I've been online for a long time.

It feels weird to say, since I don't consider myself old. In most communities I've been while growing up, I've been on the younger side (if not the youngest), but I've been here for a while.

I don't remember the year, but I remember my family having a computer and my sister using it a lot. Some day, I don't remember the reason why, I asked her to make me a website. She didn't (probably because she didn't know how to), but that must have been my first memory with wanting an online space for myself.

At the near end of middle-school, I made a personal Fotolog where I would upload screenshots and little "devlogs" (which I didn't know the name of, at the time) of my RPG Maker games. I remember customizing the site as much as it would let me, even though I didn't know fuck all about HTML.

From there I've been lots of places. I've been to game development forums (some of which I co-created), I've been to roleplaying forums, I've seen all kinds of websites. I remember the Internet before it was profitable for companies to be here, and before everything was optimized for user engagement.

I've done this stuff myself, too. I am a front-end developer, and I've made websites and web applications for a few companies. I've followed "slick", "minimalistic" and "clean" design documents, and I've been a stern advocate of UI and UX patterns designed to make the user be in the web application for as long as possible.

I know there's a time and place for that. Some sites need to be easy to navigate, some sites need to engage the user. And if you're a beginner developer, you're likely to need to make your personal website into a "portfolio" that looks "professional" and can be shared with potential employers.

A while ago I made a series of tweets talking about how social media was the death of old-schoool forums. Now, I would add that it also was the death of personal websites.

I agree, but also I'd argue Discord is a post-mortem of forums, and what killed them was the advent of social media. https://t.co/VWtXmEpf7b

— 🧢︎ (@KuluGary) January 21, 2023

Thankfully, I was wrong. The "old web" is not dead, it's just less visible.

I don't remember where I found a link to The 32 bit café, but it was probably while scrolling through social media. I felt like reading through their website, they were able to put words to a lot of feelings I've been having for the past few years. How I don't like barren, minimalist, empty and cookie cutter spaces (either online or not -those celebrity house tours seem atrocious to me). How I love spaces that are eclectic, full of personality, an expression of craftsmanship.

From there I have been perusing Neocities for a while, and man. People are talented, funny and weird. I can't recommend enough to just like, scroll for a few minutes and check out some sites that may be of interest to you. People are passionate about the stuff they care about, and creative, and I wouldn't have re-made this site to be more "Me".

So if you also miss the old web, know that it's still there. It may not be pushed by modern search engines, you may have to use bookmars or RSS feeds or just good old saving links to the desktop. But it exists, and I think that's awesome.