finding the old internet

[tozka]

This link on Hacker News leads to a not-very-exciting blog post about missing the old internet, a common theme this year and one that I have linked to before myself.

What I found of value was the discussion ABOUT the link-- particularly the tips on how to find an "old internet" (e.g. de-commercialized and personalized) filtered out from the spam blogs and SEO elite.

Here's the useful links that I found in that discussion (plus a few of my own), organized into general tips.

Less ads, more people.

Searching for Stuff

• Add "reddit" to a search term; this will bring up people having discussions (on Reddit, obv.) about the thing rather than companies trying to sell you the thing. Search string: site:reddit.com [TOPIC]


• Bonus: try "forum," it'll do a similar thing. Or try Boardreader, a forum searcher.


• Use Millionshort to filter out the top # of sites. When I did this I stumbled across Ty Collector, a Beanie Baby collection website run by a father/daughter combo.


• StumbleUpon used to be a good way to find random, cool websites, but has since turned into something else. StumblingOn is a clone of the old, original SU.


• Wiby searches "old internet" webpages, e.g. Tripod.

Building Community

• What's murdering the old internet is the lack of links. Everyone is posting screenshots, twitter/facebook/etc all hijack links, and we're surprised we can't find the sites. [source] -- Blogrolls!!


• Discussion is also important, either through email, comments, tweets, whatever. Talk to people!


• Use RSS to subscribe to people's websites. I've recently started using Tiny Tiny RSS*, but you can just use Dreamwidth's built-in RSS subscribe option.

*I like it! I'll write up a review of it in a few weeks when I've used it more.

Misc. Discussions

• Behind the scenes as an SEO writer


• "mary-celeste servers" hosting decades-old sites


• But I seriously believe that today that "independent" web is actually much bigger than it was in the olden days. It only seems small because of the illusion created by the hugeness of the non-independent web. And of course it is not clean binary option of independent or not, instead it really is more of a spectrum of independence, which further confuses the matters. [source]

Have any tips for finding cool, small sites or blogs?

What I've been doing is searching for random topics I'm interested in, filtering out the top 1000 sites, and then, if any of those sites have blogrolls, following the links. Mostly they lead to dead sites, but sometimes I find a neat site!

Comments

[kore]

Do you know how to get Metafilter to show up in Google search results? A lot of time an Ask MeFi post from 2008 will have what I want, but it won't show up at all.

[tozka]

Hmmm, normally I would do

site:ask.metafilter.com KEYWORD

and usually it filters into the right pages. Sometimes the website has changed something about their page structure, though, and it breaks the search result. Then I have to go directly to the site and try to search it from there. D:

old Internet

[oldtoadwoman]

I think I agree with that last quote about how the independent web is bigger than it was before and it just feels smaller because of the noise.

I do agree that I need to post links more often. I think I hesitate to because it almost feels like I'm adding to the noise. Why would anyone care which webpages I'm reading or which videos I'm watching on YouTube? But having a MasterPost of links that I just keep updating without re-spamming might be worth it.

Re: old Internet

[tozka]

People are nosy, and they want to see what their friends and acquaintances are interested in! That's why I'm always checking people's DW profiles to see what cool communities they might be a part of, ha.

[larissa]

Link directories.

That's how we found each other back in The Old Days. I'm one of those people who runs the small sites of the forgotten web, and links were a good part of it. Link directories are what they sound like -- aggregates of websites, usually sorted by category/theme/etc. Before you could search up whatever you wanted, they were vital.

In the fandom side of things (at least the spheres I'm in), the two main directories are Amassment, for fansites, and The Fanlistings Network, for fanlistings. (Fanlistings are a very web 1.0 concept; take some time and look at the sheer variety of sites linked.)

Once you find a site you like, look at their links. A fair number will probably be dead (god knows I need to prune the links on all of my sites), but some won't be. Use that as a jumping-off point.

[tozka]

One of the Hacker News comments brought up the old Yahoo site directories, which I'd almost forgotten about.

Thank you for the links!

[delight]

I LOVED fanlistings. They're how I learned php! I was thirteen! I wonder if there's a way to make a dw version of them - more interactive and cute pixel banners than interests, less energy requirement than an actual comm.

[illariy]

Here via a recent link post by umadoshi. :-)

Love these tips! Some of them are new to me (like the forum search engine!), some of them are good reminders. I would add following people on DW or elsewhere who post links and also, if you find a blog you like, check comments - I have found related blogs via people who commented on blogs I like and who used the option to add a link to their own blog to their username/commenter name. Definitely seconding the blogroll tip, too!

[tozka]

Following breadcrumbs of links can be fun, too! It's kinda like playing detective.

One of the disappointing things about sites nowadays is, even if they're smaller and free of ads, is that there's almost no way to leave a comment or note for the site owner. (Except MAYBE email.) Way back when, we all had guestbooks! I suppose they've fallen out of favor.

[illariy]

I must confess I never commented in guestbooks but I always did find them so fascinating to read. I use email far too little to give strangers whose content I enjoy, one of the things I want to change in 2020.

[tozka]

I've recently signed up for some newsletters, myself! While I like having them delivered right to my inbox, it can get a LITTLE annoying when they pile up because I haven't read them in a while. I do have an account with Unroll.me, which condenses my subscriptions into one daily email-- much nicer, tbh.

[illariy]

Very interesting about Unroll.me's service, thank you for sharing!

[tozka]

You're so welcome!

[potofsoup]

What helpful links! Thank you!

[tozka]

<3

[yourlibrarian]

Thanks for the tip of Million Short!

[tozka]

You're so welcome! :D

[wickedlittletown]

Thank you so much for these helpful informations.

[tozka]

You're welcome!

[jesse_the_k]

Fabulous resource, am boosting.

[tozka]

Yay, thank you! I'm glad you found it useful. <3

[oulfis]

These were really fascinating! I especially liked Million Short -- almost immediately my searches starting turning up cool old blogs that made for some fun deep-dives. I added it to a little linklist I've been gathering on my personal website. :)

[oulfis]

Oh! Relatedly, if you're interested in old internet history, I've found Darius Kazemi's 365 RFCs project really interesting! He read and blogged about the technical documentation of ARPANET!