I often yearn for the old web — or atleast what it looks like in my rose-tinted glasses. Back when people uploaded things not for fame or fortune, but simply out of a desire to be heard — a time before AI-generated slop, when everything was made by hand.

The slow net

There are many ways people try to recreate the spirit of the early web. One popular approach is aesthetic: white, bare HTML pages scattered with grainy bitmap images. Another is structural: curated rings of sites, deliberately disconnected from the corporate web. The fediverse, meanwhile, attempts to rebuild the large-scale web — but in the hands of users, not shareholders — removing profit as the primary incentive.

But what I personally crave is the slow net — away from endless scrolling and the constant grasping for my attention. I feel like a resource to be mined: my attention, my opinions, my money. Even many small blogs are trying to sell me something, turning every post into a vehicle for profit.

I want to hear the thoughts of people in all walks of life. I want to see art made by those trying to express something true. I want to play the amateur developer’s janky games. I want to relive the stories born from role-plays. I want people to create — not for clout, clicks, or cash — but simply because they have something to say.

How to solve this

I don't know. There isn't a lack of people expressing themselves, the problem is discovering them. But how do we solve this? Search engines prioritize sites that are SEOmaxxing, aka. the corporate web. There are some services that promise the small web, but I dislike that they are curated by a central entity, often to fit a vibe. There are also some search engines that prioritize the small web, but in my experience they easily get flooded with barren slop.

The only way I see is that we, the people who express ourselves link to each other. If you have a site that you think fits here, then let me know! Send me a mail at bigboismith at proton.me. And if you have something that fits on one of my other pages, still let me know. If you found this post (or any of my other pages) interesting then please link to it from your page!

In practice, I believe we should avoid embedding links in the middle of posts — except for cases like disambiguating terms or acronyms. Instead, let’s follow Wikipedia’s model: end each page with a “Further Reading” section, listing relevant or deeper-dive articles.

As I continue to discover the net, I'm going to share pages that I find thoughtful or interesting in a Further Reading at the bottom of each page (of course assuming I have found something relevant to said page), and you should too.

Further Reading

• How to Be Patient in an Impatient World A great and thoughtful post about how the instant satisfaction of our modern world impacts us. It inspired my search for the old net.
• nownownow The concept of having a single "now" page with your current situation/mindset, fitting neatly between about and contact pages.
• Resurrect the old web A similar post on how to revive the old web