Hey why is it that all these sites are always about how the old web was good and we should make things like the old web, but the only thing they ever make is stuff about how we should make things like the old web.
I mean I would expect them to after making the first site suggesting you do it like this, to make a number of sites showing the aesthetic put to other subjects of interest. Like, Carl's Icosahedron Spot on the WEB might be an example site but no.
It's almost like they don't have anything else to say but make it like it used to be.
So many people make websites that basically look like they are from the 90's (though without all the animated GIFs haha), and use basic features without any strictly-modern stuff. These are just a few off the top of my head:
I stumbled across this one recently, from their Please Read at Least Once:
"A word about the philosophy of this site: These pages are declared to be a fluff-free zone! There will be no unnecessary, superfluous, or useless graphics of any kind - including but not limited to: dancing, gyrating, or other animated icons, colored textured backgrounds that are impossible to read through, or forced downloading of bit intense pictures that may be of no interest to you. Nor, will I ever expect you to use a particular brand of Web browser to be able to effectively access these pages. There are and never will be any advertisements, cookies, or other impositions on your time and space. In the time that it may take wading through a single monstrosity of the professional Web page designers at other sites, you will be able to find out what you want to know, when you want to know it! What a concept. :-) (Note, however, that your browser needs to be configured properly to make sense of the many ASCII diagrams, schematics, and tables. See the document: Suggested Browser Settings for font and other related information.)"
You might notice that the author of the website orignaly included a link section to a crapload of inspirations. Unfortunately CORS policy will block this section on most up to date browsers.
Thanks to Firefox devtools and a bit of quik & dirty regexp here is this list ;)
What people miss isn't the thing, it's the feeling that the thing was novel, exciting, and good enough to be appreciated. People stayed up late creating these quirky little sites full of copy-pasted GIFs and cursor trails and felt proud of them. In retrospect it feels like a simpler and less self-conscious time. I'm not sure if it really was, though. For example, the "under construction" convention was basically a way to say "don't judge my website too harshly."
I mean I would expect them to after making the first site suggesting you do it like this, to make a number of sites showing the aesthetic put to other subjects of interest. Like, Carl's Icosahedron Spot on the WEB might be an example site but no.
It's almost like they don't have anything else to say but make it like it used to be.