This blog serves to showcase parts of the long deserted society of ActiveWorlds, one of the first true online virtual worlds and the precursor to the modern "metaverse", just without the blockchain nonsense.
ActiveWorlds was launched in 1995 for Windows 95, serving as a digital space for users across the world to meet up, build communities and explore, and has maintained a dedicated, albeit dwindling, community since then, even in the face of the modern Internet. While not the only of its kind, as around the same time would see the launch of Worlds.com, another virtual world, it was the first true virtual world, and while it has fallen off severely in activity since the early 2010s, it still stands to this day as a time capsule of an Internet and world that once was.
ActiveWorlds' popularity dwindled into the 2000s, and especially into the 2010s, but it was briefly revived due to a stream by Twitch personality Vinny Vinesauce, in which he encountered Hitomi Fujiko, an entity he assumed was an NPC, but later began expressing human-like characteristics before referring to Vinny by name, despite his account not having his real name anywhere on it.
The stream's eerie presence led to the ActiveWorlds immigration servers crashing, and led to a (now nulled) creepypasta theory shortly after. However, after this stream, the popularity of the world would continue to dwindle once again, leaving the userbase at around 20 consistent citizens at best in 2026.
Exploring ActiveWorlds today is primarily achieved through the third party DeltaWorlds browser, as the official browser does not function correctly on modern Windows despite requiring it, not to mention the official universe server is currently down.
DeltaWorlds provides a full archive of ActiveWorlds' primary universe server as it was around the mid 2020s, including the historical AlphaWorld, the inaugural world that started it all, but also including popular worlds such as AWRPG and AWTeen, as well as 70 other worlds begging to be explored, which this blog uses.
Most content on this blog is sourced from exploring AlphaWorld, the default starting world when starting the browser, with constructions ranging in creation date generally anywhere from 1996 to 2012. Coordinates will be provided where possible so that you yourself may visit the areas showcased here.
sharing my friend's blog! as much slack as i give old web aesthetics and quote-on-quote "internet archaeology", true archival and documentation of the old internet is still incredibly interesting to me. if you like virtual worlds and seeing what people share through them, this might be worth checking out!
i think a lot of people need to get caught up on their tag etiquette for this website because how do we still not know how to tag things appropriately and within reason? don't tell me about needing to get engagement because THIS IS TUMBLR NOT TIKTOK: misusing tags is NOT going to get people to interact, and more often than not they will just straight up block you.
this happens everywhere but is especially daunting looking through the common ARG tags as an outsider. just because what you're posting is related to an ARG does not mean you tag it as ARG. i am looking for discussion on the medium, not fanart that happens to be of an ARG character. please tag the specific media instead, tagging vague general terms is like posting a selfie with a human tag.
my tip is: think about what your post is about and not necessarily what it contains. is a post ABOUT a character or do you mention them in passing literally once in a manner completely irrelevant to the content of your post? specificity helps as well, as more general tags are usually meant for meta discussion. instead of tagging your fanart as "art", tag it "X media fanart" or something. tag the ships and/or characters your drawing is depicting, not their general appearance and traits. that kind of deal.
Migrating To The Peripheral Web Part 2: Nostalgia as a Detriment to The Indie Web
NEWS: A Discord Server has been established! Feel free to join to chat about the outskirts of the open internet.
this one is less of a direct guide and more of a thinkpiece, which goes more in line with what i intended this series to be like. still, it's one with a valuable message which i hope reaches the right people.
What is the Peripheral Web, anyway?
the term itself is derived from the Yesterweb movement. it defines a split of internet spaces into the core web - encompassing mass-appeal, corporation-backed social media such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube - and the peripheral web, described as the outskirts of the internet, which encompass independent platforms such as Mastodon and SpaceHey, as well as independent, individual-ran personal websites. today's post will be focused on the latter, also referred to as the Indie Web, but not always.
The Indie Web vs. The Old Web
The Indie Web is the commonplace term for independent, usually personal websites of today. their complexity depends on the webmaster, with the modern browser's full capabilities at their disposal. most of these websites will belong to amateur or more experienced programmers wanting to show off their work, but they are also popular among artists wanting portfolios, as well as regular people wanting to share their interests independently of algorithms and ragebait.
The Old Web can either refer to 1) older social media sites such as MySpace, as well as the older looks for sites like YouTube and Twitter, or 2) the late-90s to 2009 era of Angelfire and Geocities personal websites. for the latter, the term is associated with rudimentary, simple websites with limited, bright colors, matched with relevant web graphics and GIFs from the time, archived through services like Gifcities, as well as specific formats such as pagedolls and blinkies, which still exist today, though marginally.
they only share the medium in practice, with their cultures being complete opposites today. to most people, however, these two terms are exactly synonymous with one another. but that reveals a major flaw in how people think about this space of expression: the ignorant view of independent websites as solely a thing of the past. the indie web is treated as internet archaeology, rose-tinted and aestheticized by those outside of it, treated as a long-gone relic that does not exist anymore. the problem in thinking that is that we DO exist, are alive and well, and the only thing stopping this part of the web from finally thriving is this mindset being this common.
Nostalgia On The Internet
this way of thinking about the internet is not exclusive to the Indie Web. it isn't exclusive to the internet, even, that's the reason conservatism is such a common political standpoint, but i won't get into that here for the sake of my own sanity.
everyone prefers how things used to be. perhaps they were a kid who didn't have the emotional capacity for life to be as painful, or perhaps they weren't alive at all. anemoia is used to describe nostalgia for a time you never experienced, and it's incredibly common. kids on TikTok are trading in their modern iPhones for flipphones and older models, buying CD players instead of using Spotify, et cetera... it brings to mind the roleplaying aspect of sites like SpaceHey, where people outside of the culture preferred to play a character more in-tune with the stereotypes of the original MySpace instead of wanting to use them earnestly.
while anemoia by itself isn't bad - i'm a late gen z, and i've been collecting CDs for quite some time before this, as well as enjoying making blinkies and pagedolls - it doesn't make any positive impact, either. changing today is not about buying old tech or listening to old music, it's about speaking up and making a difference in the issues that affect us today. the past is in the past, so the best we can do is keep moving and improve the present to be closer to the past we admire.
How Change is Made
the power on the internet remains in the hands of monstrous corporations and the government because we let it happen. we stay silent, stuck in our idea of the past, refusing to cultivate anything outside of their reach. this is where you can make a difference.
speaking up is one thing. it's why i make posts about these subjects, in the hopes that someone will hear me and change their mind, delete their social media accounts, start making their own spaces, maybe even start posting about the other issues that affect them, too. start speaking up about what matters to you, people! it's so incredibly sad how we don't anymore!
change comes best in organization, though. i'm not really good at this part, but i made a discord server where i'll update everyone on peripheral web topics i find important. there's some channels for discussing the internet and recommending tools and resources. through us working together, maybe something cool can happen!
that's really all i had to say today, though. thank you for hearing me out. maybe join that server, too? i get lonely. anyways goodbye.
HTML isn't only for people working in the tech field. It's for everyone. Learn how to make a website from scratch in this beginner friendly
if you're learning HTML for any reason, i can't recommend HTML for people highly enough. it's a fantastic introduction to HTML and CSS targeted towards beginners who aren't technically inclined, and it isn't patronizing towards the reader for that. it's a very relaxed and kind (but informative) resource that even i reference from time to time (and i consider myself pretty good with semantic HTML).
definitely check it out if you're interested in making a personal site, or working with HTML at all.
Social media is bad for fandom. This is something you likely already know, because despite their names, social media are horrible for any social activity. Algorithms promote ragebait over any other social interactions. Accounts can get terminated at the whims of the staff. Most social media are built for small-form text posts rather than images or long-form text posts. In recent years, there's been a rise in posts along the lines of "we need to bring back mailing lists" "we need to bring back fansites" "we need to bring back forums" and so on and so forth.
Well, great news!
You 🫵 can do your part to help fandom move away from social media!
The technology for mailing lists or fansites or whatnot still exist! Most of these are accessible even to those who don't have five PhD in computer science.
Sharing fanstuff you've made
If you make fannish content, you're gonna want to make a fansite. Aka, your own website where you can post whatever you want.
How to make a fansite
There are many, many, many templates out there for people who aren't familiar with coding. Some are made to be copy/pasted without a second thought, others are a bit more thorough in explaining how it works and how to customize it. Here are a few examples, but if none of these vibe with you, feel free to google up "website template" to find more!
44×50 templates for writing archives, character wikis, and galleries
Zonelet's blogging template
Kalechips's templates for minimalist websites
If you're willing to code some stuff yourself (or if you used a template above and realized you needed to add a few things) I recommend W3school as a resource for html and css tricks. Whatever it is you're trying to add to your website, someone out there has surely figured out how to do it. It's only a matter of finding them.
Publishing your fansite
Neocities and Nekoweb are the two names for indie site hosting, though you can surely find more elsewhere.
What to put on your fansite
Anything you want! Here is a non exhaustive list of fannish things that would fit perfectly on a fansite:
Meta analysis
Watching/reading guides
Liveblogs
Headcanons
AU ideas
Character shrines
Ship manifesto
Fanart galleries
Fanfiction rec lists
Fantheories
Fanfiction (yes, ao3 ISN'T the only place you can post fics to!)
I also highly recommend MarineHaddock's zines, Let's make a fansite (and populate it) and Webshrines for People Poisoned By Microblogging if you're running out of ideas as to what to post.
Finding other fans
Fanlistings
Fanlistings are, as the name implies, lists of fans of a given thing, from shows to characters to ships. The Fanlisting Network lists an absurd amount of them, so you can start here to look them up.
People who sign up to fanlistings often list off their socials, website, or emails. So you can check if anyone is posting about your fandom, or email them directly if you want to strike a friendship with them. And likewise if you sign up to a fanlist. Maybe someone will message you through a fanlist!
Webrings
Webrings are lists of personal websites around a specific theme. There are webrings for various minorities, webrings for people who code a certain way, and of course, webrings for fandoms.
This one is very much oriented towards fansites, but hey, if you want to see more sites about your fandom that's the place to be. And if you do make a fansite, adding yourself to a webring is a good way to improve your site's discoverability.
Finding webrings relevant to your interests is usually a matter of googling up "(thing) webring," but for now here is the Smooth Sailing webring which covers enough topics that you're bound to find something of your interest here.
Openbook
Openbook is a search engine which exclusively searches for small websites (such as the sites you'd find on neocities.) Using it to look up a fandom of your choice is a quick way to find webrings, fansites, and the likes.
Building community
Forums
Forumotion is an easy way to create forums, and myBB is a software that requires a bit more tinkering but allows much more freedom in setting up your forum.
Mailing Lists
Listserv is widely considered the best software to enable mailing lists, though there are certainly many more.
Discord and alternatives
A lot of fandom discussions have moved to discord in recent years. A group chat is a fairly okay option for those who want the interactivity of a forum while keeping things more private. You can make a fandom discord or seek to join one to meet fellow fans. Disboard is a pretty extensive list of public discord servers on a variety of topics, fandom included.
For those who dislike discords, there are a bunch of alternatives. There is no consensus yet as to which is The Best Alternative Everyone Will Move To, so alas you're on your own in deciding which one you want to pick to try out fandom endeavors.
This reddit thread is a non exhaustive list of discord alternatives, with extensive explanations as to all their pros and cons.
Conclusion
Fandom does not have to remain on social media. The tools to get out of social media still exist, and they are more accessible than you think. We can bring back mailing lists. We can bring back fansites. We can bring back forums. It's only a matter of getting enough people to move out of social media for fandom matters.
We can free ourselves from shitty ragebait algorythms. And change starts with you.
i totally agree with this message! fandom is impacted by social media's rampant focus on consumerism and maximising attention as any other form of community and creation is. if you believe these problems need to be fixed, independent website creation has the solution for you. all it takes is a bit of learning syntax to contribute to the cause.
i would like to contribute to the discord conversation by proposing independent forums. not all fandoms will have them, but most popular, older ones have had them forever. homestuck has a notably recent one in the form of the fraf forums. i love forums i can't get enough of them.
Migrating To The Peripheral Web Part 1: The Indie Web, Personal Websites and How To Get Started
hello there! this is my first proper blogpost on this account. it is part of a currently theoretical series i want to write, exploring parts of the peripheral web and how to integrate them into regular use.
today i will discuss the indie web, how to make your very own personal website, and why making one matters in the current internet landscape.
What is the Peripheral Web, anyway?
the term itself is derived from the Yesterweb movement. it defines a split of internet spaces into the core web - encompassing mass-appeal, corporation-backed social media such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube - and the peripheral web, described as the outskirts of the internet, which encompass independent platforms such as Mastodon and SpaceHey, as well as independent, individual-ran personal websites. in a world where the core web's titans are looking to squeeze as much profit and engagement out of their platforms as possible, exploring smaller, independent options for online socialising, even if just marginally, is more important than ever.
Personal Websites Never Die
most people associate personal websites with the late 90s and early 2000s - the age of services like Geocities and Angelfire, which helped provide free web hosting to millions of internet users. the thing is, while these services are long gone, spiritual successors pop up all the time.
hosting services are usually split into two categories:
website builders, such as StrawPage and Carrd, which in practice allow users to make a free website, while tying them down to strict limitations unless they can afford a monthly subscription. these are mostly used for portfolios and link pages on the core web.
static web hosts built specifically for peripheral web purposes, which are usually free to wholly customize, with additional subscriptions for storage space and extra features. these will be the focus of this blogpost.
What static web host should I use?
i'll go over the two most popular ones so you can compare and assess which one you prefer.
Neocities is the more popular of the two, and acts as the "face" of the indie web movement. the free version allows you to upload basic web formats, such as HTML (content input), CSS (formatting for said content), and bare minimum JavaScript (scripts and site logic), as well as images. anything beyond that is locked down to a 5$ subscription, which also allows you to make multiple websites on one account, use custom domains if you own any, and gives you the full legal right to hotlink (use a direct link as an embed) files from your website. i don't really use this one but it has a great profile system that allows people to comment and subscribe for updates without you needing to code your own feed.
Nekoweb is less popular, but is much more versatile. it has no file restrictions by default, allows you to make multiple pages without a paywall, and also allows you to use basic SSI (server side inputs, essentially you can embed HTML files inside of other HTML files directly) on your pages. it does, however, have half the available space for free as neocities' free program, but the subscription is cheaper and gives you more perks, such as your own instance of Git (file revision system, lets you push changes from your computer to nekoweb directly), access to a more versatile web code editor (based on Visual Studio Code, a popular code editor by Microsoft), the ability to completely overhaul your sitebox (the box that shows up on the explore page), and other cool things. this is the one i use and i am a little biased considering i have been a subscriber for the past year and it's been very nice.
How do I actually make a personal website?
most personal websites are built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. here's some tutorials and resources i like:
Neocities' Learn How to Make Websites goes over all the basics of each core web language. if you have a Neocities account, it's completely free!
W3Schools is my personal documentation site of choice. i recommend looking up what you're looking to code on there and seeing what solution they have. it makes everything so easy to digest and has little quizzes at the end of each page, it's so nice!
The MDN Web Docs are also great for more specific things, but they're a little less beginner friendly so i would recommend using the first two until you're familiar with how everything works.
beyond this, your search engine is your friend! break down your problems into steps and see what other people proposed as solutions. when getting results from sites like stackoverflow and such help forums, i would advise you to not just copy and paste super complex code and look up what the code means and how it is used. maybe there's an easier solution somewhere else!
ok, but how do i actually design a website, you ask? web design is one of those skills where every online tutorial tries to get you to buy a course or subscribe to a newsletter. i don't think your website looking good is that important, what matters is the contents are easy to see and accessible. here's some essentials to making accessible webpages:
sadgrl.online's layout builder generates HTML and CSS for basic, responsive (displaying properly on all devices) layouts. i don't personally use this, i prefer to build my layouts with flexboxes and size my containers with the max-width property so they scale properly. what are any of those, you ask? just learn what CSS is and then click on the words to get documentation.
accessibility styling on W3Schools. responsive web design on W3Schools (this one's a chapter read all of it). go over the basics of both subjects, and are a must read for any webmaster.
you may now say, how about inspiration? i can't really help you on that, but a friend of mine has a little indie web tutorial entry on getting inspired. it's mostly just about looking through other websites and your own activity on the web, seeing what parts of them you like the most, then writing that down on a to do list. breaking each part down into smaller parts is also great for productivity and makes you feel like you're doing something bit by bit, but that's my tip, not hers.
this is where i would shill my website... IF I HAD ONE!!!! my site is in infinite development hell because i don't know what i want it to look like. just engage with other websites and keep learning and you'll be okay on this front, i think.
thank you for reading my blogpost! i have a lot of thoughts on the peripheral web, and this series will probably be dedicated solely to those thoughts. if you have any additional questions or would like coding help, please send me asks! i'd be happy to help!
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
yousharknotpass
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