What are some old websites that should be re-remembered?

[PallElendro]

I remember a time when we used to browse more than the same ten or fewer websites. The Internet has gotten smaller in the last ten years to the normie because of how big companies have tried centralising the Internet into social media sites and Amazon. I just scrolled through Armor Games, Miniclip, and Newgrounds for the first time in years, and man, have times changed. Sadly, I don't have my computer from 2007 before I had a browser with server-stored Internet history available at my fingertips, or I'd browse through some other sites I frequented just to see how good we used to have it when it came to content. I would love to have a bookmark for a website that's just a database for these websites.

[5crownik007]

Giantitp.com
Though I actually can't think of any old websites which should be re-remembered. They are either still popular (and so don't qualify for remembrance) or died off because they were garbage (and therefore not worth remembering).
... I dunno... wiki.evageeks.org?

[Ninja_Prawn]

tumblr dot com
{Scrubbed}

I remember back in school (2000-2007) we used to play miniclip games all the time. And robotduck (which no longer hosts games), slime football/volleyball. Sporcle and Vector TD are still available, and QWOP obviously. I highly recommend Foddy's GIRP if you like QWOP.

[Peelee]

[pulls out walker]
Let me tell you of the live journals, back in the fabled Cities of Geo.

[Imbalance]

Purple.com for the decades it spent as literally nothing more than a purple screen until finally purchased by a mattress company the other year.

[Mitth'raw'nuruo]

www.thinkgeek.com

Got bought out by Gamestop, who closed them down. Shame.

Stumbleupon

http://www.stardestroyer.net/

The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Back when EVERYTHING PUBLISHED was CANNON one hero started posting it all on the internet. Person mentioned in one magazine in japan? He had the write up and citation. Not only was it more through then any off the official sources, it was pre-wiki and he had higher standards. Eventually wikis took over, and of course, quality suffered, made worse by Lucas and Disney ret-cons, which was something which had previously been verboten.

You could search by name, category (planet, alien, allegiances and the list goes on).

Truly it is an example of what the internet once was, and what we've lost with internet 2.0

https://www.theforce.net/swenc/default.asp

[Peelee]

http://www.stardestroyer.net/

Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.

[Resileaf]

Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.

I sense a disturbance in the Internet... As if millions of websites have been bought out by Google... And then were suddenly closed down.

[Mitth'raw'nuruo]

Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.

I still visit, from time to time.....

[Aedilred]

During the inexorable rise of Facebook in particular, most commentators took the view that all its predecessors had eventually failed and been supplanted by a newer competitor. Myspace, Friendster, Friendsreuinted, etc. They failed to anticipate Facebook's aggressive ruthlessness or its ambition to become not only the primary social network site but the homepage for the internet. They also failed to anticipate how little its users would care about its data-harvesting and disregard for privacy or the rule of law, until it was way too late.

There is a sense though that the big beasts of the internet now aren't really doing anything new; they've just supplanted predecessors who were less successful, and spread their reach across a wider range of services. This has led to some changes in how the internet is used, but given how business works it was probably always the direction of travel unless specific measures had been taken early on to preserve the anarchic nature of the early internet.

I'm inclined to give Amazon a little bit of credit compared with other internet megafauna because while they are a monstrosity, they've also been in it from the start. They may not have invented internet shopping but they were the ones who popularised it, who made it acceptable, who turned the internet into the place where you bought everything, and they've been doing it since the early days of dial-up. There aren't really any great lost shopping emporia of the past which Amazon toppled. It's always been them.

Since the rise of YouTube, and especially since Google bought it, internet-based entertainment has become largely centralised, and very video-heavy. Back in the day, video wasn't so viable (bandwidth and all) and certainly the videos in question where they did appear were less long. They were also more spread about.

I remember bored.com as an early entertainment aggregator. I also remember places like Weebl generating a lot of memes, back at a point when you had to actually visit specific websites to see memes.

Geocities has been mentioned, of course. There were whole hosts of blogging sites. Livejournal used to be a site I visited multiple times a day.

All those old search engines like webferret, askjeeves, hotbot, etc. None of them was as good as Google and all of them were supplanted by it, but there was in fact a time before Google. Yahoo is still trying to pretend that's what we're living in.

There was also a time before Wikipedia: who now remembers Encarta?

[J-H]

Youtube has killed many content-heavy sites. Why would someone write a 2000 word article on how to do something, when you can just look up a 10 minute video on Youtube?

I actually prefer prose, it's faster than watching a video.

[Peelee]

Youtube has killed many content-heavy sites. Why would someone write a 2000 word article on how to do something, when you can just look up a 10 minute video on Youtube?

I actually prefer prose, it's faster than watching a video.

Depends on the application. If I'm trying to fix my dryer, a video showing me exactly what I'm looking for is worth a thousand words.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Encarta! I was using that daily in 1999! So many school projects! Also, that dungeon exploration game with the quiz questions and the matches was actually brilliant. Mind Maze, it was called. Good times.

I was on MySpace, too. It was so much better than Facebook. Everyone around me jumped ship in 2006 though, claiming that the clean, professional look of Facebook was more 'now'. They liked how everyone's page looked the same, which created a more egalitarian atmosphere than MySpace. So basically, we sold our souls for a trendy blue & grey interface. :smallsigh:

[Peelee]

I was on MySpace, too. It was so much better than Facebook.

On the one hand, I have to disagree hard. Opening up a MySpace page to be hit in the face with cheesy music autoplaying while I try to read the text over the glitter-bomb background was insane.

On the other hand, MySpace never got into massive privacy invasion, data collection and sales, and disseminator of false information/echo chambers. Granted, that may have been due to not having enough time for that, but even then I doubt they would be anywhere near as ****ish as Zuck.

....I think I'll just go with the "the big social media platforms are pretty terrible in general."

[Aedilred]

Youtube has killed many content-heavy sites. Why would someone write a 2000 word article on how to do something, when you can just look up a 10 minute video on Youtube?

I actually prefer prose, it's faster than watching a video.

It depends, I think. As Peelee says, instructional videos for practical purposes can actually be really useful, moreso than a written article. But a lot of the time, I agree, video is less efficient than prose.

Prose also has the advantage that you can skim it to see whether it will actually tell you what you want to know - or something close to it, and if appropriate skip to the relevant part, before wasting your time reading it in full, whereas with a video you just have to kind of keep watching and hope it gets to the point eventually.

I get frustrated with audiobooks, podcasts, museum audioguides, etc. for related reasons. In many cases, where there's no advantage to the audio format, I'd rather just read the material.

[Tvtyrant]

It depends, I think. As Peelee says, instructional videos for practical purposes can actually be really useful, moreso than a written article. But a lot of the time, I agree, video is less efficient than prose.

Prose also has the advantage that you can skim it to see whether it will actually tell you what you want to know - or something close to it, and if appropriate skip to the relevant part, before wasting your time reading it in full, whereas with a video you just have to kind of keep watching and hope it gets to the point eventually.

I get frustrated with audiobooks, podcasts, museum audioguides, etc. for related reasons. In many cases, where there's no advantage to the audio format, I'd rather just read the material.

I tend to watch any video game streaming or instructional videos on double speed, I have not time for slow videos of someone talking about why you should only do an exercise from the floor to protect your shoulders.

[Mordokai]

Stumbleupon

Oh man... I miss *that* one.

[Spore]

Depends on the application. If I'm trying to fix my dryer, a video showing me exactly what I'm looking for is worth a thousand words.

Honestly depends on the video. I was looking for a video to clean my coffee machine, and I had a 45 minute monster. Dude, I am not filthy but I spend 45 minutes on my whole kitchen not just the coffee machine. It's called multitasking. I don't have to sit in front of a machine doing its descaling program for 25 minutes.

I dont know if the English internet knows this but ogame.fun It is a browser game about dominating space. The servers reset regularly, there is a good amount of depth and politics while the whole thing doesnt explode in complicated spreadsheets like another spacefaring mmo.

[Tarmor]

On the other hand, MySpace never got into massive privacy invasion, data collection and sales, and disseminator of false information/echo chambers. Granted, that may have been due to not having enough time for that, but even then I doubt they would be anywhere near as ****ish as Zuck.

Yes, Facebook really Zuck's in this way. I can't believe how so many people put everything into it, and don't know how easily that data can be abused. So many of them are all too ready to complain about invasion of privacy or misuse after the fact too!

[Azuresun]

Yes, Facebook really Zuck's in this way. I can't believe how so many people put everything into it, and don't know how easily that data can be abused. So many of them are all too ready to complain about invasion of privacy or misuse after the fact too!

It's okay, though. According to the message someone forwards me every three months or so, I just need to write in a comment that I don't give Facebook permission to use my data in any naughty ways! I do wonder if privacy is going to be a foreign concept to future generations who grow up on dumping their lives online.

Before Youtube devoured everything in its path, I hung around Gametrailers quite a bit. I also used Photobucket for years--you know, before they became an ad-riddled hellhole and started actively blackmailing their customers.

[Aedilred]

Yes, Facebook really Zuck's in this way. I can't believe how so many people put everything into it, and don't know how easily that data can be abused. So many of them are all too ready to complain about invasion of privacy or misuse after the fact too!

In retrospect, the world was foolish, but hindsight is always 20:20. Facebook started relatively innocuously as a way to communicate easily with your friends and share jokes and photos, and the like, and it was limited to the university/workplace network you were in unless you reached out to specific individuals beyond it.

Nobody really understood the importance of data. We understood the ad- and to a lesser extent the cookie- based monetising of the internet, but the idea that data was being aggregated on such a large scale and sold off for profit was an alien one. And in line with the generally optimistic principles of the early internet, nobody - or at least nobody anyone was listening to - identified that this sort of network would allow dangerous misinformation to spread just as quickly as pictures of nights out.

This changed gradually, but by the time it was rolled out to the general public Facebook was generally considered an inoffensive and useful tool, with an established, loyal and influential user base.

Things that happened over the next few years caused that perception to change, and people gradually woke up to what Facebook really was, and the dangers of it. That was about 9-10 years ago. But by that point the tumour was too big to remove.

[tomandtish]

Giantitp.com
Though I actually can't think of any old websites which should be re-remembered. They are either still popular (and so don't qualify for remembrance) or died off because they were garbage (and therefore not worth remembering).
... I dunno... wiki.evageeks.org?

Not sure I completely agree with this. Websites may die because they are garbage. They may also die because the owner loses interest/dies/has a major life change.

Case in point: If the creator of a popular webcomic died tomorrow, and their heirs decided they didn't want to maintain the site and shut it down, would that mean the comic was garbage?

(Not that I want anyone to die tomorrow).

Another example: Law and the Multiverse (http://lawandthemultiverse.com/). it's one of my favorite sites. but real life has apparently gotten in the way, with only 2 posts in the last 2 years. I suspect it has reached the end. Doesn't mean it was garbage though.

[Imbalance]

Ted hasn't updated his caving journal (http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/page1.html) in quite some time.

[Crow]

Speaking of caves, the Cave of Magic. Though I think that one's gone.

[Algeh]

I miss The Brunching Shuttlecocks. I have the book, but it's not the same. I also miss some of Lore's other post-Brunching projects, like when he was doing a D&D monster manual inspired comic for a while.

[Aedilred]

Not sure I completely agree with this. Websites may die because they are garbage. They may also die because the owner loses interest/dies/has a major life change.
Erfworld, for instance.

Strictly speaking, that went behind a paywall, rather than dying, but for the majority of users the effect is the same. The majority of newspapers have done the same.


On a similar basis, are we allowed to mourn websites that still exist but are shadows of their former selves?

Like cracked.com

Or for that matter nuklearpower.com which still hosts one of the best webcomics of all time, but inexpicably rejigged its page archive so that all existing links broke and individual pages are now almost impossible to locate - and now the comic has concluded, searching the archives has assumed a much higher relative importance.

Or, the hell with it, tvtropes, which is still alright, but lost a lot of what made it special several years ago.

The old Games Workshop website is something I missed for a long time (until I emerged from the cave and saw the light). It was a total mess but there was some great stuff on there, all of which they expunged to replace it with a generic webstore.

[No brains]

I sort of miss the old layout of Snopes.com. I find its redesign unappealing.

[J-H]

Or for that matter nuklearpower.com which still hosts one of the best webcomics of all time, but inexpicably rejigged its page archive so that all existing links broke and individual pages are now almost impossible to locate - and now the comic has concluded, searching the archives has assumed a much higher relative importance.

Or, the hell with it, tvtropes, which is still alright, but lost a lot of what made it special several years ago.


Wow, I hadn't thought of 8-Bit Theatre in a long time. I feel like I remember the ending, but I don't know what it was. I know I had read past the Armoire of Invulnerability while keeping up with updates.
My webcomic reading simply trailed off. I'm down to Dilbert, Foxtrot, and XKCD and have been for a long time. I keep getting tempted to go back to Sluggy Freelance, but the idea of re-orienting myself and slogging through 10 years of archives is a bit much.

TV Tropes, for me, became less interesting when they made the trope names generic instead of keeping them linked to the trope namers (like The Worf Effect).

[Peelee]

Wow, I hadn't thought of 8-Bit Theatre in a long time. I feel like I remember the ending, but I don't know what it was. I know I had read past the Armoire of Invulnerability while keeping up with updates.
My webcomic reading simply trailed off. I'm down to Dilbert, Foxtrot, and XKCD and have been for a long time. I keep getting tempted to go back to Sluggy Freelance, but the idea of re-orienting myself and slogging through 10 years of archives is a bit much.

TV Tropes, for me, became less interesting when they made the trope names generic instead of keeping them linked to the trope namers (like The Worf Effect).
Might I recommend SMBC (https://www.smbc-comics.com)? Daily updates with hover text and votey, so you get three jokes per day, but no overarching narrative (or even occasional, intermittent narrative, like XKCD's black hat), so if you miss a day or month or year there's never any problem.

[veti]

I miss The Brunching Shuttlecocks. I have the book, but it's not the same. I also miss some of Lore's other post-Brunching projects, like when he was doing a D&D monster manual inspired comic for a while.

Yeah, Lore gave me more guffaws per view than anyone else on the Web before or since. I miss that too.

Much of Brunching is still available on the Wayback machine, but it's hit and miss whether any given page survives and still works.

[DavidSh]

Not that old a web site, but I will miss the xkcd forum. It will supposedly return when the problem of it having been hacked is solved, but it looks like nobody has the ability, the time, and the motivation for this. Maybe two of these, but not all three.

[Aedilred]

TV Tropes, for me, became less interesting when they made the trope names generic instead of keeping them linked to the trope namers (like The Worf Effect).
My thoughts exactly.

[Vinyadan]

I never played ogame, but I remember the jokes about how addictive it was, and how people would set their alarms to wake up in the middle of the night and perform some action.
Wow, I hadn't thought of 8-Bit Theatre in a long time. I feel like I remember the ending, but I don't know what it was. I know I had read past the Armoire of Invulnerability while keeping up with updates.
My webcomic reading simply trailed off. I'm down to Dilbert, Foxtrot, and XKCD and have been for a long time. I keep getting tempted to go back to Sluggy Freelance, but the idea of re-orienting myself and slogging through 10 years of archives is a bit much.

TV Tropes, for me, became less interesting when they made the trope names generic instead of keeping them linked to the trope namers (like The Worf Effect).

Sluggy Freelance recently ended a very long arc and has had a fresh new start (same main characters without Bun Bun), so it would be a good time to go back to it.

I personally enjoy that Bun Bun isn't there, although it worries me that it probably means that he will have his own solo arc.

[Velaryon]

I've seen Newgrounds and Weebl mentioned as entertainment/joke sites. To those I will add Rathergood, AlbinoBlackSheep, and Homestarrunner as places I used to go for entertaining (if also dumb) content.



I actually prefer prose, it's faster than watching a video.

I could not agree more. Also, videos are harder to skim.



On the one hand, I have to disagree hard. Opening up a MySpace page to be hit in the face with cheesy music autoplaying while I try to read the text over the glitter-bomb background was insane.

My thing about MySpace is what a glitchy mess it was. I remember how often I'd click a link only to be logged out, or get a random error message. My favorite is when I went to log in and got the "you must be logged in to do that!" error page. I will maintain til the day I die that the main reason MySpace lost to Facebook is because MySpace during its heyday was an unworkable mess of a site.

[keokeo68]

[QUOTE=Mitth'raw'nuruo;24261718]
Got bought out by Gamestop, who closed them down. Shame.

Stumbleupon



The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Back when EVERYTHING PUBLISHED was CANNON one hero started posting it all on the internet. Person mentioned in one magazine in japan? He had the write up and citation. Not only was it more through then any off the official sources, it was pre-wiki and he had higher standards. Eventually wikis took over, and of course, quality suffered, made worse by Lucas and Disney ret-cons, which was something which had previously been verboten.

You could search by name, category (planet, alien, allegiances and the list goes on).

Truly it is an example of what the internet once was, and what we've lost with internet 2.0


I thought you were talking about the game but unexpectedly you took me to the sales website. It is disappointing

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Depends on the application. If I'm trying to fix my dryer, a video showing me exactly what I'm looking for is worth a thousand words.

Not always I'll argue. If I'm a bit familiar or good pics are posted, I prefer words. Ppl talk SOOO slow and computers don't rewind video fast enough if I need to see/hear something again.

[zlefin]

I'll say rpgclassics.com; in addition to useful info back in the day for a lot of those classics, it had some funny subsites. I remember macc's HQ having some funny stories.

[darkrose50]

I used to enjoy seeing what folks thought was attractive with hotornot. It was like a sociological experiment.

[SaintRidley]

There once was a time when realultimatepower.net was a cultural touchstone for the internet. I guarantee if I surveyed my students tomorrow, not one of them would ever have heard of it.

[MoonCat]

Well, icanhascheezburger still exists, but changed almost beyond recognition. And I say that even though I was still checking it occasionally ten years ago, when it had already begun its attempt to become the middle-of-the-road collection and generator of all possible funny images on the internet.

On a related note, what about old Giantitp? There was a time when my firefox 'most commonly visited pages' list always included the forum's 503 error page. :smallbiggrin:

[Telonius]

Hamsterdance
"Homestar Runner" (Actually Strongbad's Emails, but we'll maintain the polite fiction)
Viking Kittens
The End of the Internet
8 Bit Theater

[Imbalance]

ilovebacon looks dead. My memory fails, but it was either that site or another one like it that people used to defend by saying, "well, at least they don't show people eating babies." Until they did.

I think Zthing popped up in that same era, late '90's/early 00's. I remember them making fun of Brittney Spears a lot.

[LaZodiac]

Well, icanhascheezburger still exists, but changed almost beyond recognition. And I say that even though I was still checking it occasionally ten years ago, when it had already begun its attempt to become the middle-of-the-road collection and generator of all possible funny images on the internet.

On a related note, what about old Giantitp? There was a time when my firefox 'most commonly visited pages' list always included the forum's 503 error page. :smallbiggrin:

I don't know if it's my territories internet being spotty or what, but you got your wish. I've hit like, five 503s here today.

[DataNinja]

I don't know if it's my territories internet being spotty or what, but you got your wish. I've hit like, five 503s here today.

I've got a lot of them recently, too. So, not just you.

[MoonCat]

I've got a lot of them recently, too. So, not just you.

Today was unusually a pre-announced day for the comic to be uploaded, so I think there's been a higher amount of people lurking to make the first page of the new comic thread. It used to be every day that the server failed, and a surge in any popular thread like friendly banter could do it.

[veti]

I was going to nominate the Canadian World Domination site, which has long since lapsed in its original form. But someone is way ahead of me and has apparently cloned the whole thing, good on them. Google it to see why it's worthy.

[ben-zayb]

TV Tropes, for me, became less interesting when they made the trope names generic instead of keeping them linked to the trope namers (like The Worf Effect).Wait,what? It is still The Worf Effect last I checked, which is...just now.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the safe-for-work websites I frequent as a 90s kid are still there, though possibly barely known by mainstream-only consumers. There are the very interactive ones like Peter Answers, Akinator, and Hotel626, then the got game-related ones like Kongregate, Y8, Hotel626, and Kingdom of Loathing (I still play it!), then the webcomics like XKCD, SMBC, C&H, Existential Comics, DM of the Rings, and Giantitp, then you got media-related ones like Albino Blacksheep, and then finally yu got the discussion spaces that are way too many to mention; I mean, think of anything that can be discussed safely at work, and there is likely at least one board/community/yahoogroup dedicated for it.

I also can't understate how much of a gamechanger Wikipedia is, and how fondly I like to remember it back in the early 2000s. It may not meet the topic requirement, but it is something that a lot of people take for granted nowadays, yet it was an absolute world of marvel to me back then. The idea that an entire up-to-date encyclopedia can be accessed from the internet was so mindblowing to me. I was mostly used to the hardbound stuff, and my best online resource was an paid-for Britannica Encyclopedia installation. Wikipedia gives you all of that and more for free!

[Aedilred]

Something which occurred to me earlier is not so much a website (though there were websites on the theme: realultimatepower reminded me) but a phenomenon you don't see so much any more. That being: laughably obvious lies about personal expertise.

Back in the day the guy "with a black belt in advanced ninjitsu", or something similar, was a staple of messageboards. There was a stereotype, which maybe made it seem more prevalent than it was but like many stereotypes it did have a kernel of truth. Early internet adopters seized on the opportunities of anonymity, but where that is now most commonly a vector for abuse, then it seemed to be used principallly for self-aggrandizement.

Obviously there are still people who lie about their qualifications on the internet, and there always will be. There are even still some troglodytes around who will take any opportunity to tell you about their easily-falsified tales of heroism and military derring-do, though you may have to dig to find them. But I no longer feel that the people lying about themselves egregiously represent any greater a proportion of the total population than IRL.

On the other hand the quotient of outright shouting of mindless abuse (which has sadly come to supersede the older definition of "troll(ing)" in general vernacular) seems to have increased significantly.

[Peelee]

Something which occurred to me earlier is not so much a website (though there were websites on the theme: realultimatepower reminded me) but a phenomenon you don't see so much any more. That being: laughably obvious lies about personal expertise.

Speaking of, I wonder whatever happened to Supershadow...

There was also the special forces mall cop with armor plates duct tapes to his body. Good times. They don't make 'em like they used to, I tells ya.

[veti]

Back in the day the guy "with a black belt in advanced ninjitsu", or something similar, was a staple of messageboards. There was a stereotype, which maybe made it seem more prevalent than it was but like many stereotypes it did have a kernel of truth. Early internet adopters seized on the opportunities of anonymity, but where that is now most commonly a vector for abuse, then it seemed to be used principallly for self-aggrandizement.

True dat. I used to hang around a group where a lot of people (though not regulars) would claim to be vampires. I wonder if that delusion has died out, or if they're still out there on the appropriately themed sites.

It's a shame there's so much powerful abuse about nowadays, but I find it hard to be nostalgic for old-style trolls. Partly because they're still around, it's just that we don't have a word for them now, and partly because they were always a damn pest anyway.

[Imbalance]

Oh, when I think back about all the time I wasted trying to convince people not to waste time arguing with trolls, glorious flamewars, nothing was taboo, casualties on all sides, finding blood on the keyboards in the lab... But back then, even though it was the same stupidity, it somehow seems more innocent in hindsight, like we all knew it was just words on a screen and could walk away from it with no real harm done. Then we turned a new millennium and doxxing and swatting became things that idiots do with no regard for the terrible consequences. What I'd give for a new Internet that is exactly like the old Internet and nothing like the current Internet.

[Devils_Advocate]

I do wonder if privacy is going to be a foreign concept to future generations who grow up on dumping their lives online.
And had their lives dumped online by their parents before they were capable of doing so themselves.

Remember when anonymity was a significant part of the appeal of the internet? Remember when online anonymity was valued for its role in creating an egalitarian venue for discussion divorced from outside status, because on the internet, no one knows you're a dog? Remember when it was considered common sense to be very selective about what you shared with basically the entire world in a way linked with information that could be used to track you down in real life?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.


rejigged its page archive so that all existing links broke
Annoyingly common.


I was going to nominate the Canadian World Domination site, which has long since lapsed in its original form. But someone is way ahead of me and has apparently cloned the whole thing, good on them. Google it to see why it's worthy.
"If Canada ever takes over... we'll all be sorry."

[Peelee]

Remember when anonymity was a significant part of the appeal of the internet? Remember when online anonymity was valued for its role in creating an egalitarian venue for discussion divorced from outside status, because on the internet, no one knows you're a dog? Remember when it was considered common sense to be very selective about what you shared with basically the entire world in a way linked with information that could be used to track you down in real life?

Ya know, Ender's Game really had an idealized view of the Internet. A bastion of civility where shenanigans were not tolerated, even with the ability to make anonymous proxy accounts.

[Imbalance]

Ya know, Ender's Game really had an idealized view of the Internet. A bastion of civility where shenanigans were not tolerated, even with the ability to make anonymous proxy accounts.

I've been meaning to watch that again, if for no other reason than to get my dumb brain to quit remembering the plot points to Logan's Run instead whenever I see it referenced.

[Bohandas]

Kongregate is another Newgrounds/Armor Games type site

[J-H]

I've been meaning to watch that again, if for no other reason than to get my dumb brain to quit remembering the plot points to Logan's Run instead whenever I see it referenced.

The book, not the movie.

[Telonius]

Back when I first read it, I was picturing Demosthenes launching the manifesto from, like, an Angelfire page, and couldn't take it seriously after that.

[Peelee]

Back when I first read it, I was picturing Demosthenes launching the manifesto from, like, an Angelfire page, and couldn't take it seriously after that.

The really sad thing is I can picture Demosthenes launching the manifesto from Facebook and it totally working.

Well, maybe not Demosthenes. Locke?

ETA: See also: XKCD (https://xkcd.com/635/)

[Imbalance]

The book, not the movie.

How different is the novel from the short story, apart from length?

[Gnoman]

Wait,what? It is still The Worf Effect last I checked, which is...just now.

They kept a few of the more iconic trope names, mostly those which migrated off the site into common use (such as, for example, The Worf Effect). For most of them, the old name has been turned into a redirect with a blander, more "descriptive" one, and that sort of name is mandated (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Administrivia/TropeNamerSyndrome) for all new ones. This happened around 2012.

[Clistenes]

http://www.stardestroyer.net/

The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Back when EVERYTHING PUBLISHED was CANNON!

https://www.theforce.net/swenc/default.asp

I am still salty about the Disney retcon...

I didn't care the retcon that came with the Prequel trilogy, because I liked the new lore and novels, but when they declared all those non-canon too, I got seriously pissed...

[Peelee]

I am still salty about the Disney retcon...

I didn't care the retcon that came with the Prequel trilogy, because I liked the new lore and novels, but when they declared all those non-canon too, I got seriously pissed...

I'm still happy about the Canon wipe, because so many of the books were just so bad.

[Clistenes]

I'm still happy about the Canon wipe, because so many of the books were just so bad.

I dunno... a lot of the stuff before the Prequels was really bad, but the quality rose after the Prequels and the first retcon...

And anyways, the new post-Disney takeover stuff isn't better...

[Peelee]

I dunno... a lot of the stuff before the Prequels was really bad, but the quality rose after the Prequels and the first retcon...

And anyways, the new post-Disney takeover stuff isn't better...

The current Canon books have a significantly better good-to-bad ratio. :smallwink:

[137beth]

Kongregate is another Newgrounds/Armor Games type site

I still visit Kongregate regularly. I'll be sad when a lot of their games become unplayable with the death of Flash.



And had their lives dumped online by their parents before they were capable of doing so themselves.

Remember when anonymity was a significant part of the appeal of the internet? Remember when online anonymity was valued for its role in creating an egalitarian venue for discussion divorced from outside status, because on the internet, no one knows you're a dog? Remember when it was considered common sense to be very selective about what you shared with basically the entire world in a way linked with information that could be used to track you down in real life?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.



The early internet wasn't as private as you are making it sound. If you used the internet in 1995, then everything you did was visible to your internet service provider. SSL/TLS were introduced in part to limit what ISPs can see, and now the widespread use of HTTPS means that more of our online activity is hidden from ISPs than at any time in the past.

Which isn't to say that the internet is more private today. Rather, what changed is who is doing the spying. Your ISP can't see which page on a domain you are visiting, but instead you are spied on by the websites you visit, the third-party javascript libraries in the websites you visit, your DRM-infected media, your browser, your operating system, and in some cases your hardware.

[J-H]

The book, not the movie.

Ender's Game? The movie was a reasonable adaptation, but still not as good. It's been too long to pick out the details, but I know the movie ended up a lot more compressed, and I think the kids were older in the movie than in the book.
They did get the Battle Room right, or at least pretty darn close. I was happy about that.

[DigoDragon]

I remember Yerf being the earliest big name art site for "furry art" stuff that tried to keep the content no riskier than PG or so.

[Hunter Noventa]

I remember villainsupply.com which was a joke site that billed itself as a supplier to Bond-style villains. Secret Lairs, Doomsday Weapons, Minions, they had it all!

[Skydow]

Naturally, I will never forget Newgrounds. Regardless of the fact that I never go there. I can think of my favorite games on there in the back of my head, even though I've forgotten the names of them.

[SquirrellyOtter]

I'm mad that the old music matrix applet iNudge doesn't exist anymore. I recreated Synyster Gate's old signature guitar solo on it, and I'd love to have another crack at it, but apparently iNudge was bought out by Audiotool, scaled down, and made pay-to-play. 0/5.

[Devils_Advocate]

The early internet wasn't as private as you are making it sound. If you used the internet in 1995, then everything you did was visible to your internet service provider. SSL/TLS were introduced in part to limit what ISPs can see, and now the widespread use of HTTPS means that more of our online activity is hidden from ISPs than at any time in the past.

Which isn't to say that the internet is more private today. Rather, what changed is who is doing the spying. Your ISP can't see which page on a domain you are visiting, but instead you are spied on by the websites you visit, the third-party javascript libraries in the websites you visit, your DRM-infected media, your browser, your operating system, and in some cases your hardware.
Huh? I didn't claim that it was easy to keep information completely secret from everyone on the early internet. My point was that internet users in general once placed more value on not making information public. Public figures who make it their business to communicate with the public posted stuff under their real names, but my recollection, at least, is that most people did not, under the understanding that doing that could have negative consequences. (https://xkcd.com/137/)

I don't think that I'm just imagining a change in culture where people are much less distrustful of online strangers than they used to be (https://i.imgur.com/27gzNdE.jpg). And while that change isn't by any means all bad, it does seem to have led to the occasional taking of certain risks for basically zero reward, because those risks don't register as risks any more.

[Vinyadan]

I remember a website, Project Playlist, that dug for mp3s all over the net and let you stream them. It doesn't exist any more.

There are a couple of webcomics which I enjoyed and aren't on line anymore. One was the sitcomesque Out At Home, the other one was Dungeon Crawl Inc., a fantasy comedy based on D&D and one of the old D&D videogames.

[Bohandas]

I still visit Kongregate regularly. I'll be sad when a lot of their games become unplayable with the death of Flash.

You need to keep an old browser around (and possibly also save some local copies of the games by grabbing them out of your browser's cache folder)

I still don't get why flash is being discontinued.

I would be on Newgrounds right now if I could get a proper copy of flash for my phone browser.


DRM-infected media

That sort of thing is why I prefer to buy discs and rip them to my mp3 player. I've only ever bought a couple of things from digital music stores and they were all from Bandcamp, never from iTunes. I won't buy anything from Apple.

Similarly, if I can get a game on GOG.com I'll buy it there instead of on Steam.


Youtube has killed many content-heavy sites. Why would someone write a 2000 word article on how to do something, when you can just look up a 10 minute video on Youtube?

I actually prefer prose, it's faster than watching a video.

Seconded. I hate those freakin videos.

[Wardog]

On the other hand the quotient of outright shouting of mindless abuse (which has sadly come to supersede the older definition of "troll(ing)" in general vernacular) seems to have increased significantly.

Speaking of which: http://www.flamewarriorsguide.com/ still exists, but I don't think its been updated in a long time.

Other websites I've suddenly remembered, and are apparently still active:
http://www.rinkworks.com/
http://progressquest.com/

The Discworld MUD is still going (and my main char is still there), and I keep meaning to go back to it but never have the time.

Oh, and www.wtfcomics.com/ (Everquest webcomic) is still active.

Unfortunately, the website that was nothing more than a page full of animated flaming spinning skulls is no more. (Or at any rate, I haven't been able to find it with google).

[Xyril]

The current Canon books have a significantly better good-to-bad ratio. :smallwink:

What about the current Canon movies?

[Xyril]

I still don't get why flash is being discontinued.


Security flaws plus alternatives. Flash is great and accessible, but by its nature exposes vulnerabilities. They've arguably done a decent job patching these and keeping the risks manageable. I don't know whether it's possible to overhaul Flash in a way that eliminates these concerns and maintains backwards compatibility with old content, but even if there is, it seems like there's not enough demand (or at least, not enough demand you can profit from) that would justify that level of work.

If you want to publish a simple game, there are too many viable alternative platforms nowadays. Also, the sheer number of competent programmers takes away from one of Flash's big advantages, which is that it was pretty user friendly for beginners.

[TrashTrash]

Akinator! People still visit, but it's nowhere near as crowded as he first time I saw someone playing it in the library in the early 2010s.
Yes, I know it's not "old" to most of the people on here, but I'm new to this "existence" thing. :smallwink:

[No brains]

I would be on Newgrounds right now if I could get a proper copy of flash for my phone browser.

Supposedly Newgrounds working on a flash emulator you can download from them. Does that not work well on your phone?

I used to play a few games on there. Toss the Turtle was a fun one.

[Bohandas]

I actually didn;t hear about that. Thanks for the heads up.

[137beth]

Huh? I didn't claim that it was easy to keep information completely secret from everyone on the early internet. My point was that internet users in general once placed more value on not making information public. Public figures who make it their business to communicate with the public posted stuff under their real names, but my recollection, at least, is that most people did not, under the understanding that doing that could have negative consequences. (https://xkcd.com/137/)

I don't think that I'm just imagining a change in culture where people are much less distrustful of online strangers than they used to be (https://i.imgur.com/27gzNdE.jpg). And while that change isn't by any means all bad, it does seem to have led to the occasional taking of certain risks for basically zero reward, because those risks don't register as risks any more.

Okay, I think I misread what your post was about. Now that I have reread it and read your response, I agree with you. I remember in the early 2000s, someone said I was crazy for using a username with "Ben" in it, because "OMG, you revealed your real name on the internet! That's dangerous!" I had thought it was an acceptably low risk at the time, because "Ben" is a common first name (you won't see me reveal my last name on a forum).

Now, though, Facebook and Google do everything in their power to convince you to use your real first and last name for everything you post. The anonymity of old internet forums is gone.

[Bohandas]

Okay, I think I misread what your post was about. Now that I have reread it and read your response, I agree with you. I remember in the early 2000s, someone said I was crazy for using a username with "Ben" in it, because "OMG, you revealed your real name on the internet! That's dangerous!" I had thought it was an acceptably low risk at the time, because "Ben" is a common first name (you won't see me reveal my last name on a forum).

Now, though, Facebook and Google do everything in their power to convince you to use your real first and last name for everything you post. The anonymity of old internet forums is gone.

I gave Google a fake name and try not to log on for anything I can do logged off. I don't use facebook at all.

EDIT:
Sometimes I even worry about the fact that I've given the same fake name to multiple websites when perhaps I should have given them different fake names

[Tyrant]

I gave Google a fake name and try not to log on for anything I can do logged off. I don't use facebook at all.

EDIT:
Sometimes I even worry about the fact that I've given the same fake name to multiple websites when perhaps I should have given them different fake names
My email address that I have had for 17 years had a fake name on it until about 2 years ago. My back up email for other uses still has a fake name. The fact I have several email addresses is a relic from the desire to stay anonymous because it allowed me to keep things separate. Possibly overkill, but it seemed logical at the time. I still don't give out my name if I don't have to.

There was a sight that I recall (though I can't find it in a search now so it's probably gone) that was a series of write ups of lame Marvel supervillains. Heroes as well, I believe, but the focus seemed to be the villains. It was quite expansive as I recall.

One thing I really miss is the forums on IMDB. Each movie had it's own forum. Sure some discussions lead to utterly pointless arguments but being able to discuss any movie with a broad mix of people (I assume, I suppose they might've been the same people) was nice.

I definitely agree with the earlier sentiment that in a lot of ways the internet seems smaller than it used to.

[PopeLinus1]

Poptropica.

[Aedilred]

My email address that I have had for 17 years had a fake name on it until about 2 years ago. My back up email for other uses still has a fake name. The fact I have several email addresses is a relic from the desire to stay anonymous because it allowed me to keep things separate. Possibly overkill, but it seemed logical at the time. I still don't give out my name if I don't have to.

There was a sight that I recall (though I can't find it in a search now so it's probably gone) that was a series of write ups of lame Marvel supervillains. Heroes as well, I believe, but the focus seemed to be the villains. It was quite expansive as I recall.

One thing I really miss is the forums on IMDB. Each movie had it's own forum. Sure some discussions lead to utterly pointless arguments but being able to discuss any movie with a broad mix of people (I assume, I suppose they might've been the same people) was nice.

I definitely agree with the earlier sentiment that in a lot of ways the internet seems smaller than it used to.

I think in most measurable ways it's probably bigger, but I think it's certainly narrower. The way we experience online activity has been channelled into an increasingly small number of sites each of which has an unassailable amount of content, but because of their very size, no specificity.

Some of that is down to survival of the fittest. Google supplanted all those other search engines because it was the best. Facebook in its early days ousted other networking sites and personal website-hosts through streamlining, (relative) elegance and ease of use. Wikipedia basically took over the role of "where you go to look for general information" from all those sites that might otherwise have popped up after a search, because of its accessibility and range. But after a while successful enterprises developed their own gravity wells for users, and have been ruthless at exterminating or absorbing potential rivals, which might have come to offer a better product.

I've got about fifty tabs open at the moment and the majority of them are from just three services, because that's where the stuff is.

The days of everyone having their own personalised website, catered to their interests, has passed. The blog site has also largely bitten the dust. Forums are dying, in favour of comment sections and live chat. Because why go to the trouble of setting up and maintaining your own site that's perfectly catered to your interests, when you can use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? They'll never be perfect for you, but they're fine, easier to share, and hassle-free. They also act as walled gardens which mean you have to make an active effort to go offsite. A service like Stumble most likely wouldn't work now because there isn't the same proportion of interesting independent content out there to "stumble upon".

In the last few years I have been occasionally surprised by discovering a live niche site (often a wiki) on a particular interest, but other than independent shops selling niche products they have been very few in number.

[J-H]

I think in most measurable ways it's probably bigger, but I think it's certainly narrower. The way we experience online activity has been channelled into an increasingly small number of sites each of which has an unassailable amount of content, but because of their very size, no specificity.

Some of that is down to survival of the fittest. Google supplanted all those other search engines because it was the best. Facebook in its early days ousted other networking sites and personal website-hosts through streamlining, (relative) elegance and ease of use. Wikipedia basically took over the role of "where you go to look for general information" from all those sites that might otherwise have popped up after a search, because of its accessibility and range. But after a while successful enterprises developed their own gravity wells for users, and have been ruthless at exterminating or absorbing potential rivals, which might have come to offer a better product.

I've got about fifty tabs open at the moment and the majority of them are from just three services, because that's where the stuff is.

The days of everyone having their own personalised website, catered to their interests, has passed. The blog site has also largely bitten the dust. Forums are dying, in favour of comment sections and live chat. Because why go to the trouble of setting up and maintaining your own site that's perfectly catered to your interests, when you can use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? They'll never be perfect for you, but they're fine, easier to share, and hassle-free. They also act as walled gardens which mean you have to make an active effort to go offsite. A service like Stumble most likely wouldn't work now because there isn't the same proportion of interesting independent content out there to "stumble upon".

In the last few years I have been occasionally surprised by discovering a live niche site (often a wiki) on a particular interest, but other than independent shops selling niche products they have been very few in number.

Those niche websites and blogs are the only place to get long-form prose explanations, instructions, and viewpoints. The social media sites are rarely easy to find actual information on when researching a topic or problem. Old forum posts (ie for tractor issues, handyman work, etc.) are sometimes valid, but often a decade old and may or may not contain enough information to solve the issue.

There's basically two internets for private use:
1) Social media streams based on popularity, pithy comments, cat videos, views, and dopamine-hits from instant feedback/gratification
2) Actual webpages and forums with a limited userbase, information that lasts more than 3 days, and writing longer than 5 paragraphs in length.

Youtube sits somewhere at the boundary between 1 & 2 simply because there's a good deal of informative how-to content on it that is harder to replicate in writing.

Then there's all the corporate websites, stores, etc., that the creeps the spies Google gatekeeps for.

Search engines are good for discovering a specific topic, but the old style blogrolls, webrings (remember those?), and the like were better for discovering good websites that were related to whatever you were reading/looking at, but which are just a bit too distant to show up otherwise. That networked discovery of information has been mostly killed.

[Tyrant]

I think in most measurable ways it's probably bigger, but I think it's certainly narrower. The way we experience online activity has been channelled into an increasingly small number of sites each of which has an unassailable amount of content, but because of their very size, no specificity.

Some of that is down to survival of the fittest. Google supplanted all those other search engines because it was the best. Facebook in its early days ousted other networking sites and personal website-hosts through streamlining, (relative) elegance and ease of use. Wikipedia basically took over the role of "where you go to look for general information" from all those sites that might otherwise have popped up after a search, because of its accessibility and range. But after a while successful enterprises developed their own gravity wells for users, and have been ruthless at exterminating or absorbing potential rivals, which might have come to offer a better product.
Oh I'm sure the internet is several times larger than it used to be. But I agree that it seems to have been narrowed (never thought about it like that, honestly). Looking at it like that I suppose it might be similar to big box retailers replacing local stores. Or maybe Amazon replacing everybody. 1 place has everything instead of lots of little places having their own part of the whole. I do wonder if, like in the retailer example, we will eventually see a push by some people to revive the smaller, more specialized sites?

I've got about fifty tabs open at the moment and the majority of them are from just three services, because that's where the stuff is.
Someone else who has way too many tabs open. Glad to see I'm not alone.

The days of everyone having their own personalised website, catered to their interests, has passed. The blog site has also largely bitten the dust. Forums are dying, in favour of comment sections and live chat. Because why go to the trouble of setting up and maintaining your own site that's perfectly catered to your interests, when you can use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? They'll never be perfect for you, but they're fine, easier to share, and hassle-free. They also act as walled gardens which mean you have to make an active effort to go offsite. A service like Stumble most likely wouldn't work now because there isn't the same proportion of interesting independent content out there to "stumble upon".

In the last few years I have been occasionally surprised by discovering a live niche site (often a wiki) on a particular interest, but other than independent shops selling niche products they have been very few in number.
I honestly value this site because of the forums. I used to spend a lot of time on IMDB for their forums. Most of the websites I still visit are because of their forums now that I really consider it. Comment sections seem to only be good for flame wars.

[tomandtish]

I gave Google a fake name and try not to log on for anything I can do logged off. I don't use facebook at all.

EDIT:
Sometimes I even worry about the fact that I've given the same fake name to multiple websites when perhaps I should have given them different fake names

Interestingly, when I got married my wife and I took each others names. So I am "First Name" "Her last name"-"My last name".

Because my "maiden" name is extremely common, I just tend to use it online. It's not technically illegal, and it allows me to blend in.


Someone else who has way too many tabs open. Glad to see I'm not alone.


My wife told me she might need a new ipad, because she's having battery issues. She asked me to take a look at it. I checked a few things, then went to her browser.....

458 open tabs! (Or as I started saying, the entire internet).

And she didn't realize that just closing the browser (swiping up) didn't close all the tabs.

[farothel]

Other websites I've suddenly remembered, and are apparently still active:
http://www.rinkworks.com/


Speaking of which, I love their computer stupidities website: http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/
If you feel some nostalgia about computer issues involving floppy disks or dial-up internet.