Try search something on https://wiby.me for example and then tell me if all you get are people writing about the web.
I spent a couple of hours on wiby.me browsing sites at random and it was amazing. Thank you for that.
However, 95% of the sites there haven't been updated in 15+ years. In fact, none of the 20+ sites I found through the 'surprise me' feature had any updates since the late 2000s (though I’m sure some out there have).
It gives me the impression that this 'let's get the web back' movement is mostly nostalgia. Culture happens where it happens, not where it should happen. Today, that place is unfortunately a walled garden controlled by corporations. I hope that changes, but judging by these websites, that change isn't happening yet.
So I think the overall situation is a bit more nuanced than that. I am someone who's very much in the "let's bring the old-school web back" camp but I mean that in a conceptual sense. I strongly believe that the web would be, overall, a much better place if people were all tending to their own websites, interacting with each other via email or forums. It's a slower, more deliberate way to exist in this digital space.
But all that doesn't imply we also need to ditch modern tech and go back making sites with FrontPage and table layouts. And it also doesn't mean we can't have "modern looking" websites. The two things can coexist.
At the same time, there are people who like the 90s web aesthetics, but they also spend their time posting shit on Instagram. That's just nostalgia and personally I don't care about that part.
I do know for a fact that it's possible to get the good parts of the old web back. I know it because I experience it daily. I have a blog that's powered by a modern CMS. Yet it has no JS, no tracking, no fancy features. People can get my content via RSS (and a lot of people do), they can leave a message in my guestbook, they can poke around my blogroll and they can click around and be redirected to other blogs run by people who, like me, believe a better web is possible. I also get emailed daily by people who simply want to connect in a way that feels more authentic.
That's the part of the old school web I want back. But it's also a part that never went entirely away.
> Culture happens where it happens, not where it should happen. Today, that place is unfortunately a walled garden controlled by corporations.
You're right which is why I genuinely believe that in the context of the web, not having a presence on social media and having a personal site instead is today's counterculture. And we need more people to embrace that.
You just explained why those sites are amazing. The pressure to update sites is what starts the slow descent into personal op-ed oblivion. These are sites, not blogs. The bloggification of the web is what made sites suck.
Ray's a great example, he even has a lovely page about webrings: https://brisray.com/utils/webrings.htm
Was very happy to have him as a guest on my series if you want to know more about the story of his site: https://manuelmoreale.com/interview/ray-thomas
That said, I don't entirely agree with the point of the article you linked.
What made the web suck was money imo. If the incentive is to keep posting to get views and those views are translated into money, then yeah, there's no incentive to keep things static. But on today's web, blogs aren't the only option. Plenty of people prefer to have digital gardens, which I think are a lot more close to old school sites.
[0] https://wildwild.directory [1] https://cloudhiker.net [2] https://theuselessweb.com
