Here is a preview of Blinkie.world, my blinkie collecton site! The goal here is to collect every blinkie on earth (but only if they're free to use, and can be credited). They're all sorted into these color pages, and also sorted into tons of sub categories on other pages (like food, animals, holidays, etc etc). This is what some of the color pages look like now! Once I have at least 300 blinkies in each color, then I'll consider the site full enough to go live! I'm aiming to get it online by Art Fight (aka by July this year).
Do note that this isn't actually an accurate representation of how many I have. I have thousands more than this! I just have to code them all in. It's not as quick as just an image tag and a link, because it also needs to be named, linked to it's source, tagged so I know what categories they're in, have a link to a screenshot that proves who the creator is and their terms (in case the credit link dies one day), have alt text, and have hover text which says the creator and a description of what the blinkie says! So, it's not like this:
<img src="">
It's actually like this:
<a href="" target="_BLANK">
<img src="" alt="" title="Credit: . ID: """></a>
<!--Categories: -->
<!--Screencap: -->
And that's for every blinkie! You can probably see how this is so time consuming, but I think it's worth it. I've never seen a blinkie collection with 6,000+ blinkies, much less every single one credited, and even less sorted into dozens of categories! It's like I have a blinkie for everything, while also knowing the creator of each, and being able to easily search for a specific one via the sorting system! It's especially good for helping others find blinkies, and helping people get the sources for blinkies they already have! It's also great for finding blinkies to use for your ocs (which is my initial reason for doing this).
I'm very excited about this. I really think this could be a very fun resource for people, and that aside, I just really like having so many in my possession. I love to see them. I even have blinkies that I've downloaded before they were deleted off the internet! That's very exciting to me. I have blinkies that are straight up lost media, and I'm happy to be able to preserve them.
Of course as I said, it's going to take forever to add them all, but I'm chipping away at it. I shall not be stopped! Also, if you want a blinkie in any of these screenshots above, just let me know! I'll get it and it's source for you, easy peasy! I'll post more screenshots as significant progress is made, but for now, it's back to downloading blinkies!
In the wake of the TikTok ban and revival as a mouthpiece for fascist propaganda, as well as the downfall of Twitter and Facebook/Facebook-owned platforms to the same evils, I think now is a better time than ever to say LEARN HTML!!! FREE YOURSELVES FROM THE SHACKLES OF MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND EMBRACE THE INDIE WEB!!!
You can host a website on Neocities for free as long as it's under 1GB (which is a LOT more than it sounds like let me tell you) but if that's not enough you can get 50GB of space (and a variety of other perks) for only $5 a month.
Create and surf awesome websites for free.
And if you can't/don't want to pay for the extra space, sites like File Garden and Catbox let you host files for free that you can easily link into NeoCities pages (I do this to host videos on mine!) (It also lets you share files NeoCities wouldn't let you upload for free anyways, this is how I upload the .zip files for my 3DS themes on my site.)
Host your files with decency.
The cutest free file host you've ever seen
Don't know how to write HTML/CSS? No problem. W3schools is an invaluable resource with free lessons on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and a whole slew of other programming languages, both for web development and otherwise.
W3Schools offers free online tutorials, references and exercises in all the major languages of the web. Covering popular subjects like HTML,
Want a more traditional social media experience? SpaceHey is a platform that mimics the experience of 2000s MySpace
SpaceHey is a retro social network focused on privacy and customizability. It's a friendly place to have fun, meet friends, and be creative.
Struggling to find independent web pages that cater to your interests via major search engines? I've got you covered. Marginalia and Wiby are search engines that specifically prioritize non-commercial content. Marginalia also has filters that let you search for more specific categories of website, like wikis, blogs, academia, forums, and vintage sites.
Marginalia Search is a small independent do-it-yourself search engine for surprising but content-rich websites that never ask you to accept
Wiby is a search engine for older style pages, lightweight and based on a subject of interest. Building a web more reminiscent of the early
Maybe you wanna log off the modern internet landscape altogether and step back into the pre-social media web altogether, well, Protoweb lets you do just that. It's a proxy service for older browsers (or really just any browser that supports HTTP, but that's mostly old browsers now anyways) that lets you visit restored snapshots of vintage websites.
With ProtoWeb, you can browse the web like it's 1995!
Protoweb has a lot of Geocities content archived, but if you're interested in that you can find even more old Geocities sites over on the Geocities Gallery
A restored visual gallery of the archived Geocities sites
And really this is just general tip-of-the-iceberg stuff. If you dig a little deeper you can find loads more interesting stuff out there.
The internet doesn't have to be a miserable place full of nothing but doomposting and targeted ads. The first step to making it less miserable is for YOU, yes YOU, to quit spending all your time on it looking at the handful of miserable websites big tech wants you to spend all your time on.
neocities guide - why you should build your own html website
do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again?
try neocities!!
what is neocities?
neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words:
"we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."
why should I make my own website?
web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!!
building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.
what would I even put on a website?
the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !!
here are some cool example sites to inspire you:
recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content!
space bar | local interstellar dive bar
creature feature | halloween & monsters
big gulp supreme
peanutbuttaz | personal site
dragodiluna
linwood | personal site
patho grove | personal site
getting started: neocities/html guide
sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css
sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating
web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics
w3schools | html tutorials
templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements
eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with
sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles
rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles
fun stuff to add to your site
want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found
blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe)
gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs
internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers
momg | gif gallery
99 gif shop | 3d gifs
123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages
cbox | add a live chat box
moon phases | track the phases of the moon
gifypet | a little clickable page pet
adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet
tamaNOTchi | virtual pet
crossword puzzle | daily crossword
imood | track your mood
neko | cute cat that chases your mouse
pollcode | custom poll maker
website hit counter | track how many visitors you have
web revival manifestos & communities
also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web!
melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum
melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival?
melonking manifesto |
status cafe | share your current status
nightfall city | online community
onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance
sadgrl internet manifesto |
yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource
reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience
in conclusion
i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :)
say hi to me on neocities
I’ve been building a little browser-based digital grimoire / webgrimoire for my site, and it’s finally at the point where I want to let other people try it.
https://shrine404.neocities.org/grimoire
It’s still in beta, so im basically just asking people to poke around, play with it, and tell me what works, what feels clunky, and what you’d want added.
It's not a productivity app so don't go in expecting that. I wanted it to feel personal, decorative, a little old-web, a little devotional lol..
I worked really hard on this so if you can give me feedback and maybe reblog I'd be so happy. Again it is FREEEEE.
What it can do right now:
☾ create entries for different sections like spells, materia / correspondences, dreams, lore, links, journals, divination / omens, and more
☾ has an altar / webshrine area where you can make little devotional pages with things like:
shrine images
candles
offerings
blinkies / extra shrine images
shrine frames / styles
relics / decorative bits
“now playing” style details
guestbook / shrine personality features
☾ has a practitioner / about area so you can personalize it with your own path, signs, beliefs, deities, tools, icon, etc.
☾ includes writing tools so entries can be more than just plain text — invocation blocks, prayer cards, omen / warning boxes, poetry formatting, ritual steps, foldaway notes, dividers, and other little text charms
☾ lets entries link to each other, so it can work more like a tiny personal web or wiki instead of just isolated notes
☾ has optional ritual metadata / seals for entries, but they can also be turned off if they don’t fit the page
☾ has backup / export options all grouped together, including a full HTML export option
☾ has different palette / theme options in settings, including lighter and darker modes for readability / vibe
☾ has a header image option and other little personalization settings
A few important notes before using it:
𖹭 it is still a beta
there may still be bugs, odd save issues, awkward layout moments, or parts that need smoothing out
𖹭 it currently saves in your browser storage
so if you use it a lot, please export backups regularly
𖹭 it’s meant to be a little expressive and decorative
so some features lean more “digital shrine / personal archive / weird old web object” than “minimal serious app”
If you try it, I’d especially love feedback on:
✴︎ anything confusing or unintuitive
✴︎ bugs / things not saving properly
✴︎ sections or features you wish existed
✴︎ readability / accessibility issues
✴︎ whether the altar / shrine side feels fun enough
✴︎ whether the writing tools feel useful or too much
✴︎ anything that feels especially charming, broken, annoying, inspiring, messy, or missing
Basically: if you use it and have thoughts, I want them.
This is my weird little beta grimoire child and I’m trying to make it genuinely beautiful and fun to use, not just functional.
Also, if you like strange personal websites / old web things / occult tools / shrine pages / browser toys, you may enjoy it just for that alone.
