Considering how many social network services have been kind of shooting themselves in the foot in the past year or so, I've been thinking about this return to whatever was before. I mean, in the circles I hang around, there is at least a bit of yearning for the good old times. (...Well, I met these people on a forum! But that's a sorta unrelated tangent.)

So yeah, I'm curious again about what y'all think about this stuff?
Will the age of forums and personal websites make a return or are we past the event horizon?

Personally, I can see how social media is easier as a method of online communication, but there's something fun about messing around with HTML and making something that, well, you've made yourself. And it kinda makes me sad how much customization is being taken away from the user and how every site seems to look the same these days. But then again, I'm also someone who used to run a forum like, ages ago and back then if you wanted to be different from the other hundred Sonic forums you had to learn these things.

Honestly, I think they can coexist. If you want something more universal, go to media, you want something more close, go to forums.

I certainly would love for the old, pre-social media boom, 2000s internet to return. One of the things I really dislike about social media platforms is how centralized and sterile it feels. Like today, I go on a website like Discord to discuss some topic and it's literally filled with hundreds of people. How are you supposed to form any kind of community when half of the people are off in their own little clique and won't even talk to you? You literally have to sift through hundreds of people. With a place like this, it's small and we don't get many visitors so whenever someone new does come along, we're a lot more open with welcoming them. When I sign up for a place like Reddit or Discord, it's like "ok, sign this thing saying you won't be a jerk yada yada. Ok, have fun." It just feels so empty. It's funny, all this stuff was supposed to bring us closer together, and yet, it feels like we couldn't be any further apart.

And you're absolutely right about websites feeling the same now. Back in the day, there were so many cool fan sites and you were right about how you had to really work to make yours stand out be somewhat popular. I always feel so happy when I stumble across an old Sonic themed site from back in the day that's still up and running, even if it's not really updated anymore, it's still nice to see.

I've been thinking about what makes modern social media just so impersonal and BurnBlaze just put the final pieces in the puzzle for me. With things like Twitter or Reddit, sure you can just talk about the things you like, but if you wanna be heard in any capacity and actually get engagement then you really have to appeal for it, and do it fast before everyone just moves on.

And I think that's the issue. It all moves too fast. You get with it before everyone moves on or you get nothing. You're being exposed to all types of different posts suddenly and it gets to a point where they all start merging together and lose their individuality, you're meant to just look at something, acknowledge it for at most a few minutes and then forget about it and move on to the next thing. An idea gets out there less from the individual but from the greater mass echoing it in a short amount of time.

That, of course, leads to echo chambers, where everyone just traps themselves in this little bubble of constant self-affirmation and conformity to that specific idea, and if you don't follow it, you're just ignored and walled off from it.

Now, I'm not saying all of social media is trash and serves no use, no, you just gotta use it properly. I use my Discord exclusively to talk to friends I have already made elsewhere, and my Twitter just to stay tuned with projects and artists I like. But they're definitely still hard places to get proper discussions on when you can be overlooked so easily, so again you're rushed in most cases you're interacting with a greater community, something which forums facilitate with their fairer and slower environments.

And to finally get to what the thread is asking... unfortunately, I don't see forums and personal blogs going back to being that much of a thing again any time soon. The internet is not this relatively niche thing it was back then at the time of forums anymore, and modern media platforms are just more convenient for the common folk to get into the greater web. Forums are a thing of the past, and yeah we get our occasional newcomer, but nowhere near the heart of the internet as it once was.

... But in a weird way, I kind of prefer it like that?

It's complicated. Yes, I wish forums would be bustling with daily activity again, but that's not happening and I'm fine with that. I guess it's that coziness of a small community where everyone more or less knows each other. Just very chillaxed, slow-paced, some gaps in site activity but we can still get our talks on.

So... nah, I don't see the old web ever getting a revival. But I'm not saying it in a cynical sort of way. The internet as a whole has grown past it, yet some still see the beauty of old. It's like keeping an old tradition alive.

... Look at me talking about this stuff like this isn't my first year in a forum...

there's a lot of things said in this thread that I completely agree on, I don't mind that forums aren't as busy as they used to be, it's almost like a nice break from the constant pinging and notifications of social media and discord. I think the difference between old web and new/current web is definitely the pace; everyone is posting, liking, and forgetting within the span of days, even with popular trends. You see such things in fashion also, which I watched a video detailing the difference in quality of clothing, and fast fashion as a whole, and why clothes don't seem as well made as they used to be

there's also been various web revival movements over the few years, trying to create a smaller and simpler spaces on the web far away from the fast pace and toxic community bases of social media. unfortunately I notice a lot of these projects slow down, burn out, and unfortunately end for the same reason overpopulated discord servers become areas to avoid, the best way to form a community is to keep the size small, not in a gatekeeping kind of way, but like what BurningBlaze said; small cliques form, conversations can get easily drowned out w/ so many ppl talking, but on the other hand, keeping a community too small can also lead to an echo chamber, like what Tomi said

I think forums are almost a good balance in a way, we all have our parts of the forum we obviously frequent, but we also are all willing to talk w/ each other in threads and be civil towards each other

unfortunately though I agree that blogs and forums aren't going to be as popular anymore, tumblr being one of the last "mainstream" websites to allow customization shows that. You have other sites like spacehey and such that allow customization but you don't meet many ppl who use sites like spacehey, dreamwidth, owler, etc. but I've been seeing this for years, I'm going to date myself here revealing my age, but when I was in highschool abt 10 yrs ago there were ppl trying to make smaller moderated twitter-like sites like quitter, freezepeach, and shitposter club, or apps like peach, turtleseed that allowed statues and profiles... but they never caught on, ppl all flooded the sites, got "canon URLS" (usernames of games, stages, characters), shitposted the website to crashing their servers, and then left when it wasn't shiny and new anymore bcuz a community was never properly built... I don't know where I'm going with all of this but for the last 8-10 yrs it's been difficult to really find a site to keep myself on and willingly use on a daily basis, I have bluesky and cohost but it's a miracle if I posted on them at least once a month, and even here I try to post at least once a week but I'm also willing to put my personal life first now and not my online life, I enjoy talking to the ppl in my computer but I also don't feel "forced to" like how demanding social media felt back in the day and even now, it's almost like you have to live on the website if you rly want to get smth out of it

I'm not sure where else to go with my tangent, but having a personal website if anything is my "main thing" online now, I update it whenever I want, decorate it however I want, and talk abt coding and other ppl's website layouts w/ them and that's plenty for me there's also no pressure when it comes to a website on how it looks for functions, or even what's on it, I know so many ppl who have their website as just some marquee text saying "I LIKE SONIC" and it's great, it's a small community I can build at my own pace, or not have at all! there's no need for me to talk to ppl on my site page if I don't want to

I've been considering making my own Sonic fansite, but I'm not sure what I'd even want to make it about. Maybe I'd use it as a place for hosting my sprite comics.

(08-30-2024, 08:30 PM)Josiahblaze Wrote: I've been considering making my own Sonic fansite, but I'm not sure what I'd even want to make it about. Maybe I'd use it as a place for hosting my sprite comics.

I know you know this, but the good news is you can make it about anything, or nothing! but hosting your sprite comics is a really good idea too, having all your works in one place where ppl can view them is definitely a positive for having your own website

similar to your Sonic Wiki Zone profile though, you could write abt your fav Sonic characters, games you've played... or even make an entire Bean the Dynamite shrine!

first, everyone go check out @'s site, it's awesome

secondly, up to about last year i would have agreed with everyone's skepticism around whether the "old" web could really come back. but since about this february, i've totally flipped on it. the upside of the ai onslaught and the muskening of twitter is that it really drove home to all of us that social media was truly dead in the water. i've seen normies talking openly about how every social media website is bad now, and every day it seems i see someone make a joke about how "there's only five websites."

it's early, but i think we're really on the horizon of a new era. the missing ingredient was the will to seek out an alternative to what social media offered - for a very long time, for all its faults, it was good enough, or at least good enough at tricking us into believing it was. now that illusion is broken, and the time has never been better to start surfing the superhighway like it's 2005.

i am myself a newcomer to the indie web space, but if any of you guys are interested in learning more, i encourage you to begin poking around neocities. the things that people are doing over there has really opened my mind up about what "the web" can be in the current year.

(09-05-2024, 03:59 PM)ajazz Wrote: first, everyone go check out @'s site, it's awesome

secondly, up to about last year i would have agreed with everyone's skepticism around whether the "old" web could really come back. but since about this february, i've totally flipped on it. the upside of the ai onslaught and the muskening of twitter is that it really drove home to all of us that social media was truly dead in the water. i've seen normies talking openly about how every social media website is bad now, and every day it seems i see someone make a joke about how "there's only five websites."

it's early, but i think we're really on the horizon of a new era. the missing ingredient was the will to seek out an alternative to what social media offered - for a very long time, for all its faults, it was good enough, or at least good enough at tricking us into believing it was. now that illusion is broken, and the time has never been better to start surfing the superhighway like it's 2005.

i am myself a newcomer to the indie web space, but if any of you guys are interested in learning more, i encourage you to begin poking around neocities. the things that people are doing over there has really opened my mind up about what "the web" can be in the current year.

my site is mediocre! just a culmination of my free time really, thank you, I'm quite impressed looking at everything you've done on your sites, they look much more put together and professional than mine, haha

I'm also quite new to the indie web space, I'm not much of a social person anymore after many failed websites (like I mentioned in my previous reply) and I was already interested in coding and blogging when it came to tumblr, so it motivated me to create my own web space! just as you said, personal websites I think are a good step forward and can really help ppl rethink what "the web" is to them, having somewhere where you can express yourself or your interests outside of a small 200 character bio or some statuses really feels freeing

again, which is why I mention communities, I think the indie web community is great bcuz everyone is creating their own websites and learning from each other, it's amazing how much CSS/HTML you can learn simply from (Q) inspecting someone's website, some ppl also are pro-copying, meaning if there's smth on their site you like, you're welcome to copy/reference/re-purpose it for your own site and I think that's great! I love the lack of gatekeeping in communities and how much resources there is in terms of making sites and even making your own neocities site a blog!

I've only got a Carrd so far, but I think it's a start.