/owg/ - Old Web General

Old web general is a place to discuss all things of the internet from days gone by. There be oldfags here, beware zoomers.

Previous

Attached: yahoo-1994.png (830x660, 20K)

Other urls found in this thread:

thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2018/09/oldest-websites-on-the-internet/
fogcam.org/
theoldnet.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_founded_before_1995
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Internet_properties_by_year_of_establishment
youtube.com/watch?v=wxxDVBmduiI
nostalgia.wikipedia.org
peelopaalu.neocities.org/
nectarine.from-de.com/necta192
archive.org/details/internetworldwid00angu
palined.com/search/
filechef.com
cgs.the-eye.eu/
filepursuit.com/
mmnt.net/
searchftps.net/
libgen.io/
libgen.me/
archive.is/Qy0NF#selection-2251.51-10633.88
pastebin.com/kaEJkkX8
blex.org/mp3/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Whats the oldest site still up?

Here's a list a blogger made.

thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2018/09/oldest-websites-on-the-internet/

The San Francisco fog cam is probably the coolest old ass fuck site that still serves a purpose.

fogcam.org/

Here's a cool way of exploring old sites that utilizes the wayback archive

theoldnet.com/

It's pretty comfy

This might come in handy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_founded_before_1995

I also remember a different list, but I can't find it anymore

This is a similar category, breaking it down by year of founding.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Internet_properties_by_year_of_establishment

not "old" but Jow Forums has slowly degraged into "funny pepe " website over the years, i miss back in my days it was our version of

Attached: medievalweezer.png (1168x296, 148K)

Jow Forums itself is unironically very much the old web

>Making a new post actually loads a new page instead of some React bullshit that dynamically updates the old one
>Clicking a thread opens that thread as a whole new page, rather than this Reddit tier modal popup
>Unironically works perfectly fine in Internet Explorer

And if you think about backend, what we know of the codebase is that it's basically the same thing it was originally forked from

Anybody knows where can I download an old copy of wikipedia?

very nice link, user

Yay, it's back :=]
has anyone played the emily is away series? I think it does a pretty good job capturing the feel of 2001-2006 era internet.

I remember long-long ago everyone was interested and hyped about JS in browsers. It seemed so cool that you can write basically anything and it wouldn't require installation or whatsoever.
What happened later? Why did it become hated?
Also, how about pages with old JS scripts? I saw a plenty, but I can't remember links.

Attached: script.gif (32x32, 280)

It became loathed mostly for the bloat. People including tons of additional resources to do the most basic shit on websites.

>Google doesn't search by actual dates anymore, now it only offers "last week", "last month" and "last year" options
Am I retarted or they really ditched away this option? How am I supposed to search webpages before exact date now?

Attached: 1540346230374.jpg (591x319, 21K)

Thread theme!
youtube.com/watch?v=wxxDVBmduiI

>searching web pages

almost all pages have their own search. Also a lot of pages disable googles crawlers

Thinking now that all the starry backgrounds is an abomination. I'm taking the #C0C0C0 pill now.

Attached: tracer.jpg (1000x1490, 241K)

>posting that shit in /owg/
Fixed it for you.

Attached: tracer_large.gif (200x337, 23K)

>The San Francisco fog cam is probably the coolest old ass fuck site that still serves a purpose.
>fogcam.org/
>Notice: After 25 years, Fogcam is shutting down forever at the end of August, 2019. Webdog and Danno thank our viewers and San Francsico State University for their support over the years.

rip

What happened to /mu/?
Shits used to be cool

Are all the small hobbyist groups really limited to Facebook and Reddit these days? I miss the self contained forums with their own cultures.

Attached: 1512933960502.jpg (1600x1063, 494K)

nostalgia.wikipedia.org

There is nostalgia.wikipedia.org but I'm not sure where to download it from

For now a lot of the groups primarily composed of 20-40 year olds likely are. There's been some holdouts, but it's just as likely those people end up communicating primarily through Discord or some other means. It's a real shame.

Take for example, Digital Press, a /vr/ related site with an old ass forum. It changed ownership years ago and a lot of people ended up leaving due to numerous reasons. You still see some daily posts but nowhere near the amount. However, what's there is discoverable with search engines and provides a really solid resource.

Another /vr/ example is Sega-16, a much more activate community. It towers over any of the Sega-related subreddits and is essentially the most active Sega community online anywhere.

One thing I've been thinking about with forums is how much "longer" threads would run. I mean, on major platforms a thread lasts something like half a day (if that long), and even here the threads vanish after a few hours on most boards if there's no replies.

What this leads to is a tendency to have to get a comment out quickly before it sinks too low. Look at how necrobumping used to be for threads years old.

Things have become far more short-term and transient.

Same as the rest.

Attached: 1556853509809.png (480x716, 325K)

people don't realise the third one is just nigger twitter

Did the last thread hit bump limit? I thought it died due to inactivity. I'm the user from the last thread who runs a link directory at peelopaalu.neocities.org/ - I've added some new shit to the bottom of the list as of last night. Figured I'd mention it again as a lot of people seemed to like it.
I have no idea how the fuck I missed the fogcam. I thought it went down years ago.

Attached: 1564571500007.jpg (1024x768, 106K)

Another thing I just thought of is the offline readers for BBS and Usenet that allowed you to download new comments, reply to them offline, then re-sync to the system on your next connection.

What a simple, yet awesome, feature.

Attached: q-blue-reply-taglines.png (760x570, 23K)

Fidonet was cool.
Also it didn't rely on the Internet.

IIRC TJ actually said as the internet by nature would lead to corporate power due to its reliance on massive shady companies (DNS, routing, etc.) to function at all, in comparison to the BBS network that needed nothing more than a standard phone line and a modem

.tk

I still miss tracker music as a (reasonably) major artistic medium.

Neat site user, adding it to my 486 and P3's bookmarks.

...

I like the second one best. Thats the Jow Forums i miss so much.
It was mentally stimulating

it was always niche faggot
it lives on however

>tfw you'll never experience 2006 Jow Forums again
The first one was the best one. Nothing can change my mind.

Attached: 1564883294490.jpg (2048x1536, 644K)

i wonder what happened?

Attached: Screenshot_20190804_093320.png (1172x246, 52K)

Because it was less self-conscious.

Over time I get older and the web gets younger.

info.cern.ch

Nectarine demoscene radio is still active. Here grab the stream.
nectarine.from-de.com/necta192
I have no idea if it has any new content but the music always spins.

>mentally stimulating

Attached: 008.png (926x896, 2.38M)

People forgot how to ignore bait. It's not even specifically the influx of Jow Forums it's the massive flood of redditors coming to Jow Forums for Jow Forums that literally have no concept of acknowledging what is bait which has made retarded politics baiting an unbelievably easy sourse of (You)'s

I guess its publicity. Reddit and FB are big platforms with search features that easily let other hobbyists find them.
I feel like forums in general are dying and combining into just a few super-forums

The most expensive part is transnational connection though. It was among the first connections to be replaced by Internet connection.

>in comparison to the BBS network that needed nothing more than a standard phone line and a modem provided by massive shady telecom companies
You really didn't think this through.

All 3 panels are equivalent 2bh

That's the joke, it started around the sellout

>theoldnet.com/
>visited site
>looked through "most visited" list
>oh hey, webring!
>followed link
>webring sign up sheet, but navigation at bottom
>clicked "next"
>pic related
>no way, years of nostalgia come flooding back

Attached: Mr_T_ate_my_balls.png (670x531, 633K)

Wiby.me

You're welcome

based thread
im glad we're doing this

Having internet friends used to be really fun. Now its kinda just gay

I miss my internet friends

tfw reading this thread on seamonkey, running in a 17-year-old laptop, and with js disabled

Attached: 2019-08-04-222114_1024x768_scrot.png (1024x768, 143K)

Which is odd since 50 - 100 active posters is the sweet spot for message boards. Less than 50 and it feels dead. More than 100 and you start to lose track of who's who. Guess people fall into the trap of more active is better.

Attached: 1235169313153.jpg (205x130, 5K)

Found this book at work

Attached: IMG_20190804_153959.jpg (2360x3297, 1.48M)

Post some pages! would be interesting to see

Attached: GitS SAC be Human OST booklet pg 1 & 2_cr.png (439x437, 562K)

Looks like that book was a yearly edition thing. could not find 1999, but did find 98, 00, 01, and 02 on Archive.
A link to 1998's edition if anyone wants to page though it
archive.org/details/internetworldwid00angu

cool, thanks. here's one for ya..
www.drivemeinsane.com

The rise of Jow Forums single handedly ruined Jow Forums by sheer proximity

It did this by drawing in young edgy memelords who filled everything with politics, pepes, wojaks, and other cancer
This further drove away older users who feel the same sentiment for old Jow Forums
Without older users, /b/ flourished into full porn-mode

Many interest boards became competition boards. Look at Jow Forums for a shining example, where everything is now a competition, littered with flakes of Jow Forums
People forgot about the cool art boards, like /f/ or /i/

You can try and tell yourself that the big sell killed Jow Forums, but the site itself never changed;
The userbase did

U got it

Attached: IMG_20190804_162604.jpg (4000x3000, 1.72M)

Attached: IMG_20190804_162121.jpg (4000x3000, 2.03M)

Attached: IMG_20190804_162020.jpg (4000x3000, 1.55M)

Attached: IMG_20190804_162516.jpg (4000x3000, 1.56M)

Attached: IMG_20190804_162400.jpg (4000x3000, 1.41M)

Attached: IMG_20190804_162154.jpg (4000x3000, 1.27M)

I miss old /mu/

Inside is yellow :)

Attached: IMG_20190804_162447.jpg (4000x3000, 1.4M)

BIG thanks bro. I got online back in '92, life was soo much simpler then. wanna go back-cant go back. Please enjoy this rare Tachicoma for your effort.

Attached: GitS SAC be Human OST booklet pg 5 & 6_cr.png (438x438, 503K)

Holy shit, it actually used , the absolute madsite.

I've never ever found a use for that tag. Even for key-value pairs, is superior.

>Without older users, /b/ flourished into full porn-mode

no kidding, i went there the other day after not having been there for years and i was shocked, not that i have anything against porn but it didnt use to look that way

It's good for link lists if you want to give the link a description underneath rather than in-line. Though if you look at how that terminal-based browser they released first it renders like this:

DL this is all the text that
is next to the tag
rather than offset under
it

Neat!

I am not able to respond to this thread from IE5 or IE6 though.

Yeah, when google got rid of recapcha v1 you stopped being able to. I was able to post from IE4 when v1 was still around.
Shame

you can still find high iq threads like this on /a/ today, but only int the ones titled "gochiusa"

Eh, there is even no reply form.
...Strange to remember now how everyone strived for IE6 death, Google Chrome and such. Hell, I was among first Chrome users around.

The artificiality of how these devices are made useless really annoys me. I'd say I'd go back to forums, BBS, and Usenet, but forums and BBSs are pretty much dead and Usenet is just automated spam at this point. I don't think there's a single human there.

>big sell
it did; not to hiro, but moots own gradual sell out to advertisers long before that.
shit like allowing naruto on /a/, killing board culture, obnoxious and tone deaf moderation were killing this place long before your newfaggot Jow Forums boogeyman

I made friends with a Spaniard, he was like 38 or 40 and I was 11. We were both looking for a song featured in a Coca Cola ad. We had a couple of good convos. Someday he stopped connecting to MSN.

Yet back then there were Java applets and Flash. Well, they weren't less annoying, but yet many pages provided light Flash-less versions.
Is that why JS didn't seem to be annoying? Is that because there was a choice between fully interactive and slightly interactive webpage?
By the way, I remember that they said like JS is open-source, therefore it's better. But is JS mess produced by "uglifiers" any better than those applets or flash pages?

Attached: jn2_0101.gif (464x443, 23K)

It's because JavaScript was mostly used to do dynamic HTML, further page customization that CSS wasn't capable of (like emulating tabs & burger menus inside of a web page) & whimsical things that have largely been made obsolete by HTML5 & CSS3.

Now, all you see JavaScript being used for is browser/OS/ad-blocker detection to hinder your ability to read Shlomo Shekelberg's latest news article on New York Times' website.

Sources

Find any EPUB/PDF you are interested in on the Internet.

Most of these sources have search bars & can have their searches refined in various ways.

Google Open Directory Search palined.com/search/

File Chef: Direct Download almost anything filechef.com

cgs.the-eye.eu/

filepursuit.com/

Mamont's FTP Index
mmnt.net/

Napalm FTP Indexer
searchftps.net/

libgen.io/

libgen.me/

Huge list of proxies, Check these w/ something like PSC Proxy Security to see if the proxy is modifying Javascript/HTML, etc.

archive.is/Qy0NF#selection-2251.51-10633.88

pastebin.com/kaEJkkX8

AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN

Figure this is a good thread to post about this project.
I'm currently working on a project to make a browser for Win95/98 to browse websites exclusively from Internet Archive somewhat seamlessly (works as just a wrapper around mshtml.dll, being coded in VB6 since it's mostly just a UI).
The idea is that you have drop downs for a year and month, and then when do go to a webpage it will load what is closest available too that from Archive over unencripted HTTP.
Since the IE4-6 browser engines are just plain too old to be able to actually search Archive and render the results, you'll have to type in URLs manually or follow links. Due to this I was wanting to include some Web 1.0 era directories in the program as jumping points. Whats would be some good web directories to include anons?

I died when Yahoo Messenger died.

A small piece of me died with all these aspects of the "old web." I only stay on Jow Forums because it's the last one standing, even though it was the worst of the lot.

what happens after kamala harris bans Jow Forums in 2020?

Any other oldfags remember Blex's Page of Good MP3s? Back when you had to dedicate ~20-40 minutes to download a 128kbps song...

blex.org/mp3/

really, without the captcha, you'd still be able to post to Jow Forums from any browser

>Why did it become hated?
it became used as a vehicle to force ads down a user's throat
if you disabled JS, the ads would go away, so the content of a site became loaded via JS too so you wouldn't get shit

support for JS (or at least, the same feature set and way to interact with the DOM) wasn't common across browsers
you also couldn't expect Flash or Java to be installed on a user's machine (Flash became very popular, and then very hated thanks to shit like all-Flash sites without a plain-HTML option and Flash's terrible performance)
internet speeds were also low (into the 2000s, you could still expect a decent portion of 56k users -- fuck, I had dialup until 2007), preventing you from bloating up pages

these days, you can have 300+kB of a page be scripts alone, which would take like 2 minutes to load on my not-quite-3kB/s dialup connection
two actual minutes of waiting before you got to any actual content

/owo general/?

remember when /b/ used to be fun? remember when it wasnt just a porn board? id sit and read /b/ for hours in the early days, and would spend most of that time laughing at the funny shit people would post

Attached: 1118016012217.png (1420x1470, 515K)

I remember routinely calling ISPs looking for faster service up until 2004 when Time Warner finally brought cable service to my area.

Up until that point, I was maxing out my 56k connection routinely on IRC, FTP, etc.

The phone copper in my town was so shitty I was on 26.6k till around 2004-05 when I finally was able to get cable.
It was so fucking agonizing.

I was going to post Ate My Balls in the last thread. It was a huge meme at the time.

Within a few years, we'd go from small, immature memes like these to pranking our bros with tubegirl and goatse.

My Internet connection had been 33.6k until 2010, when USB 3G modems have appeared. Our telephone exchange had no ability to serve to serve ADSL.
Two years ago we have acquired fiber though.

Attached: 1534900375919-g.jpg (464x598, 73K)

Well, to follow up on my post, I got a working alpha banged out. You can punch in a year and a web address and it will take you to the closest date archive of that page, and reports back what date the archive is actually from.
Isn't able to detect if there is no archive of a given site yet.
And while does exist, figured with a native desktop application you'd be able to do more with favorites, tabs, etc as it gets more fleshed out.

Attached: 2019-08-04 20-00-53.webm (800x600, 1.96M)

>BING BONG YOU’VE GOT MAIL

Probably going to visit some of these on my Compaq desktop from 1997, or ThinkPad from 1995 just for shits and giggles.