Internet Life Archives

Whimsical Website, Grumpy Webmaster

If you visited the site on the last post, you’ll notice that the site has had a bit of a makeover. Or a makedown.

I’ve talked about Ana Rodrigues’ talk at Loopconf before, on how personal websites should make a comeback. It was inspiring. So inspiring that I spent a good 20 hours wrestling with Twenty Fifteeen to make it a bit more modern behind the scenes. I think I’ve succeeded, and it plays well with the block editor. Were nearly there. Gaps still don’t work, for example. And there’s a bug list.

The joy of web crafting

Could I have done it faster? Sure. but here’s the thing, I had fun. Every evening for a few hours I listened to BBC Radio 3 Unwind with a Bird and Blend tea and crafted. Crafting is fun. Doing pixel art with Aseprite is fun. Building and creating is fun, and this was a fun project that I dedicated my evenings to for a couple of weeks. My blood pressure dropped. I relaxed. I zoned out. And I created this.

Sure it’s a bit creaky, the same way the bathroom lock I installed wiggles a bit. It is dated, but so are my curtains. This site is my home on the internet. I want to make it homely. Sure it’s not the nicest, or the one that sells my skills the best. But the displays in Ikea are designed to sell the product, not live in. This is my home. It is mine. It is unique¹. I also wasn’t wrestling with AI prompts² and getting angry at creating something soulless.

Go Explore!

I also recently ticked off another 50 of my 50 list – I went to The Cave. One of the things that does so well is that you’re encouraged to explore, pick up, interact, read, play, and just discover things. I want a similar experience to that here. I am fighting with attention with everything else on the internet. I want to make this website a joyful experience that makes you smile. To encourage discovery of the whimsical web. My Trello board is bursting with idea. When will they get implemented? I dunno, but there’s a few here already. Go and explore! Things may appear in the upcoming weeks! Come back!

I want this website to do that as a love letter to internet culture. I also will try and blog more. I have enjoyed it. Though I’ve found myself becoming more grumpy at the state of the internet, with AI, and enshittification. I am reminded how things were. Were things perfect? No. But they were better. I want a place where I can be grumpy online. After all, I am a white middle aged man on the internet. Of course I have opinions. I want to share them with the world. So whilst the site may be whimsical, the posts may be a bit grumpy.

So this the new layout of my site, hopefully for the next wee while. Where I’m probably going to post a lot of grumpy posts. Hope you like it!

As much as a Twenty Fifteen child theme can be, obviously. ↩︎
For full disclosure I used one piece of AI on the site – I wireframed the structure of me stealing a traffic cone, because I struggle with drawing humans that look somewhat realistic. The colouring and shading was done by me – this video is a great guide to get into pixel art, by the way. ↩︎

Wake Me Up When September Ends

I see that AOL has ended it’s dial-up service after 30 years with barely a whimper. I think the first times I explored the internet was on AOL sometimes in the early 2000s, usually playing Slingo or downloading Quake Maps off a friends internet connection.

It was also the first time I experienced some form of gatekeeping. With AOL being ubiquitous with early internet with it’s easy setup, and the fact it was incompatible with Netscape Navigator, meant that it was always for those who weren’t the most technically literate. Something I – sadly – participated in.

This gatekeeping was reinforced when, during University in 2002, the “Social and Technical Internet” module I studied in my degree included a fascinating few lessons on early internet culture, and things like Eternal September. Further studies meant I really wanted to go back to that time.

Anyway, it’s kind of ironic that the cause of Eternal September died on 1st October.

God speed, AOL Dial-up Internet.

Congratulations to 25 years of homestarrunner.com

I was happy to see that Homestar Runner, a web toon, celebrated their 25th anniversary of their website going live in their usual style that resonated in the same way it did when I was a student. Surrealist humour with enough satirical nostalgia touchpoints to make a bearded Welshman with high blood pressure smile.

Their content is syndicated on YouTube now, rather than Flash cartoons, but the website is still present, and although it’s output is a lot slower nowadays (cartoons are now at best quarterly), they’re still must watch.

I got into Homestar Runner during university, I’d say my third year – when Yahoo! Music would be my Spotify, and I’d use the University T3 connection to browse the internet, read blogs, moderating the forum of the university’s ten pin bowling team and dip my toes into website building. Wednesday mornings were dedicated to consuming the latest Strong Bad Email. My girlfriend at the time for my 21st birthday got me a Homestar Runner T-shirt. I probably still know all the words to “The Ballad of the Sneak”.

It is a majestic website. Or I’d say it was a majestic website, but it wouldn’t know majesty if it came along and bit it in the face.

Happy 25 years!

X-Odus: 90% Complete

This is a short post as I have updated where I am active on social media.

I have removed Twitter. From both a moralistic standpoint and a traffic standpoint I get zero value from the network. The account is still live but I have replaced it to a link to this post as the pinned post. I may just use it to retweet or spam my blog posts or when I go live on Twitch, but I’m unlikely to dedicate any more time on it.

In it’s place is Bluesky. I am really enjoying the conversation there and the connections. I have seemed to find myself into WordPress, SEO and (surprisingly) Game Dev lists so I get a lot of value here for the moment. Hopefully it continues. The plan is to setup accounts to Dwi’n Rhys and Retro Garden there. It’s verification method is pretty good and clever. Much more than paying a Space Karen for it.

I am about 5 accounts from almost removing Twitter completely. If Colwyn Bay FC, ThatsSoVillage, Heather Burns, National Rail Enquries and a few Pro Wrestling and Retro Asylum accounts I follow make their way onto BleSky, then we will be done.

I am still active on Mastodon. I like the conversations there and enjoy the slightly smaller but more techy group of folks there. So will pop in there still as it is cosy and has better conversations.

Threads I am not enjoying. It’s experience seems to be similar to the “I’m Helping!” Ralph Wiggum GIF that doesn’t seem to exist on the other networks. Seriously: I had an issue with something I felt when it came to DNS servers, Chris replied pretty quickly, the problem was solved (thank you Chris), but yet the answers kept coming. I think I was getting answers after my super slow nameserver was done propagating.

Plus my mum’s on there.

But I’ll still post there, and I’m using Openvibe I am able to update all three, it’s ace.

I am also keen on adding more itch.io followers. I am making more games and want to connect with more Indie developers. So if you have an account on there, please consider giving me a follow, particularly if you like retro or retro styled games. Thank you.

For long form stuff I am here and I am still on the same theme. Until the Social Media block allows you to add custom networks or I don’t have to hard code half the networks I am on, I can’t see things changing.

Anyway: that is basically it. Where are you active?

The Ballad of The Blogroll

Another lament on a web gone by.

I recently had to use The Link Manager in WordPress.

For those of you who are unaware, the Link Manager was the first high profile thing dropped from WordPress. In the earlier days of the web you were encouraged to link – freely – to other sites. The Links Manager was a way to link to blogs you liked, and it was known as a “blogroll”. When you linked blogs you tended to have sidebars with a whole host of links to sites you liked. Over time, when link equity became a thing, you removed sites, instead focusing on your own stuff, or removing them entirely.

As WordPress became more of a CMS than a blog platform, the Link Manager popularity dropped.

I remember when it was removed in WordPress 3.5, and how to handle it. In the end, it was enabled for those who had a WordPress installation since before 3.5, hidden for those that installed WordPress for the first time in 3.5 and above. Should you want this feature, you should use the official plugin to restore it.

An actual sensible solution.

Sadly, even now, it’s largely abandoned. Even the documentation hasn’t been updated.

Looking through my Blogroll

As this site has been present on the internet since before 3.5, mine was never hidden.

I clicked it and pined for a simpler time. Sure it’s largely gone, but I miss people being creative. Many of the domains have expired, dreams lost, projects abandoned. Furthermore, I’ve lost touch with a few of the folks there. One site is still going (waves at Jem!), the rest haven’t been updated in years, turned into static websites, or abandoned.

Sad. I hope the folks that were there that I don’t follow on socials are doing well.

As an aside, The reason I had to use it because I found a blog post from Jan-Lukas Else that linked to Robert Alexander’s Blogroll Map, that for entirely selfish reasons I wanted to be a part of.

It’s a bit finickity – the OPML protocol has advanced and there is a plugin that uses the more common ways to add the required headers to aid blogroll discovery which I’ve put on a few of my sites, but hopefully my sites will be more discoverable to a very nerdy corner of the web. Huzzah!

“Blogroll @ newthinking store wc” by Neezee is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.