Yesterday's Websites, Today

Permalink

Follow me via:

---

Text-to-speech support required

You’ve heard of the old-web revival lurking in the underground of the furthest reaches of internet-space, now get ready for: Actual Geocities pages, archived in an easy to navigate interface! I’ve been lurking the Melonland forums, and searching around websites people have built, and one of the main complaints, or issues I see, is people are using Gifcities to kind of “gamble” their way into finding actual cool gifs, blinkers, badges, and banners. And, while this might be effective sometimes, I’d like to direct people interested in collecting old-net artifacts, or those who’d just like a little bit of nostalgia, to Restoritaveland. This comes complete with Geocities neighborhood navigation, and although I don’t think it has every site ever made on Geocities … it’s possible, you might just find something you’ve made, if you’re as old as me.

It’s not just an archive of easily viewable websites. It also kind of gives you a sense, or an idea of what it was actually like to navigate Geocities. Of course, if you really want to see what it was like, you can view snapshots on the Waybackmachine.

What it was really like, though, was the most basic kind of social media. So basic, it really wasn’t social media, at all. Basically, you would setup your account, and then you’d be given some account details, and … if I recall correctly, there was a built-in wysiwyg editor (what you see is what you get). That could be wrong though. I think a built in editor was a bit advanced for 1996. I do remember, that most people, including myself, at the time, used Microsoft Frontpage. This was just a drag and drop website design tool. Something that I personally used up until the year 2000 when I started writing everything by hand.

I also don’t remember if the webrings were built into the Geocities interface, or if it was something users came up with themselves in order to connect more easily with other people. But, I’m inclined to believe it was something introduced by Yahoo themselves, since all websites were kept in themed “neighborhoods.”

Honestly, between deciding not to buy Google, and then missing two or three more chances to save themselves, shutting down GS was one of their worst decisions. They have to know, at this point, that literally everyone would jump onboard if they just suddenly resurrected it.

But anyway, why I’m really writing this post tonight, is because I wanted to share a few pages that I think are really neat, and really convey what the average mindset was like on the internet back in the 90s. There was, of course, plenty of people arguing in chatrooms, and due to the fact that we’re all humans, toxicity is something that is inevitable. But … on people’s own webpages, most of the time, that’s not what you found. So, allow me to share with you some time capsules of a better era.

Welcome to Basil’s page of wonders.

You made it! I’ve got to wonder are you a new person or have you had my website saved for 6 years and periodically return to it? It is amazing that it wasn’t deleted, but then I do like this yahoo login so I’ve kept this page in such a manner. I mean… how else could I subscribe to the Ducaine Group without a yahoo account? The DuCaine group… I have sadly been slacking off with my reading too. Anywho…

A Page of Wonders? What was I thinking?? Do you feel like you’re watching a Disney movie or else stuck in Kingdom Hearts? Which is a good game and everyone should play it.

Well you may have asked for a link to see what I look like.

Well here are some pictures that you wanted: Basil’s Pictures Too bad these are like 6-8 years outdated. I wish I looked like that. Or at least weighed that much. I may have new pictures posted. Or I may decide that updating this page is a waste a time. I kind of like having these relics of a time long ago.

REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

A page that was maintained until around 2002 or so, speaking about a time six years before, back into the 90s and referring to it as a relic. It seems we already knew what Geocities was destined to be, even while it still existed. But that’s not why I like this page. I like it because it’s … just pure, and simple genuine humanity. Just someone being … themselves. Just kind of doing whatever.

She’s not posting stuff like, “Did you know Mars is exploding, click here now to find out why” or some other clickbait garbage. She’s not making incorrect statements or arguments in order to get two thousand people commenting to drive up engagement stats so that she can sell you something.

It’s just a person. Personing.

Next up, of course I had to visit the Nova neighborhood.

Welcome to Caedmonette’s homepage.

Welcome To My Pages.

This character was originally concieved on 10/31/98, then moved to Elendor (TTII mud) on 12/26/02 Now, she has found her home at in FFXI

I hardly know what this page is talking about, aside from a character that appears to be an OC they made in the Lord of the Rings universe. And in the very early 2000s when the first Final Fantasy MMO came out, they moved their character idea into that game.

This page caught my attention though, because it has fully in-tact midi files playing in the background. If you view the source code, you may find a way to extract it, but the only name it has to go by is “heroes.mid.”

But this is yet another example of a person just being a person on the long-lost internet.

The final site I’d like to portray here for you, before you go off and look at everything for yourself, is something that is … a wonder to perceive.

Welcome to anonymous user’s little anime page, last updated in 1999 (it’s actually a little tough to find pages that people didn’t keep updating all the way to 2009).

Welcome to my little anime page. I hope you like it enough to come back some time this millenium.

Here is a link to my home page: I.H.O.P. International house of Pikachu

HEY! Check this out . This link takes you to the trailor for the new pokemon movie.

Click here to go to the transport dock, which is a way station between the different parts of my site.

As you can tell by the quotes, this person has embedded many links into the front matter of their page. The first link goes to a dead Angelfire page (get this: angelfire was something like a sister of geocities, and unlike geocities, angelfire is still alive!), the second link actually downloads a video straight to your PC, and it works. And then the final link takes you to even more pages. Everything is nearly illegible overtop photos of anime girls, but the maze of pages abruptly stops with the promise of more pages. This is kind of how I approached web design in the 90s. I would make a Nine Inch Nails fan-page about halfway, and then write a little promise for anyone visiting that I would continue and finish it at a later time, and then I’d abandon it and start over with a new account with a brand new obsession.

But this is all just a taste. You have to find the real gems for yourself, because that was one of the best parts of Geocities, and one of the most important parts about rebuilding the old web. Discovery, connection. Reading other people’s thoughts, expressing themselves, or yourself, genuinely. I don’t think you need to copy the aesthetic completely, although it is certainly pretty cool if you do! But I’ve mostly written this in order to share, and to show those who may not have been around for it, an inch of what it was like. I need people to know, that looking back on what the internet was in the 90s and calling it the best version of the internet, is absolutely not hyperbole at all.

This is what they took from you.

Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic. It is all just code after-all, and it thrives even now. But goshdangit, Bobby, there are some things we just shouldn’t have lost, you know?