Boring Reflections on the Olde Internete
This is not a terribly interesting post in my opinion, just as a warning. I'll be rambling at length about the (ahem) "old days" of the internet (which for me is 8+ years ago) and saying nothing insightful.
Back when I was younger, the net was new, nobody had heard of Google, and every cool web page was a small treasure to be cherished. I remember browsing back then, and Geocities -- long before it was owned by Yahoo -- was like the coolest thing ever. You could have your OWN WEB PAGE. Wow. That's just wild! I'd browse through RPG and Fantasy sites, and even though the content wasn't anything fancy like modern web pages, it was awesome when I found one with cool things on it. I found one page where there were stories written based on tabletop roleplaying sessions, just lots of text on a black background. Oh MAN that page was awesome! How cool! I found lots of little pages, because Geocities let you browse by category -- they sorted them into named streets or neighborhoods or something, then your page had a unique four digit number -- after 10000 sites in a neighborhood, they'd have to open a new one. You know the really old Geocities sites because they're the ones that use that old and busted system. Oh man, this one has spinning skulls and a row of animated flames! Awesome! This is a typical site from those days.
These days, the web is full of wonderful content. Geocities, rather than being a treasure trove full of a grab-bag of sites, is seen rather widely as a sort of dustbin where the refuse of the internet is relegated. And those spinning skulls and flame gifs are the watermark of bad sites. One could say my tastes have matured, and one could also say that I'm probably a lot more satisfied with the internet now -- after all, I'm never at a loss for quality content, and I remember than back then it was a struggle to find good sites. But I was certainly a lot easier to please back then too!
I used to browse from my mom's workplace. She'd have me in at work late at night, probably after picking me up from school, and set me up with an unused computer. One of the other sites I remember thinking was the bee's knees during these late night browsing sessions was Julie Dillon's site. Julie's an artist, a really good one, and back then she had this cool site with How To Draw Anime tutorials. People loved her for it, and she was fairly famous on the internet. Even as years went on, I'd go to totally different forums, maybe use an anime avatar depicting official art a character she happened to draw fan art of, and be asked if that was her art, since it sure looked familiar. Man, Julie was awesome. She was an amazing artist, and she did a service to the community by releasing all these cool tutorials.
These days, you can still find Julie's anime tutorials online. But not on her web site. She flat out doesn't want them on her site anymore -- and if you take a look at it, you can see why. She doesn't even draw anime anymore, and having those backwards, hackneyed tutorials is an embarrassment to such a fantastic fantasy artist. Times have actually changed so much that her web site isn't even the primary place to go for her art anymore; now we have her deviantART page.
I guess um. Stuff's changed. And the internet is better. I would say something insightful to cap it off but I can't think of anything and I promised I wouldn't up above anyway.
Back when I was younger, the net was new, nobody had heard of Google, and every cool web page was a small treasure to be cherished. I remember browsing back then, and Geocities -- long before it was owned by Yahoo -- was like the coolest thing ever. You could have your OWN WEB PAGE. Wow. That's just wild! I'd browse through RPG and Fantasy sites, and even though the content wasn't anything fancy like modern web pages, it was awesome when I found one with cool things on it. I found one page where there were stories written based on tabletop roleplaying sessions, just lots of text on a black background. Oh MAN that page was awesome! How cool! I found lots of little pages, because Geocities let you browse by category -- they sorted them into named streets or neighborhoods or something, then your page had a unique four digit number -- after 10000 sites in a neighborhood, they'd have to open a new one. You know the really old Geocities sites because they're the ones that use that old and busted system. Oh man, this one has spinning skulls and a row of animated flames! Awesome! This is a typical site from those days.
These days, the web is full of wonderful content. Geocities, rather than being a treasure trove full of a grab-bag of sites, is seen rather widely as a sort of dustbin where the refuse of the internet is relegated. And those spinning skulls and flame gifs are the watermark of bad sites. One could say my tastes have matured, and one could also say that I'm probably a lot more satisfied with the internet now -- after all, I'm never at a loss for quality content, and I remember than back then it was a struggle to find good sites. But I was certainly a lot easier to please back then too!
I used to browse from my mom's workplace. She'd have me in at work late at night, probably after picking me up from school, and set me up with an unused computer. One of the other sites I remember thinking was the bee's knees during these late night browsing sessions was Julie Dillon's site. Julie's an artist, a really good one, and back then she had this cool site with How To Draw Anime tutorials. People loved her for it, and she was fairly famous on the internet. Even as years went on, I'd go to totally different forums, maybe use an anime avatar depicting official art a character she happened to draw fan art of, and be asked if that was her art, since it sure looked familiar. Man, Julie was awesome. She was an amazing artist, and she did a service to the community by releasing all these cool tutorials.
These days, you can still find Julie's anime tutorials online. But not on her web site. She flat out doesn't want them on her site anymore -- and if you take a look at it, you can see why. She doesn't even draw anime anymore, and having those backwards, hackneyed tutorials is an embarrassment to such a fantastic fantasy artist. Times have actually changed so much that her web site isn't even the primary place to go for her art anymore; now we have her deviantART page.
I guess um. Stuff's changed. And the internet is better. I would say something insightful to cap it off but I can't think of anything and I promised I wouldn't up above anyway.