endless subject & insults! Should I bother? They attacking me indoor knowing I'm home alone!Anonymous 422
>>397Great idea we can try take over tumblr with this idea or use neocities anyone else in? Would be fun to have our crystal community:D
Anonymous 427
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i remember there used to be a shitload of these types of personal websites for dollmaker people, like their personal blogs mixed with their pixel art, dolls, bases and dress ups
maybe it's just misguided nostalgia but it feels like there was a stronger sense of community even though the circles were smaller. tumblr now feels really impersonal. even pixel related stuff aside, i want personal blogging to come back. nothing fancy, but it was kinda comfy to read people's daily stuff and see pictures of random shit they've got going on
also did anyone else go on pixelbee? i used to love that website but never found out what happened to it
Anonymous 429
I'm building my new site on Neocities.
https://firewired.neocities.org/If anyone else wants to make a site over there, we can link to each-other's projects in our footers.
Anonymous 435
>>429Ahh, I love the idea of starting this up again, but I also don't know what I'd put on it.
Anonymous 436
god bless you OP, i forgot about these little sites until now
Anonymous 450
>>429Okay, I'm in. Going to dig on my old computer and see if I can find anything from when I had a graphics 'shop' on gaia.
Anonymous Admin 
482
We will offer free crystal.cafe subdomains (e.g. yourname.crystal.cafe) if there is any interest! You can also use them for Tumblr or any other page.
Anonymous 498
>>482That's amazing, Admin. Count me in when all of that is set up.
Anonymous 511
>>482That would be really awesome! Thank you Admin. I actually ended up making 2 neocities sites because the first one was a bit too nice and I wanted to put personal stuff on it. I'm going full 2000's weeb with this next one though.
Anonymous 523
>>482So as far as I understand this, this would be used as a custom domain?
I've get almost 100+ (unique) views on my blog every day and am high ranking in certain search results so I might jump in.
It could bring in a few people, but most of them would probably be fitfags (no, not from /fit/) so idk yet.
Anonymous 532
>>482Awesome idea!
Will this be board based (as in there's a template provided) or all your own content?
Anonymous Admin 533
>>498>>511>>512>>523>>532I'm happy to see the excitement! Your subdomain will redirect to an URL of your choice: a blog, Tumblr, your Facebook, or your custom website.
If you want one, please email me at
[email protected] and tell me the following:
>your subdomainexample: yourname.crystal.cafe
>where you want us to set the redirect toexample: yourname.neocities.org
>If you want to be listed in a directory/listing of all crystal.cafe subdomains for users to browse and discuss (I will make a thread for this)If you change providers or want us to change the redirect for any reason, we will, as long as it's not ridiculously often.
Anonymous 646
I went to look up a livejournal that I used to follow back in the day, one particular entry kinda had a big effect on me and I was sentimental about it. The blog hasn't been updated in years, but it had been online for a long time after going quiet.
When I checked today the whole blog was deleted and I am very sad about that. I wish I had saved that one entry, and I thought people in this thread might relate to that feeling.
Anonymous 872
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Aw man, I miss this style of web design so much. I had my own little website from being 13-17. Started on Piczo then eventually moved into doing proper html/css.
Screenshot was taken from waybackmachine so the Iframe isn't correct, but yeah.
I really want to get back into it again, actually.
Anonymous 877
The internet before all of today's popular social media was a great place. Everything was so new and fresh and not super mainstream yet. I remember my cousin made a website dedicated to her favorite boyband and when I told people at school about it they were so interested. Now you tell people you have an Instagram and they think your begging for follows or something
Anonymous 1076
>>877True, back then was a nice simpler time.
Anonymous 1141
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>>392That was adorable, thank you for posting. Internet culture really changed.. I wish more people would show their possessions in this way.
Anonymous 1155
I kind of miss LJ days and wish it would slowly come back, I just miss old websites and small communities in general they've had such a nice feel to them and they weren't so competitive like today (or at least the ones I've been apart of)
Anonymous 1359
>>427Tumblr's interface is utter shit, VASTLY inferior to even 2000-era Livejournal, which had things like a calendar, a list of posts with titles, and comments were counted as comments. On Tumblr every interaction with a post is lumped in with it's comments.
I miss proper forums, too.
>tfw when currently working on a full redesign of my website, all hand-coded in notepad and table-based.>tfw when people's screenshots of thier 17-year-old sites on here are way better than what I can do now.'least it loads quickly.
Anonymous 1362
>>1359don't worry anon, back 15 years ago, everything was html, it's much easier than the code you're doing.
Anonymous 1909
my favorite type of internet
>>217I still use PSP once in a while lol
anyone remember when Paint Shop Pro brushes were a thing?
Anonymous 1910
>>1155Same. I miss LJ and fishing for icon and journal sets. I miss mIRC. I still remember getting my Neopets shop graphics from JessiokaFroka on her Boomspeed page. I miss old Gaia, too. The place completely went to shit and even Lanzer being back hasn't brought back even a fraction of the userbase.
>>217This image really takes me back. I remember when so many of the Sailor Moon websites I used to visit were stylized exactly like that and had sections for sprites and affiliate banners. I sometimes use the Wayback Machine to look at places I used to frequent and it depresses me.
Anonymous 1913
>>216>>217I just miss these really pretty, old anime type websites like this. I feel like social media has only made people more vapid and in a frenzy to gain the most likes.
Before, little communities would exist on forums and webrings like this. In general, I wish people made their own websites with their own content. Tumblr is nothing but reblogging trash and there's no easy way to follow someone just for personal entries.
Anonymous 1937
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I'm so nostalgic for the mid to late 2000s internet! I spent my middle school days browsing anime shrines and personal websites, quizilla, gaiaonline, dollmaker sites, and invisionfree forums.
Does anyone remember Anime Requiem? I played a lot of Neopets back then and it was a popular site. They used radio blog club for their playlists, pic related.
I really miss the intimacy of forums and oekaki boards. Social media feels too open, there's no sense of community anymore.
Anonymous 1940
>>1937>>1913this.
I really miss the smaller, intimate communities that the older internet had. I remember roleplaying on small forums and using glittergraphics.com to add a little ~spice~ to my posts. I also remember using "=)" instead of ":)" emoticons to be ~different~ lol. The relationships I made off those forums back in like the early 2000's really shaped me and I treasure how sincere they were. You don't rly get that anymore. The only other similar relationships I really created online were through small minecraft servers, back in it's early non-commercialized days. I find it funny when my irl friends who never used forums or only used today's current social media tell me ~cool new hip internet lingo~ like "lolz" or "lolcats" and say they introduced it to me when I've been seeing this shit for years.
I use social media like instagram and stuff but it's really not the same. Very much a lack of community. In addition it just really feels like a competition all the time, and I feel like every little move you make will be judged. It also feels a lot more fake and lacks personality.
That's why I like places like this, it's a lot more comfy and intimate.
Anonymous 1944
>>1940Agreed. I joined Instagram when it was first created.
>9 squares>refresh button>mostly asians posting cat and food photosIts changed drastically and even prior to the massive change nobody was very interested in communicating with one another. I had hoped it would be different, but its just a place to post photos. Peach app could have been something great, but it bombed hard. Minty is an IG knock-off and also doesn't promote any sort of socialization.
Anonymous 1945
>>1944I love Peach and I'm sad it's dead
Anonymous 1955
>>1945me too, I'd revive mine if others did too.
Anonymous 1956
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Anybody remember character shrines? I used to read those collections of personal essays on characters for hours, even if I was only vaguely interested in a game or anime.
Anonymous 2069
>>1956Yes! People had shrines for just about everything back in the day. I wonder if there's any that are still up now. Did anyone have a shrine themselves? It was always a goal to make one, but I didn't get to before they fell out of style.
Anonymous 2076
>>2069Why don't you make one now, anon? I'm looking at PSP tutorials right now. I really dig this aesthetic, shame I wasn't so internet savy when they were popular.
Anonymous 2080
>>2076I don't know, I guess I'd feel kind of silly since I'm not a teenager anymore. I used to have all the time in the world and now I have to hustle. Miss those carefree days of browsing the net all day.
Anonymous 2081
>>2080Haha, yeah it does feel kinda silly but it's your little corner in the internet, you know? No one needs to know about it. I'm making mine a personal blog instead of a shrine (I couldn't figure out which character I'd die for like the others), and I'll only give out the link to crystal.cafe pals if they want to exchange.
But besides that, it's fun to revive those memories and feelings again. You don't need to do everything right away, do it little by little. I believe in you, anon.
Anonymous 2082
>>1956>>2069I didnt have a (one ) character shrine but I had a (geocities) webpage for certain anime/manga. It got so popular it was even on tv.
Anonymous 2107
>>2081You're so right anon, thank you! I might do it if I feel like I can compile enough content, at least for myself to be happy with it.
Anonymous 2482
>>392Oh gosh this is a trip! Looking through the old photos makes me feel for when I was around 13 and had such a vibrant look on the world. (really wish I would've kept more of my photos through all my moves!).
Anonymous 2483
I still have a personal website, the dream is still alive :)
Anonymous 2484
>>2483What do you post? I feel like if I kept a site or blog again I'd want it to be curated around a certain topic, because I just don't feel comfortable writing about my everyday life online anymore, but I miss cozy little sites like that.
Anonymous 2486
>>2484It's like a tagged collection of all the funny memes and videos my friends share, except archived so they don't get deleted forever by the sands of time
Anonymous 2763
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I found this website by total accident while I was doing some research for work. It looks like this shop went out of business around 2011. I love the aesthetics of it <3
http://www.gypsymoon.com/news.phpAnonymous 2781
>>2763No way, I just came across that site a few days ago as well. I really liked the site and the clothes
Anonymous 2789
>>2781Omg really?? That's so funny, what a cool coincidence. The site and clothes make me feel like I'm in the movie Practical Magic
Anonymous 2848
I noticed ths OP image for this had a mokona in the site layout and I felt a little pang of nostalgia in my heart.
I've been thinking of starting a little old internet styled fanshrine and LARPing as an early 2000s webmistress, but I feel silly taking all that time away from my adult life too. More importantly, I don't know how to code so I don't think i'd do a good job
does anyone know how I can learn to code a little? I want to make my nostalgic fanshrine good
Anonymous 2853
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>>2851>neopets website still doesn't have a mobile versionThey're asking to be forgotten
Anonymous 2854
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Does anyone remember this website? I used to spend hours on this and other GFX websites, browsing through cute layouts and icons.
http://celestial-star.net/Anonymous 2855
>>2854holy shit, yes. i remember getting pretty much all my forum avatars from here.
if there's not a term for this weirdass mid-2000s aesthetic (weird filters, transparent text in lurid fonts, ~poetic~ quotes laid over anime characters) there should be
Anonymous 2856
>>2855memories
light the corners of my mind
Anonymous 2913
>>2851NEOPETS IS STILL ACTIVE???
Anonymous 2915
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>>2913Of course.
They're basically stuck in hell.
Anonymous 2925
>>2915I just tried to log into mine and it's actually for my DOB underaged me obviously didn't put the right DOB. Guess my pets are just gunna starve
Anonymous 3167
>>429>this site is a work in progress>1 year agoA-are you still around? I hope you're still working on your site since I'm looking forward to it.
Anonymous 3223
>>2915I feel stupid for having to ask but is this tweet real Anonymous 3338
>>3167I was also looking forward to it. I admit i was too shy to post my own link they posted theirs. I wish I could draw well so I could contribute adoptables and cure banner or something to an old school web ring, I can code but what I make isn't pretty and I'm too boring to provide any other kind of content.
Anonymous 3341
>>3167>>3338I 3rd this! Anon come back we want to see your progress!
Anonymous 3342
>>3341Not the anon you all are looking for but the excitement here makes me want to work on a page. I'd love to get back into making cute sites, but I have no idea what content I'd put on them. I'm pretty boring nowadays, I couldn't even write about games or anime because i consume them so slowly with my current schedule.
Anonymous 3343
>>216Yes but in the end it was all the same anyway. No wonder CMS stormed the web. However I'm appalled that people these days MUST cram all sort of JSy shit onto it, even if a nice looking display would be all they need.
Anonymous 3411
>tfw leddit killed your favorite game series's forums
>tfw the subreddit is shit
fukkin rip
Anonymous 3743
I've started my own website and I'm having so much fun learning CSS and html. I already have a decent solid background in Java, so I hope I will pick up java script fast. I'm far too shy to share it, though. I hope you all make your own! I love making my design how I want it, even though it'd certainly not fly in a practical, business world.
Anonymous 3747
>>3743Post it here when you're done anon!
Anonymous 3777
I think some of you would like Neocities, the sites hosted on there are really reminiscent of retro internet pages with all that fancy graphics and such.
I host a few sites and I try to keep the aesthetic of over the top unique layouts alive. With all these high res monitors now in $CURRENT_YEAR, I'm surprised this style of websites never made a comeback.
Oh well.
Anonymous 3780
>>3777>NeocitiesI would use it if it had password protection.
Anonymous 3795
>>3780Maybe lj is due for a revival. We could all start a community on there.
Anonymous 3799
>>3780What's the point of having a profile web-page on the net if it's private?
You might as well create a custom browser homepage that you can just share with your friends.
Anonymous 3944
>>3799Neocities has a community page where every single page from every user is listed there but I don't want anyone to look at my unfinished pages. Other website makers/creators have password protection too. There's no reason why Neocities shouldn't have one!
Anonymous 3997
>>3777Speaking of neocities. I have never heard of it before! I found this really cute page on the random search thing though
https://teddybear-halo.neocities.org/enteringthedream.htmlI'm so jealous I kinda wanna try it! but I barely know anything about coding
Anonymous 3998
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>>3997go for it! i personally think html and css is really easy compared to other webdev languages
a good way to learn is just press control u and look at the source page code of whatever site youre interested in, html is pretty easy to understand but css might be a little confusing with the numbers
https://www.w3schools.com is also a good place to reference certain things while coding in case you forget how to do something
if you make a cute site link it here!!
Anonymous 3999
>>3998Thanks for that link anon! I'll be sure to comeback when I cook up something that isn't terrible haha
Anonymous 4000
>>3997That's so awesome, I'm really jealous. I wish I could make something like this because I somehow want to post about my life but I don't want lots of people to be able to see it. But I don't even have the time to post, much less even make a site. Maybe someday. If I make a site I will post it here. You are the only people I would want to share my thoughts with
I LOVE ALL MY FRIENDS AT MINERAL COFFEE HOUSE Anonymous 4001
>>4000Hopefully by the time you make yours mine would be up and running!
Anonymous 4015
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>>3997Thanks for sharing this, anon. I have my own Wordpress site that’s heavily inspired by The Princess Portal, a lolita blog that was popular around 10 years ago (it’s on the wayback machine here for anyone who’s interested, it’s not quite as old as some things posted here but still has a pretty comfy old-internet feel to it
http://web.archive.org/web/20080606214613/http://princessportal.com/index.php )
I have been considering abandoning it because it’s kind of discouraging how little views I get, but after reading this thread and looking at old-style neocities sites like this I see a lot of people feel the same way I do. Maybe I’ll move my site to Neocities since there already seems to be a built-in community there for people who embrace that kind of culture/aesthetic.
Anyway, here are some cute sites that are still up/active:
https://spat-harmony.webs.com/home.htmhttp://lerman.biz/asagao/gothic_lolita/updates.htmlhttp://isshou-ni.net/index.htmlhttp://www.moonromance.net/index.html Anonymous 4025
>>3997I actually made a neocities page a few months ago to practice (I'd love to host my own website but I'm cheap and I know nothing about security so it would be so easy to hack…). Anyway, this page inspired me so much to make a much better website so thanks anon. This was totally the aesthetic I wanted. Please share any more cute sites you find!
Anonymous Admin 4051
>>4025We can host your site for you if you're interested, here's some more info: >>>/media/540
Anonymous 4055
>>4051Thanks for the suggestion Admin! I'll get back to you if I create anything worthy lol.
Anonymous 4154
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Since no one's posting their site I'll go ahead and embarrass myself in hopes others will be encouraged. Revolution starts with you, anons.
Here's a shitty page I've had for a couple years now that I keep meaning to do more with.
I can't decide between my own specific aesthetic and all-out weeb so it's stuck in between and held together by someone who hates web dev.
Anonymous 4160
>>646I can relate. It's like going back to the old park you used to play in and finding out there's a lumberyard there now or something.
Anonymous 4162
>>4157i enjoyed this, thanks for sharing!
Anonymous 4361
This is a long shot considering how long its been since the thread was active, but I'm currently writing an assignment on the 90's/2000's personal website community. Anybody know of any good resources on the subject? I've found a little from this thread and articles i've found by basic searches but maybe i'm missing something.
I didn't partake in any of it myself but i find it really interesting.
Anonymous 4362
>>4361I dunno if you already have this, but there's
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/the-web-as-historyThe nice thing is that it's an open access press. It looks like chapter 7, “Welcome to the Web: The Online Community of GeoCities during the early years of the World Wide Web," might relate to your topic.
Another suggestion is to maybe search based on the sites or groups that you found along the way? Like Angelfire or Tripod.
Anonymous 4413
>>4362Thanks so much! This is a great help! I hadn't known where to start because most of the websites I've found so far are from this thread, and googling "personal web pages early 2000's" only gets you so far.
Anonymous 5608
>>405i loved piczo, i seriously wish i could see my old site now
Anonymous 7862
Continuing from >>>/b/62659
I think the main difference between old and new internet is that old internet was focused on expressing yourself and new internet is focused on presenting yourself. Website layouts communicated your personality even without looking at any content, communities like LJ and Wordpress encouraged long-form blogging, and you went to sites individually rather than having a homogenous feed of posts. Long-form blogs have been entirely replaced by videos and the most successful channels have an attractive face attached to them.
Anonymous 7873
>>216The older internet in my experience was wholesome and people could trust each other, the most predator-like it got was e-friends blocking each other and going no contact for life. But now in 2020 it seems like everyone is a internet predator who wants to leak your information and give your information to strangers.
Anonymous 7894
>>7873Some people straight up registered in forums with their full names lol
Anonymous 8237
>>7862The main difference is old internet was made by individual people to express themselves and new internet is made by megacorporations to harvest data.
It'd be a lot more work to scrape personal websites for information than it is to have people fill in the answers in pre-determined slots voluntarily and then use the built-in features to communicate and share their interests.
Anonymous 9362
>>8237Social media was a mistake
Anonymous 12262
>>1359>>9362there really should be more spaces for women on the internet. i wish i was smart so i could create a bunch lol.
Anonymous 16936
building-neko.png
Who else was obsessed with screenmates circa 2001?
Anonymous 17148
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Does anyone remember roleplaying forums? Man I really miss them. I honestly dont know if they are still a ongoing thing. Like on to IAntiVirus? Is that still a thing? I need to know if those are still around? I don't like role playing on tumblr.
Anonymous 17149
>>17148The best way to rp now is with aidungeon
Anonymous 17150
>>17148Nowadays I roleplay in Discord, though I find it a lousy alternative to older IMs like ICQ
I miss RP forums, too, used to be an admin on two; and a moderator on one.
I know that roleplaying of all kinds is popular on pervert furry websites and there's still a furry social online game going on since 1998, I tried to hang out in kid-friendly/16+ spaces but no dice.
Anonymous 17156
>>17154
I really enjoy hanging around small streams on twitch (<30 viewers usually) and I agree that it feels more honest! You can find actual community there, and most channels have a discord server to hang out in. I like that it's a lot more personal than usual social networking.
I haven't tried streaming myself because I'm a self-conscious person and kind of worried about gamer bro harassment. I don't think I would want to get big either. The money would be nice but like you said, it's a lot of work and very hard to break into, and large streams don't have the same community feeling.
Anonymous 17282
>>17150Roleplaying on discord sounds like a nightmare to be honest. Someone should just bring the forums back.
Anonymous 17291
>>17282Are there any good forums for hobbies in general that are still active?
Anonymous 17316
>>17282Discord is fine for 1-on-1 RP, at least for me. It keeps the archives, which is a plus, but I miss customization.
The forums are still there, but they are more dead than alive, and often have very anal rules.
Anonymous 17816
Look what I found today!
https://skins.webamp.org/Did anyone else make winamp skins back then?
Anonymous 18091
EsXlZ7RVoAAiLaY.jp…
I miss when the internet was less mainstream. Not totally niche but less accessible. Smartphones have really made everyone an internet user and it's so annoying sometimes. I went home for Christmas a few years ago and my relatives were watching our country's biggest streamer on their TV for the entire holiday. They asked me a ton of questions about streaming because my job is sort of related to it Please go back to telling me the internet isn't real and that everyone I talk to is a catfish. One of my friends has a kid and the kid wants to be a Youtuber when he's grown. We have to go back
Anonymous 18093
>>216I would actually like to make my own website. I think about this more and more these days. I remember that internet fondly, things were so much simpler then.
Anonymous 18126
B2.png
>>17148i'm late, but yeah: they still exist.
you can try searching for sites here,
https://pixel-perfect.boards.net/. there's also cttw.jcink.net/, but it's for forums that use live action references for characters.
Anonymous 18138
I would love for an oldish-looking operating system skin but the ones I tried sucked ass…
Anonymous 18149
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>>18092I had this exact one… god music was so much easier to manage back then. My computer is dead for good now.
Anonymous 18164
These look sooo good. I think the only time I encountered these besides Tumblr was maybe neopets? You got a lot of freedom for shopfronts, pet pages, and especially guild pages. You can even look at decades old guild pages now bc iirc they haven't wiped anything ever. Other pet games probably have something similar.
Anonymous 19069
Does anyone here still use neocities?
Anonymous 19093
>>18091I used to get shit from most of my extended family for spending time on the PC at gatherings. 10 years later I'm the only one who isn't playing games on my tablet after dinner.
Anonymous 29529
>>29509Oh wow, I miss those Sayclub dolls
Anonymous 29589
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dunno how much this counts for "old web" but i miss lurking on dA for windows 7 themes like picrel
they don't make desktop rices like they used to…
>>18092>>18149qmmp can use winamp skins if anyone else is on linux/just don't wanna use old software for whatever reason
Anonymous 29592
Yes, I actually used to have my own Demi Lovato fansite (Yeah I know cringe, especially with what's she's like now, but I was like 13 so) to take pixel doll requests on. I'd then do little animations, like make them blink or have the text flash. Also would find a bunch of really comfy and beautifully themed Sailor Moon fansites, but I can't remember the name of a single one now unfortunately.
Anonymous 29597
>>29509>girl named Melissa who loved Final FantasyGirls like this are why for the longest time I thought video games were for girls and why I was so puzzled when I got my first taste of "no girls on the internet" when I started exploring non-fanart/fanfic sites and got into PC gaming (~2004). Up until that point everything I ever looked at online was made by a girl, so I remember thinking what 'the fuck are these dudes smoking'?
I've been feeling really nostalgic for old personal websites and oekaki boards and forums. I miss when everybody had their own lil containment zones.
Anonymous 29653
>>29589The Internet used to be so comfy
Anonymous 29654
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>>29597>"no girls on the internet"What was it like, nona? I keep seeing men creaming their pants over how hostile the internet used to be to women but I've never ran into anything like it in since the start of my internet career at 2009. I spent my time on several game making forums (yes my little child self thought i could make a game) MMORPG, deviantart and other websites. it was the happiest I've ever been and I know I'm not just looking back to it through rose tinted glasses, the internet genuinely used to be better and more free.
Anonymous 29656
20230109_230338.jp…
>>29654you were in the right places at the right time.
A lot of forums oriented towards art and cute rpg type games were not really hostile to women at all. Certain MMORPGs (like mabinogi, maplestory) also had a major female community as well that rivaled the male community. Many of these forums (I think at least the pokemon related ones) were from spanish speaking latam countries where women are more at home than men and as such had a higher proportion of girls in their communities compared to american/european gaming communities where culturally being a "gamer" was stereotypically boys thing.
I know what you're talking about and i remember it, it was so comfy. i used to love the maplestory community, pokemon rom hacks and RPG maker game communities on those forums.
Anonymous 29659
firefox_2023-02-07…
>>29654I didn't get much personal experience with it because shortly after learning how it was in those spaces (SA, Newgrounds, 4chan, battle.net) I just larped as a dude. I still do nearly everywhere that isn't explicitly just for women. I consider it a safety thing because:
>I keep seeing men creaming their pants over how hostile the internet used to be to womenIt's WAY more hostile now. Like you and
>>29654 say there was a period of relative peace. Around that time there were two particularly heinous floodgates opened (smartphones and League of Legends) and the internet has not been as comfortable since. And THEN there was gamergate, lol.
I think because girls are seen as inherently normie they get a disproportionate amount of the blame for the dilution and/or sterilization of a lot of nerd spaces/media. The true villains here are Norman McRedditdad and Brandon Otakucel, who just can't get enough of that slop in their trough.
Also I think at least half of all "this foid ruined my guild/community" stories were some guy pretending to be a girl.
I miss when having a desktop and computer literacy served as a soft gatekeeper to being online. I don't care of it's classist. The rule of 1% has been disastrous for girls online because what was once a turd in the middle of the sidewalk is now a minefield of septic tanks.
It's very funny to go back to old fansites with the resolution of modern monitors. I had to zoom to 250% before this started looking like how I remembered it. It kinda makes me want to become one of those CRT/old OS people, but I just don't have the space.
Pic related was a BNF at the time and IIRC was one of the people who went on to help create Dreamwidth. I only mention this because when I do go poke around old fandom stomping grounds I always wonder where the creator is now. Sometimes I try to find their current socials but often it will be a livejournal updated in 2005 and too often it will be nothing.
I'm in my 30s now and while I do have friends there is this yawning void in my online peripheral vision where all the teen girls when I was a teen girl should be. Some of you are here I'm sure, and others who have shed their pikagurl1991 skin for something more professional. We just don't seem to have the online presence of male oldheads and that hurts me in a holistic way I find hard to articulate.
Anonymous 29662
>>29659girls are seen as inherently normie because most girls who play games and use the internet don't end up into obese 40 year old virgin basement dwellers.
>>29659>Some of you are here I'm sure, and others who have shed their pikagurl1991 skin for something more professional. We just don't seem to have the online presence of male oldheads and that hurts me in a holistic way I find hard to articulate.Well yeah because a girl isn't taken seriously online if she has a classic username like pikagurl1991, shes considered a weird fangirl who never outgrew her childhood. But a moid with an l33t hax0r username from an old school forum the early 2000s is considered an OG, Pro, Based, Bearer of Knowledge, etc. It's disgusting. These sort of stupid internet eccentricities are why i dont use many internet platfroms anymore and prefer to spend more time offline nowadays.
Anonymous 29666
>>29659>this foid ruined my guild/communityThis is such bullshit. I was a guild master of a 4chan guild in an mmo and men caused so much drama like you wouldn't believe. All the women were chill and kept to themselves while moids would go erp with each other and create drama out of thin air. They'd even stalk other moids irl kek. Men in mmos are pathetic. The few pickmes outside of our guild just had their simps and that was that.
Anonymous 29687
>>29667
I was using the internet beginning in the early 2000s, and remember spending a lot of time on deviantart, youtube, flash game/dressup game sites, forums, and MMOs. all of the places I spent time in were majority women or I guess also teen/underaged girls too maybe. youtube I only really came across women because I was into warrior cats amvs and cutesy animations kek plus speedpaints and also later on scene fashion stuff which was majority women. deviantart and a lot of fandom specific communities seemed to have more women and were more friendly in general. now all these spaces and communities are infested with misogynistic troons and unhinged incels arguing over which of their favorite underaged anime waifu has better porn or just talking about nothing except seething over how much they hate women. ironically mens constant hatred and obsession with women and rampant porn addiction ruin these spaces and derail good discussions more than any woman ever did but men lack the self awareness and critical thinking skills to realize it's their own behavior that contributed heavily to the downfall.
Anonymous 29720
>>29666I think it's more that the type of woman who seeks to invade a male only space is disruptive, and the males in those spaces are of course unaware of the normal women who keep to themselves.
Anonymous 29783
>>29654>hostile the internet used to be to womenThat's an inaccuracy some men like to pretend it's the absolute truth. In reality, it was only truly applicable to places like 4chan - even so, a lot of it was just trolling and shitposting generated by dumb kids. 4chan now constantly has unironic failures in their late 20s/30s breathing and drinking this sort of bullshit literally everywhere. /pol/, /v/, and /g/ are some of the worst misogynistic cesspools ever.
During the early/mid 2000s, the smaller video game related communities I was part of were way more friendlier than the ones I was part of during recent years. Back then, there were plenty of people who mentioned they are girls while there was a significant amount of guys as well. Despite this, no one really cared about what's between your legs at all nor tried to constantly grief you because you're a girl.
The internet being such a shitshow now is mostly because of how easily accessible it is and anyone can voice their braindead "opinions" anywhere. Social media is an absolute trashfire for this reason. Honestly, I feel bad for the younger kids, especially the girls. They can't just discuss things and confide with anyone without incels and groomers trying gang up on them.
>>29687>lack the self awarenessThis. In many cases, whenever a man talks about how "crazy" a woman is, it's always about something they actually caused themselves. Men always like to be right; therefore, any wrongdoing is never their fault. Their lack of accountability is really quite pitiful and they wonder why they can't maintain a relationship.
Anonymous 29785
>>29784https://www.robotstxt.org/Not unless you explicitly block them and even then some scraping bots disrepect robots.txt anyway
If you have access to the server your site is hosted on you could probably configure it so it only allows certain IPs/user agents through to just show your friends but that might be extreme
Anonymous 29789
>>29785Oh shoot, I feared it was so.
Whitelisting IP seems overkill and unpractical (especially with friends using VPN) - although I like the idea of discriminating against some user agents.
Thanks for the link and the answer!
Anonymous 29816
>>29589Oh my god I used to do this all the time when I was younger too. I just had to have my PC decked out in hetalia stuff kek
Anonymous 31162
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>>29659
>I'm in my 30s now and while I do have friends there is this yawning void in my online peripheral vision where all the teen girls when I was a teen girl should beI feel this hard. I think it's because we either hide or the algorithms render us invisible, even to each other.
I've been continuously struggling with the internet feeling like a dead void where it used to be so full of life and potential connections waiting to happen.
I started out with personal websites, anime shrines, online diaries like livejournal in the early 2000s. I was a big 4chan user starting in its earliest days, and stayed on the chans even when they were obviously in an advanced state of decay because there were still habitable little corners.
I keep searching around hoping I'm going to find that kind of magic again but it's like, where did they all go? Now there's all these small, weird chans that seem to have a userbase of like 6 people each and the content is all just the most extreme kinds of weird porn (makes old /b/ look tame by comparison)
Having minimal gatekeeping makes sense, so I can see quality communities moving to places where there's at least a hurdle or two for users to have to jump. But where? The darkweb? Freenet/I2p? Some hard to find nook in somewhere on the clearweb?
Anonymous 31170
feets.jpg
>>31162>we either hide or the algorithms render us invisible, even to each other.I feel like most women who were online back then and are still around are "fandom" types who lurk. We've been able to watch it warp from LJ/Dreamwidth to Tumblr to Twitter with increasing hostility from The Youths and if we participate at all it's just to post fanfic on Ao3 and leave no socials. I remember on ff.net it was unusual NOT to have your AIM in your bio. Socializing, even online, has become scary to some degree because you never know if you are going to catch the attention of an anti- dogpile.
Other hobbyists have lost forums to Reddit which is overwhelmingly male, so once again for safety reasons we lurk or larp as male and therefore never get to see other women with our interests and reach out.
>small, weird chans that seem to have a userbase of like 6 peopleI've given a lot of these a sniff myself and have settled on fujochan. I actually came back to check this thread today because I made a comment there about Wayback Machine-ing some fansite and being amused by the resolution and it reminded me of the post I made.
I am also still looking for the "magic". It's depressing but I don't think I will ever stop. I still meet other girls online (Twitter, FFXIV, VRChat) but they all are just a little too young or too normie to be the kind of person I am actually looking for, you know? I'd kill to meet a woman who could say she had a favorite fanfic in 2004, could say that she has one now. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one left despite evidence to the contrary. It's like seeing a bunch of footprints but being unable to find the pack. It's maddening.
Anonymous 31193
I'm still planning to make my own, you all should do the same. I'm sick and tired of social media and modern web 2.0 and I just want to return to monke and have my own space on the internet while searching up other obscure website on the web, just like I did when I was a kid. I miss reading people's fanfictions and reading them go on and on about their favorite anime/game series back on geocities/angelfire.
I think neocities is a good start for something like this. Sure, it's filled with zoomers who have a bastardized view of what the old web is (and it shows), but they atleast give you some of the tools to start your own thing.
Also, you should all check out
https://wiby.me/. You'll find a lot of old sites on here.
Anonymous 31194
>>29783>That's an inaccuracy some men like to pretend it's the absolute truth.Holy this. The men who say that are young and have no idea how it actually was. Yes, in certain male-dominated communities if you were female they would ostracize and make fun of you at first, but it was more like some hazing ritual where they would see if you truly belong. They did it to other moids too, but it's just more noticeable if you were female because generally the groups would be comprised of mostly males. If you were normal, and not trying to vye for the attention of men,you were "usually" treated like the rest of the group. In other situations, moids would complain about shippers/fujoshi and be grossed out by them, but it wasn't too much of a problem since shippers/fujoshi had their own spaces. The fierocity between sexes only became worse starting in the smart phone era of the internet, which was the early 2010s, when normalfags started to flood the internet and thus started being exposed to 'nerd' hobbies. Gamergate really pushed it and the tumblr exodus pushed it even further.
Another funny thought I had: A lot of the drama in these spaces were always caused by some lonely scrot simping/whiteknighting for some e-girl at the time who would then start acting mysoginistic once he realized that the girl was just there to get something out of him and all the other lonely sobs who wanted her attention because she was female/was attractive. A pathetic turn of events that happens every time, even to this day.
>>31170>Other hobbyists have lost forums to Reddit which is overwhelmingly maleHonestly, I wouldn't even use reddit even if it was overwhemingly female. It's just a toxic environment in general when your posts are measured by how much karma you have, the downboating and upboating system skewed by people who can't accept others opinions (and mostly by bots), and the fact that it's become more and more corporate by the day.
>Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one left despite evidence to the contrary. It's like seeing a bunch of footprints but being unable to find the pack.You aren't going to find them unless you go on personal blogs or AO3. Those are the only places where I find women who fit your criteria because the new-age of internet just doesn't accept us anymore.
