This sort of recalls some nostalgia i have for my middle school days. this was pre-Facebook, around the myspace era. And the prevailing thing on the web were these baroque, meticulously designed websites composed of handcrafted photoshop work, several kids in my class had designed and built their own websites and they were incredibly unique, detailed, and interesting to look at. Idk if anyone remembers this site but there was a site called "spoono.com" that was basically just an aggregator of these meticulously handmade, pixel perfect websites.

The most striking thing for me is that during this period the web felt much more like physical space. I would go to some of these websites just to spend some time immersed in the atmosphere they had so effectively created with this old, pixel by pixel style of design.

The biggest effect of html5/css3/social network era for me is that i no longer give a shit about your website. I might end up on your website if i click a HN link, but the desire to be on your website, with all the sense of place that entails, is completely gone.

And all of these websites are completely gone now too, vanished without a trace. It's like an entire generation of the webs history has been erased.