Why We Need To Go Back To Old Internet Websites
I personally disagree with "nostalgia" being used as a pejorative; as a way to kind of dismiss any preference for how things were done in the past. For instance, in car design, perhaps cars run better now, but not wanting all cars to look like a computer mouse is not simply nostalgia.
Recently I've been thinking about some of the strengths of websites of the past, which are becoming fewer all the time, and how they offer something different than you can get on major social networking platforms.
Take this kind of thing for example:
https://bt.ht/death-of-personality/
It's a pretty good article about what I'm talking about, analysing the strengths of design in the past and where and why it changed, but in particular, you are reading the article on this persons own site, with it's own look and you process the information differently, or at least I think you do.
There's probably hundreds of YouTube videos about the same topic; logos and designs becoming almost invisible, but the YouTube videos themselves are the same, they've all got the same standardised thumbnails, presentation and even the same promotions. We look at the ideas in those YouTube videos in a sea of other "ideas" presented all the same way in the same formats. So the ideas don't really strike us.
There really is something obscene about lamenting the standardisation of iconography while completely having to conform to standardisation in your own videos you make. And on a certain level I would say the viewer can sense that and it becomes just another disposable ten minutes of your time.
By comparison, I would argue reading this person's article, while not exactly mind blowing, may have a stronger effect because of the way in which you found it and the manner in which the idea is delivered.
The idea is in line with the medium through which it is delivered and the person espousing the idea. It hits the reader differently and that's what I wish we could get more of.
Another example I have would be Doom My House.wad, which has lit up conversation and reinvigorated huge parts of the Doom fanbase and even those outside it with a really excellent creative idea that was delivered on a website, independent of the big platforms. And though millions of people have watched playthroughs on YouTube, they need to actually engage with the Doomworld website to get the full experience. The Doomworld website is part of the game and the story in a way that is very unique. To be honest, in many ways I think it may be one of the greatest horror games ever made.
(this video has an extensive breakdown on discoveries made so far for those who wouldn't know much about Doom, and even still, you won't get a full picture unless you've delved into that website and community yourself)
MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod - YouTube
When you look at the amount of energy that has been released in interest from a well-thought out project like that, it really makes me think of what could be done using spaces outside of just a reddit post or something like that.
To me these things are a synergy of old and new. And show what can be done. It's not to say platforms like YouTube and Reddit can't impact you or deliver unique experiences, but that we are missing out on other ways of doing things by only thinking of those platforms.
