Posted on 2/6/2025
Building this site has been more than just coding. It’s been about recollecting my memories of the old web. I miss the personalities of each website, the guestbooks we used to sign, and, most of all, the openness to share.
To put it simply, it was a hobby for most personal website builders. Unlike now, where creators are expected to go on a monetization journey.
I will share the three things that popped up in my head while writing this and stop. I do accept how things have evolved, and I don’t want to sound too whiny.
Instead of waiting for the algorithm to “feed” me, I was way more proactive when it comes to choosing what I want to keep seeing by using Bookmarks and RSS feeds. (Mostly bookmarks though.)
I used to keep bookmarks of my favorite sites in del.icio.us and visit them whenever I felt like it. These included websites for printout crafts, paper 3D models, graphics resources, blogs and so no.
Currently as del.icio.us is no longer alive, I’m using raindrop.io with a free account.
I actually didn’t use RSS that much back in the days. Nowadays I still have my “feed.” I use NetNewsWire as my RSS reader. With the number of walled gardens increasing, more and more places are encouraging you to log in and fin tactics to keep you glued to their site/platform/app as much as possible.
By the way, here is smallpancake’s RSS feed if you want to subscribe!
Back in the days people were really into building sites as a hobby so the ratio of personal websites with their own personal tweaks were higher. Even if you use a blogging platform, people like to add snippets of JS and CSS to add in their own little twist.
I’ll admit that this has nothing to do with the web but more of my childhood memories. Memories are precious and the good old days will always have a special place in my heart.
That being said though, I do accept how things have become now. With monetization and the creator economy boost, making a living online has become much more easier. Especially nowadays people are more willing to pay for digital stuff, which wasn’t the culture during my childhood days.
#murmur
