Have any of you guys "Y2K-ified" your internet experience?

[ICPinECW666]

First post here!

I took a liking to this forum not only for its aesthetically nostalgic factor, but also for its ability to give me that old-school internet feel. The uniformity of modern day social media like Twitter, >reddit and Instagram has left the internet (at least in my eyes) a shallow, uninspired, money-driven and echo chamber jumble of dystopian blandness. Think back to the turn of the century, when using the internet meant exploring a vast array of creative websites and indulging in the web's many original platforms such as Geocities, YTMND, and of course, the endless forums. The toxic and addictive nature of the modern internet has left me personally feeling as if turning on the computer means the internet is about to use me, as opposed to the other way around. I miss using the internet. I miss surfing the web. Do any of you guys feel the same way? If so, what have you done in order to bring back some of those feelings? If not, and you think I'm looking at the past through rose-coloured glasses, I'd also love to know your thoughts.

 

[Screen.Thief]

I came here lmao, unplugged from other social medias. I Don't think we will ever get back the simple joys of stumbling across odd, weird, or unique websites that we fell in love with. Most of the older (or at least older looking) sites that bring back the sense of nostalgia I've found through threads on the Agora Road lol. And the real ones were lost years ago to time. I will say there's a windows 11 theme that makes it look similar to windows 95, but it's only cool for like 20 minutes, then you're bummed out again

 

[Aral]

Sorta. With Windowblinds I've managed to get a Windows XP Zune theme, and of course, without stupid social media, it's already much more Y2K-esque. I'd say the most "modern" thing I do is put Youtube videos (through Invidious) as background noise. I'd say I mostly do what people would do back in the day. Maybe the occasional >reddit post when it's in my search results. TBH I'm glad to be without all of this unnecessary and addictive shit. Those sites are bloated as fuck too. Everytime I have to watch on YT because it doesn't work on Invidious, I can literally feel how heavy those mainstream websites are. YT is bloated, >reddit feels kinda bloated as well. I'm pretty sure the other big ones are too, although I haven't been to Facebook in a good 2 years, deleted VK a couple months ago, hardly ever open Instagram unless someone sends me a link there. Then I go to neocities or even my own website on ichi and it just loads almost instantly. Even the bigger websites are nowhere near as heavy and ram hogs as mainstream social media is.

I like to compare it to sugar. It's just as addictive and harmful. Most people are addicted to sugar and eat so much of it they're desensitized to it even if they eat a crap ton of it a day. The biggest amount of sugar I get is from 70% chocolate, homemade biscuits (that have only about 25 grams instead of the original recipe's 100 grams), fruit and the occasional candy/ice cream. Sweet taste tends to feel aggressive on my tongue rather quick (bought that new Cookie Vermonster Ben and Jerry's ice cream, it's real good but damn is it overpacked with sugar, I feel like I'm going to get diabetes each time). It's just massively unpleasant to come back there when you've been weaned off it. I never regretted leaving this shit behind. Y2K interwebz were truly better, although sadly, due to being born too late, I didn't get to experience it for long.

 

[Weary traveler of the web]

I try to ignore major social media sites and just connect with friends over basic chat services, even then though I'll look through insta or >reddit for memes, can't escape that scroll man

 

[chitquen]

Check out wiby.me

from http://wiby.me/about/

Why Wiby?​

In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were personally interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercial pages that overcrowded everything else. All the personalized websites are hidden among a pile of commercial pages. Google isn't great at finding them, its focus is on finding answers to technical questions, and it works well; but finding things you didn't know you wanted to know, which was the real joy of web surfing, no longer happens. In addition, many pages today are created using bloated scripts that add slick cosmetic features in order to mask the lack of content available on them. Those pages contribute to the blandness of today's web.

The Wiby search engine is building a web of pages as it was in the earlier days of the internet. In addition, Wiby helps vintage computers to continue browsing the web, as pages indexed are more suitable for their performance.

 

[IlluminatiPirate]

I came here lmao, unplugged from other social medias. I Don't think we will ever get back the simple joys of stumbling across odd, weird, or unique websites that we fell in love with. Most of the older (or at least older looking) sites that bring back the sense of nostalgia I've found through threads on the Agora Road lol. And the real ones were lost years ago to time. I will say there's a windows 11 theme that makes it look similar to windows 95, but it's only cool for like 20 minutes, then you're bummed out again

If you want to surf I have a collection on webrings that I'm growing on the agora road webring page https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php?pages/webring

 

[Iommi Fan 420]

I too am trying to steer clear from social media. That shit is literal brainrot, enjoying this site and looking for some more comfy little spaces away from the awfulness of what the internet has become.

 

[Screen.Thief]

If you want to surf I have a collection on webrings that I'm growing on the agora road webring page https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php?pages/webring

Hey! These are awesome! Thanks!

 

[deepfreeze]

The toxic and addictive nature of the modern internet has left me personally feeling as if turning on the computer means the internet is about to use me, as opposed to the other way around.

A good insight. Please see the thread "The Internet is Made of Demons," or Google the article of the same name by Sam Kriss for more details. It talks about how the internet evolved from simply a medium through which people communicate to a sentient entity that tells the users what to say. You'd like it.

 

[eris]

The best way to do this is simply: make your own website. I set out to make a site for my hobby junk with essentially "pro" level 1996 web design, the kind of stuff I wished I had the chops for when I was a kid tooling around on geocities. It was loads of fun - I'm not gonna link the site cause lol selfdox (I submitted it to wiby.me though so you might see it one day!) but the more people do this, the more of the old web comes back.

 

[punishedgnome]

My experience has never been particularly un-Y2K-ified. Posting on forums like this one has been my main source of online interaction continuously for over 20 years.