Hey all. Since the Internet has just been boiled down to the main big social media sites, it feels like the magic is gone. Whens the last time someone said to you “hey check out this cool website”? It’s always the same: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, FB, Reddit, Discord. Forums are basically dead. Chat rooms are dead. Message boards are dead.

I miss that feeling of just discovering interesting or quirky websites. Lemmy is cool because it feels fresh and new, and there’s not a boat load of users here yet. But what other sites do you guys use or can recommend? I remember browsing Joe cartoon, Newgrounds, weebls, Ebaums, failblog, damnlol, and a bunch of other stupid but either funny or interesting sites.

Are there sites out there that still have that early Internet vibe? I feel like there is a treasure trove of still active websites out there but I have no idea what they are. Any recommendations would be GREATLY appreciated.

Edit: I created !oldweb where these sorts of sites can be shared!

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
0 points
*

Yo, a couple years ago I had become fed up with the state of the modern Internet, and I started looking for alternatives. This is what I have found so far:

  • Gopher protocol (sdf.org is pretty active)
  • Gemini protocol (Modern version of gopher)
  • Shared UNIX systems (also called tildes) sdf.org is great!
  • RSS
  • IRC/Matrix to chat with people
  • Session messenger to chat with family
  • BBSes via syncterm
  • wiby.me and marginalia.nu search engines to find personal web sites
  • oldavista.com to browse the ‘Old Net’
  • Web forums
  • Neocities
  • Webrings (They still exist!)
  • Lemmy (This is a new one)

The next step for me will be to build my own personal site. The only way to keep the independent web alive is to participate in it.

permalink
report
reply

Asklemmy

!asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Create post

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it’s welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Icon by @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de

Community stats

  • 9.8K

    Monthly active users

  • 3.5K

    Posts

  • 73K

    Comments