Types of sites that should still exist today and just don't?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

As you know, I think about this a lot.

It's not because I'm obsessed (or, perhaps more accurately, not JUST because I'm obsessed) but because I had experienced three distinct "blackouts" in the last twenty years and change, and each one had me return to a completely different version of the net than the one that had existed before the plug was pulled.

When I first left the net as a teen (2006-8), Abandonware sites were already starting to die down, forums were desperately moving onto paid options like vBulletin just to "bribe" their members into staying by awkwardly pasting all the bells and whistles found elsewhere on the internet all-over message boards that largely didn't need them, and the age of the independent social media networks was reaching its end, with sites like Fotolog.com, PhotoBooth and MindViz bleeding traffic and money like crazy.

The second one (2012-14) had grinded whatever was left into fine dust, with "old guard" sites like RetroJunk.com and VampireFreaks rushing to change their iconic designs (axing many key features in the processes) to be more mobile-friendly and web 2.0-complying. It was pretty ugly, specially because few saw that sites that engaged in these sorts of things (and it was almost universally adopted) boasted about letting members "generate content" in exchange for largely worthless things like ranks and points that only existed within those same sites.

The last one (2017-24, with sporadic activity found throughout) showed me the empty husks and shells of whatever remained, with places like Yahoo! Answers, 12GraceStreet, DarkStarlings, Home Of The Underdogs, Abandonia, almost every Abandonware/ROM site out there, the dozens of niche SIMS communities I had frequented much earlier and several passion projects all either dead or abandoned, their incredibly charming frames-based designs and FrontPage Express DNA either shoved aside or gone under since.

I know that some of these "demises" were inevitable, but I honestly don't see why the vast majority of these couldn't exist today.

Hell, I'd want an advise site that's NOT Quora, or an alternative community to discuss hidden gems like Zombie Girl; or a massive, all-encompasing social media/forum place that's NOT owned by the same two or three out-of-touch billionaires. It's just weird to me that the very few that had tried to coexist with those cursed juggernauts had either failed to launch or couldn't survive.

So, let me ask you: what kind of "extinct" site you think should be able to exist today and just doesn't?

 

[Vamptastic]

I've found that a lot of these previously extinct sites have started to come back (though in that awful "mobile optimized" vertical format.) For example, Spacehey is a rebirth of the original Myspace, which I use frequently and I love.


That being said, something I know exists still technically but has been primarily killed off by discord is the online chat room. Forums, digital ttRPG groups, and many more used to have a network of decentralized chatrooms that all had their own quirks. While homogenization of the internet is by no means unique to chatrooms, I think they are one of the aspects I miss the most of a pre-corperate web.

 

[BrawlMan]

discord is the online chat room.

Discord is starting to lose its appeal after those identity leaks in those that chose to put their photos through that new rule. I only used discord at one time, and it was way before that thing was required.

I'm in a certain old sights in geo cities, but I am happy that there are still forums that we can go to. Some better than others, but at least they're there.

 

[Holic]

i miss those fan sites that people used to make just for fan

 

[Deeg]

The original 90's era EDU-focused internet and not the abomination the internet has become.

 

[TheReal_TomokoKuroki]

I can't speak of any sites I've seen go down. I can say that I fear the day something like JetSetRadio.live goes down. It's so silly and niche. I love it.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I can't speak of any sites I've seen go down. I can say that I fear the day something like JetSetRadio.live goes down. It's so silly and niche. I love it.

OMG! That's GREAT! Never heard about it, either.

 

[Sheepy765]

I can't speak of any sites I've seen go down. I can say that I fear the day something like JetSetRadio.live goes down. It's so silly and niche. I love it.

Even if JSRLive goes down we still have jetsetradiofuture.live (honestly i kinda prefer it)

 

[TheReal_TomokoKuroki]

Even if JSRLive goes down we still have jetsetradiofuture.live (honestly i kinda prefer it)

Didn't know it was a thing. Only heard of JSRLive through a friend. I'll check it out soon ~

 

[Sheepy765]

Didn't know it was a thing. Only heard of JSRLive through a friend. I'll check it out soon ~

It's pretty much the same as JSRLive, but the seasonal stations are no longer seasonal (and it's not being managed by professor K...)

 

[TheReal_TomokoKuroki]

It's pretty much the same as JSRLive, but the seasonal stations are no longer seasonal (and it's not being managed by professor K...)

NO PROFESSOR K?!
THEN WHAT'S THE POINT?!

 

[Sheepy765]

NO PROFESSOR K?!
THEN WHAT'S THE POINT?!

That specific professor k's a bit of an odd one, there's some strange stuff going on with him.

 

[bjork]

I used to love a site called currentcondition (forget if it was .org or .com?) that was just like a spoof of old weather channels but more like a visualizer. It would show flight paths, livecam footage of pandas, weather in places around the world, and play music the whole time. Usually vaporwave iirc. At some point it changed and the last time I checked, it redirected to some site that my browser said was unsafe. There's a slightly similar thing that's like... weatherizer 4000 or something, but it's not quite as polished.

 

[DinoRexMax]

Children's activity sites like Neopets, Club Penguin. and the ones associated with TV Channels (Like FoxKids and Cartoon Network).

The powers that be continually abuse their authority in order to sanitize the internet, with the flimsy excuse that this is all for the benefit of the children. And yet, growing, I remember a host of well-known outlets for games and activities exclusively for kids.

Eventually they became an endangered species (not extinct, quite yet) and the net started to contract, amalgamating everything into just a few sites that host pretty much everything now.

So content is just sort of smorgasbord of bullshit, and kids can happen upon some of this worst shit imaginable by accident because we killed off they're digital playgrounds.

 

[Tenshishi]

Children's activity sites like Neopets, Club Penguin. and the ones associated with TV Channels (Like FoxKids and Cartoon Network).

The powers that be continually abuse their authority in order to sanitize the internet, with the flimsy excuse that this is all for the benefit of the children. And yet, growing, I remember a host of well-known outlets for games and activities exclusively for kids.

Eventually they became an endangered species (not extinct, quite yet) and the net started to contract, amalgamating everything into just a few sites that host pretty much everything now.

So content is just sort of smorgasbord of bullshit, and kids can happen upon some of this worst shit imaginable by accident because we killed off they're digital playgrounds.

For sure, I can't imagine how kids are safely navigating the internet in its current state. Without the bastion of Flash, there's not a ton of places to go but social media.

Mobile phone apps have kind of killed off the importance of flash games, since it's pretty easy now to just install FNaF or Sonic Jump on your cell. But they're all so much more predatory than games used to be - I remember trying to figure out how to send $10 to the AdventureQuest people to get the premium Guardian status, but it was tough to do for a kid then, so I just played the regular game... And that was fine, I didn't get a popup saying "out of energy, pay 20 AdventureCoins to continue now or wait two hours".

I guess my own answer would then be Neopets and the family that is AdventureQuest, Dragonfable and MechQuest - they all still exist, and honestly they're better than ever, but their importance in our lives is so greatly diminished.

 

[Mopeybloke]

I wish Encyclopedia.zone was still around. It's been archived, but it looked like it was going places at first.

 

[Amag0k1]

Old School sites in general, especially walkthrough sites likes these.
https://wolfgangarchive.com/
https://www.evilresource.com/

I loved the days of the internet (90s / 2000s) where searching would lead you down a rabbit whole of awsome fan / walkthough sites, and other websites that people put together to inform and attract, for that sweet sweet ad revinue...

The internet used to be a librery which had some monetization attached, but now it is just an entertainment / monetization machine that makes people brain dead..and with AI, i only see slop in our future....

 

[DinoRexMax]

I guess my own answer would then be Neopets and the family that is AdventureQuest, Dragonfable and MechQuest - they all still exist, and honestly they're better than ever, but their importance in our lives is so greatly diminished.

That's why I chose my words carefully. I said these kinds of sites were an "endangered species", implying I'm aware they are not gone, yet (I even said they weren't extinct!). Good call on Adventure Quest, almost forgot about that one.

There's also stuff like Neal.fun that act as sort of post modern activity site, and has stuff like Inifnite Craft.

Homestar runner is also still up, since the Brothers Chap were smart like Tom Fulp and converted the site off of Flash and old HTML after all the support got dropped.

 

[Zerohour2k12]

I dunno, those official sites for games wherein you type in some code and get some sort of content or unlockable.

 

[MisterHiggins]

Forums. I know they still exist, but so many people started using Facebook then Discord instead of traditional forum sites…

Discord is good for what it’s good for (live chat and small community functions), but as a forum replacement with an active community and it becomes a unsearchable hellscape that is difficult to navigate thru all the cross threaded conversations.