A Little Directory

2024-03-29

The old internet lives on amidst the new, if you only know where to look.

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I was born in 2002. By the time I was old enough to understand how to use a computer, the early days of the internet had already passed. I found myself in a world where the big social media aggregators had already swooped in; stuff was already collected and centralised. The culture of the “first age” of the internet was before my time. It wasn’t until the last year or two that I started to discover quirky personal websites, hobbyist blog pages, webrings, passion projects… And I discovered an internet that could have been.

But it’s not really an internet that “could have been”, is it? It’s right there. It exists! Though they’ve been overshadowed in the mainstream by content mills and giant advertising corporations, the eccentrics and creatives that made up old internet culture never really went away. What’s more, their work has evolved - a lot of these new-old websites make use of funky modern browser features. Don’t get me wrong, many cling to the appeal of nostalgia in their aesthetics, but I prefer the ones that don’t try explicitly to do this, and instead explore what is now possible with a website.

So let’s bring some of them to light, why don’t we?

This list is pretty short and kinda disorganised. I might sort it a little better someday. You can think of it as one of many starting points for exploring the “personal web”, as they call it. If you have or know of something you’d like me to add, give me a message! Ironically I don’t have a contact method on here (i’ll figure it out eventually i promise), so sending an email or tagging me on Bluesky is your best bet.

Before we get into this, a quick little thanks to 32-Bit Cafe for… well, existing I guess. Their site has a great guide for interacting with people through your or their web platforms - as well as some broad instructions for setting up your own website, and links to several of the major directories I’ve listed here.

Actual directories (believe it or not, people have already thought of this)

• https://goblin-heart.net/sadgrl/cyberspace/webrings - a list of webrings. yo i heard you like lists so i put lists inside your lists
• https://indieseek.xyz/links/ - LOTS of sites. I haven’t looked too much through this one.
• https://peelopaalu.neocities.org/ - also lots of sites! This one has short descriptions of each, kinda like this page but more organised and less opinionated.

Other portals into the internet realm

• https://yesterweb.org/ - A pretty big web forum/community/movement that ran from 2021 to 2023. I didn’t find the site until after it shut down, but if you poke around for a bit, you’ll still find links to a vast community of little websites. This is the gateway that led me to several of the other sites in this list, including 32-Bit Cafe, which was where I found two of the directories in the above section - and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the reason some of those sites even exist in the first place.

• https://john.citrons.xyz/ - john. It’s an advertising network, but like, a cool one. Ads are curated, not paid for. Hey look, there’s one right here!

Blogs

• https://maia.crimew.gay/ - Hacking, data leaks and occasional deep dives into strange parts of the internet. Some of the technical stuff goes over my head but that’s on my own lack of knowledge. Currently the only blog I actively stay up to date with!

Internet radio

• http://sleepy.zone/ - Hyperpop scene radio. The station has shut down, but sets from previous shows are available on Soundcloud. Still has an active community on Discord with lots of creative events! I’m one of the regular faces there, which is why I mention it, although I never got to make a set myself :(
• https://sadgirlsclub.wtf/ - Internet radio station, chatroom and blog. Focused on breakcore, drum&bass, rave music.

Games

• https://corru.observer/ - Explore the fragmented mind of a long-dead alien ambassador. I lost two days of productivity to this, beware…
• https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ - A huge collection of puzzle games, one of which is the best Minesweeper clone I know.
• https://ubq323.website/ffbm/ - A Flappy Bird clone with a baffling number of stackable game modifiers. And also leaderboards!

Art

• https://lyra.horse/antonymph/ - you really just have to experience this one for yourself. Trust me. (And enable pop-ups.)
• https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/ - I mean come on, it’s the SCP wiki. Possibly one of the biggest creative writing communities on the internet, it’s hardly obscure - but I’m including it in this list anyway. There’s some seriously great writing on here. My favourite SCP is the Neon God, an interdimensional transport network with a growing shadow over the far end of the line. There Is No Antimemetics Division is a brilliant story too, and was actually published as a book after its completion!
• https://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/ - The lesser-known sister site to the SCP wiki. Contains a multitude of short literary works of pretty much any written format you can think of. The Garden is the Serpent’s place.

Tools

• https://cobalt.tools/ - Web content downloader. Works with lots of different major social media platforms.
• https://make-a-png.umm.gay/ - converts images to PNG format. Useful if you’ve downloaded a WebP file by accident.
• https://regexr.com/ - Test page and reference manual for regular expressions.
• https://replicate.com/pixray/text2image - Old image gen AI from early 2022. Actually makes interesting-looking abstract stuff, which the newer models seem to have lost the ability to do.
• https://discordier.github.io/sam/ - Commodore 64 text-to-speech remake. I also have a VST plugin that does this, and I could swear I got it from here, but it doesn’t seem to be shown anywhere. Maybe I found that one somewhere else.

Some of these sites were discovered through centralised platforms like Discord or YouTube. Others were found by following links through those sites until I found something fun. I believe that’s what the kids call “surfing the Web”. It’s funny that it’s such a novel experience to me!

Anyway, I hope to keep this list updated with new and interesting stuff I find on the internet.