The small, real, original web
7 hours ago
- The small web (non-corporate, original style internet from the 90s/early 2000s) still exists and is thriving despite AI and corporate dominance.
- Terry Godier's 'boring' internet article provides a solid history of the web from no advertising to today's corporate layer.
- Practical ways to maintain personal sites include using Firefox, Vivaldi, or TOR browsers, and a VPN like Proton.
- The best resource for small web tools is the Resources List at 32bit.cafe, covering webmastery, directories, webrings, and indie alternatives.
- Other useful tools: Teclis search, wiby.me/surprise, theforest.link, openmentions.com, and Raw Web search.
- The fediverse offers decentralized services like Mastodon, PeerTube, and Lemmy, with Join the Fediverse as a great overview.
- Personal blogs and digital gardens (e.g., rootcompute.neocities.org) are core to the small web, with blogrolls and aggregators for discoverability.
- RSS is crucial for keeping up with indie sites; readers like gReader with Feedly are recommended, along with guides like PowRSS.
- Other protocols like Gemini and Gopher also represent the small web beyond HTTP.
- The original web existed before corporate agendas and will outlast them; readers are encouraged to reclaim it.