zlacker

>>optima+(OP)
I realize this is a site about the past, but I really hope this is the future. I want an internet of specialty sites, browsable curations, diversity of offering, freedom of choice, and full of the quirky/unusual. It might have to do with growing up in the 90s and experiencing that kind of world wide web, w/o walled gardens.

Several years back, perhaps even via an HN post or comment, I came across a blog, hosted on a university network (IIRC, perhaps related to media studies). The page consisted of a group of possibly graduate students contributing some of the weirdest and most obscure media I've ever seen online. Nothing obscene and nothing seemingly new/current, so it was rather hipster in that sense, but I kick myself for not having saved the URL.

Nothing says I need to use walled gardens or get my news from the big networks, but I often feel I'm being pointed that way. In the end, I just want something different than what's usually being served up.

(It doesn't escape me that this 90's TV site is full of walled garden/big network type content of the time)

>>person+fi
It's still REALLY EASY to make websites that look and feel exactly how you want, just like it was back then. Server space is dirt cheap. Anyone can register a domain, dirt cheap. HTML and CSS* still work without any JS whatsoever. And if you feel the need to use JS, it is absolutely not necessary to get sucked into the world of "modern" web development that suddenly requires 1000s of dependencies and a complex build process.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Get creative. Tell your friends.

* to be fair, CSS is possibly where the rot started to set in... some poorly thought-out design choices from 20 years ago are still haunting us. But stick to the basics and focus on the content instead, it still gets the job done.