/retro/ - Y2K

Explore the old web, that is usually delisted or pushed to the back pages of popular search engines, to give more hits to newer and more commercialized sites.

>>168 (OP)  
telnet into a random BBS.

>>168 (OP) 
Tor/.onion as you said. In the same vein, .i2p (ideally through i2pd to avoid javashit)
FreeNet, as long as you make sure to exclusively run it on an encrypted drive. The downside is that you automatically seed random pieces of content from their network, not whole files but encrypted parts of files. The Upside is that every single page of them feels retro.  

IPFS too, a bit. In the sense that the content on it is static, like most parts of most old sites used to be.

Zeronet doesn't really feel oldschool to me, mainly because it lives off javascript.
Honestly, I'm hoping for a new wild west opening up as P2P networks grow just slightly more refined and we can flee the censorship of the commercialized husk of what we once loved.

>>168 (OP)  
Unlisted links

>>168 (OP)  
I feel you.

>>168 (OP)  
Browsing through random sites on https://neocities.org/browse feels pretty similar to the Wild West days.

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The darknets are boring. 97% of it is dead links, info smuggling to countries with internet censorship, CP and drug merchants, and boomers bitching about politics.

This is more of a fucking game than a website or anything, but if you want to get that mysterious wild web feeling you could give Worlds.com a try. It's basically a virtual world with the navigation of darknets with it's WorldMarks, as there is no central hub where to share worlds so you have to seek out and ask other players for those. You could think of the worlds themselves as websites, in a 3D room form. And due to both limitations of the world creation tool(s) and overall 90's atmosphere of the game, a lot of them have that eerie old internet aesthetic.
I guess Second Life falls into this as well, if you don't mind the crippling autism 
As for actual websites, what >>169, >>170 and >>219 said. Maybe gopher as well.

>>168 (OP) 
Spend less time on the Internet, more time reading/watching/playing/creating things. Definitely helped me let go of the past.

>>168 (OP) 
There's this one search engine called Wiby that is based around user-submitted classic websites.
https://wiby.me/

The local wireless community was like that in my city but then it died too. Decentralized stuff will probably be it increasingly, as touchscreen kids have grown up on nothing but Twitch and Youtube.

>>368
Other way for me, i tried watching and create stuff based on my tastes, which are biased towards the board's era subject, and made me lorn for those things again.

>>372
I know how you feel. Keep going at it and the feeling will wear off after a while, like a year or so... You can only indulge in nostalgia for so long before your brain gets bored and you lose the rose-colored glasses.
Let your yearning for the past be a drive to recreate it somewhat, at least in the digital sense. Like writing geocities-styled websites and sharing existing ones, creating pixel art and 3D art, composing MIDI/MOD files, programming vidya...etc.

>>377
Yes, i guess you are right, been doing it for 6 months or so. Will post about it when i have refined it enough for presentation.

>>168 (OP) 
>Discord can feel pretty wild too sometimes, that is if you can find the right servers
No, it doesn't since your account can be easily banned because of false flag reports with discord stuff ignoring you when you complain to them for said false flag reports.

>>219
It's not the same since most neocities blogs aren't much different than tumblr blogs made by trannies, furfags etc.

>>169
I don't know any search engines that still have pages...
>>170
Can you elaborate on this a little?
>>350
Gopher looks like a fun way to spend a couple late nights.
>>370
Looks neat.

>>4145
>This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed.
https://search.marginalia.nu

>>2679
Bro, do you remember oldnet at all?  We had shit just as cringy as that.

I've had to answer this so many times on so many different websites I made a website to copy paste instead:
https://websitereview.neocities.org/search

>>4237
You're the guy who made the directory? Sweet, I like your work. But I have a few comments: 
- Please give me a way to turn off the orange "filter" on the home page, or provide a different way to browse the directory altogether. (plain text files are nice)
- When you have a website with both clearnet/darknet links, please write down both. Currently you only write the darknet link.
- Consider sorting the table by website type.

>>4237
Just want to say, you are a lifesaver and thank you.

You know, you can still find remarkable old things thanks to authors posting the links in their (hard-to-find/afford) books. Like these:




https://www.alchemywebsite.com/bookshop/ 
https://web.archive.org/web/20161115203750/http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bookshop/ Check out its archived version. 
https://web.archive.org/web/20011125163500/http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html  Shoot, it goes all the way back to the 2001. Lookit that simplicity!

>>168 (OP) 
I think getting off the main social medias and supporting lesser known ones is a good first step. Because people will complain that it isnt the "wild west" anymore but wont bother to get off Facebook or Twitter or any of those sites. So start supporting smaller sites and communities like people use to do. I know its harder to do now because all the content is on the big sites, But back in the "wild west" people didnt have such easily accessible dopamine hitting content. If social media isnt your thing than try to find actual forums and imageboards like you did with finding this site. Server hopping on Discord is also possible but i deleted my account, group chats arnt my thing. As >>350 said the deep web can get pretty boring. Not enough people in one place for you to wanna do anything other then go through link lists.
As for the retro answer use Wiby to search old sites. Neocities i see a lot of people using. SpaceHey is an old Myspace clone if thats your thing. There are a good handful of old revival sites out there to check out.

>>4470
I don't know how people manage to spend so much time on social media. I had a Facebook account for a little while, but then I got bored and realized that there were more fulfilling things I could be doing with my time.

MySpace was much more likeable than Facebook though.

>>4471
I think a lot of people simply don't have anything to do with their free time, so they try to kill it with the least effort possible i.e. through social media. Hobbies and interests are becoming a thing of the past.

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>>4473
>I think a lot of people simply don't have anything to do with their free time, so they try to kill it with the least effort possible
Lol. Might I suggest for the Webring Anons then, at the least, that you please consider helping to contribute to the common efforts at /robowaifu/ ?

We're coming along already, but we've still far to go, and it's a big effort! You're are help would be much-appreciated!  :)

>>4474
>Might I suggest for the Webring Anons then, at the least, that you please consider helping to contribute to the common efforts at /robowaifu/ ?
Speaking personally, that's outside of my area of expertise (if I even have one) and not something I have much interest in. I wish you guys the best of luck though.

How is your work going over there?

>>4475
>Speaking personally, that's outside of my area of expertise (if I even have one) and not something I have much interest in.
Well, you may have more expertise than you think, if you decide to build any intredast in. Quote :
>"We are technologists, dreamers, hobbyists, geeks and robots looking forward to a day when any man can build the ideal companion he desires in his own home. However, not content to wait for the future; we are bringing that day forward. We are creating an active hobbyist scene of builders, programmers, artists, designers, and writers using the technology of today, not tomorrow. Join us!"

>I wish you guys the best of luck though.
Thanks!  :)

>How is your work going over there?
No need to guess, find out for yourself, Anon. We're over on AlogsSpace on the Webring.

As to 'work', we're basically a loose affiliation of DIY'rs in a kind of 'workshop' where we share our work progress with one another, for the most part. I think the hardware part is moving apace, and I predict it will be well in-hand within about 3 years or so. The software, ehh, not so much. I'm having a hard time trying to convince other Anons to join in the systems software side of development, for whatever reasons. We'll see if things change rapidly (hopefully so!), once the prototype robowaifu bodies begin appearing. Cheers.  :)

>>4476
>Well, you may have more expertise than you think
I have basically no technical skills whatsoever.
> think the hardware part is moving apace, and I predict it will be well in-hand within about 3 years or so. The software, ehh, not so much. I'm having a hard time trying to convince other Anons to join in the systems software side of development, for whatever reasons. We'll see if things change rapidly (hopefully so!), once the prototype robowaifu bodies begin appearing.
I saw this video a while ago (I had to look up the name) and was surprised to see the progress that's being made in the field. Yeah, it's all still in the early stages so far, but I figured it would be much more primitive than this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LNthFGX4aM

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>>4477
>I have basically no technical skills whatsoever.
Not sure which part of :
>"...builders, ...artists, ...writers"
applies to that, Anon?  :)

>and was surprised to see the progress that's being made in the field
That's definitely a smol, hobbyist effort, and we all consider them brothers of /robowaifu/ .
>tl;dr
Masiro meidos a cute!!  :D

OTOH, the billions-US$ -funded corpos already have fully-biped-ambulatory humanoids working today :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6OEpsU21y4

>>4478
>Not sure which part of : >"...builders, ...artists, ...writers" applies to that, Anon?  :)
Unfortunately, I'm not really any of those either.

Maybe w10.site is good too?

>>168 (OP) 
just consume media from the time duude.

>>4488
watching old animu and stuff is good and all but it is not enough to bring back the time and i'm not a stoner