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Webring History

brisray.com

53 pointsFLpxpyJ12 comments

I still feel like webrings have a potential purpose… the concept just needs to be jazzed up for Web 3.0 or whatever. Maybe aggregating social media from groups of people? (”Latest updates from the Scottsdale Trailrunners Clique”) something something Shopify stores?

Not mentioned in the article, but sage weil later went on to cofound dreamhost and was the author of Ceph

Edit, source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sage_Weil

I started a webring back in 2020, the official announcement to the world was actually here on HN (the only announcement I ever made) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23549471

It's around 250 sites now, and I enjoy visiting a few interesting submissions every once in a while, I usually get at least one or two submissions per week, and it's always great fun interacting with the people who chose to submit their site.

brisray.com is actually site number 243 on my ring :D

The neocities community is going strong.

I miss this version of the internet. Simple pages. No signups for newsletters / 10% off. No cookie acceptance. No popup for notifications.

Just the text you were looking for, and nothing else.

Now, even when you're on a website that you pay for hey show you 1/4 of the content, followed by a small 'continue reading' followed by a BIG ARTICLE HEADER that completely disrupts the flow of the stuff you're reading.

The fediverse often has an old internet feel to me.

Project Gemini is the most direct example of “just text” https://gemini.circumlunar.space/

marginalia should be able to find WWW pages of a similar ethos. https://search.marginalia.nu/

I feel like the “old internet” is still here but you need to put in some work without The Algorithm being there.

EDIT: I should add the broad category of “the indie web” as well. I believe they mostly use the same Social Web protocols but I’m not as familiar as I am with the Fediverse.

That version of the internet can still exist, but it’s tough convincing people that an unpolished web page is something they can write and update and that anyone will care. Webrings are an excellent source of “someone cares”, either as founding one or as joining one.

Much more detailed than I expected going into it, thanks for putting this together !

12 yo me thought BraveNet was so cool. This was a total blast from the past, thanks!

Good way to find sibling ROM sites at the time...

Wow, that unlocked a key memory, thanks.

I remember those banners on different web sites.

We need to make these popular again

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