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I'm quite old enough to have been around for the '90s web.

It wasn't the golden age of free expression and creative genius people here make it out to be.

I don't miss the free expression or creative genius -- I miss the individualistic and amateur craft spirit.

Amen! It was digitally rustic (comparatively speaking) and each site was oozing personality.

Not saying I don't like the standardization and trends of today -- just that everyone's general inexperience with the web led to a lot of really weird and fun quirks at the time.

But the modern web has better content. There's a lot more to the web than just the HTML.

The signal:noise of the modern web has decreased, on average.

And quality content is increasingly centralized & standardized.

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