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The web, circa 2001. It was easy enough to make a website that anyone could. There were services to build a page (Geocities, Angelfire), and if you wanted a bi

The web, circa 2001. It was easy enough to make a website that anyone could. There were services to build a page (Geocities, Angelfire), and if you wanted a bit more control you could host something on a shared server as simply as FTP'ing some HTML files to a remote directory. Expectations were low. People rarely criticised. That meant some truly whacky and creative things got built. Taking payments online was relatively hard work. That meant no one really expected to make much money online. Even ads were only just starting really, and most people didn't bother. People made fan sites for things they were passionate about, just to say they have a website. It was never a "side hustle", it was a just hobby. That was nice. It was also the era of Flash, which lead to some brilliant and creative sites. Languages like Perl and PHP were taking hold of server side generation so real SaaS business were starting to take shape as well. I miss it a little. I have no doubts that the web of today is better, especially given the fact it's the basis of my 25 year (so far) career, but there are definitely aspects of it that I'd bring back if I could. The web should be more fun.

AussieWog93 5y ago
>It was easy enough to make a website that anyone could. There were services to build a page (Geocities, Angelfire), and if you wanted a bit more control you could host something on a shared server as simply as FTP'ing some HTML files to a remote directory. Just for what it's worth, this web still exists! Free hosting sites are still around, as is (S)FTP and plain ol' HTML. Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a python script that generates + uploads webpages to help my wife with her work using nothing more than print() statements and an SFTP command.
- onion2k 5y ago
  Just for what it's worth, this web still exists! I wrote a python script that generates + uploads webpages... This is the problem in a nutshell. I'm aware that it still exists technically, but my own experience mean that as soon as I start I think "I'll be doing this more than once, I'll automate it!" and I dive in to a thorny bush of build scripts and dependencies and questions like "How will I notify myself if the script fails?" which takes a lot of the fun away. My expectations of what a website is, and how it should work, and my awareness of the pitfalls of the Old Ways means I can't really go back to how it was before. I don't want to. I miss the good bits, but I know there were lots of bad bits as well.
heurisko 5y ago
I much prefer the web now, than the web then. Mainly because now you can run your own VPS cheaply and install whatever exotic tech stack you want on it.
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  Though the VPS is the cloud, not the web. Your exotic tech stack would be the equivalent of a set of .HTMLs in notepad.

AussieWog93 5y ago

>It was easy enough to make a website that anyone could. There were services to build a page (Geocities, Angelfire), and if you wanted a bit more control you could host something on a shared server as simply as FTP'ing some HTML files to a remote directory. Just for what it's worth, this web still exists! Free hosting sites are still around, as is (S)FTP and plain ol' HTML. Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a python script that generates + uploads webpages to help my wife with her work using nothing more than print() statements and an SFTP command.

onion2k 5y ago
Just for what it's worth, this web still exists! I wrote a python script that generates + uploads webpages... This is the problem in a nutshell. I'm aware that it still exists technically, but my own experience mean that as soon as I start I think "I'll be doing this more than once, I'll automate it!" and I dive in to a thorny bush of build scripts and dependencies and questions like "How will I notify myself if the script fails?" which takes a lot of the fun away. My expectations of what a website is, and how it should work, and my awareness of the pitfalls of the Old Ways means I can't really go back to how it was before. I don't want to. I miss the good bits, but I know there were lots of bad bits as well.

heurisko 5y ago

I much prefer the web now, than the web then. Mainly because now you can run your own VPS cheaply and install whatever exotic tech stack you want on it.

ASalazarMX 5y ago
Though the VPS is the cloud, not the web. Your exotic tech stack would be the equivalent of a set of .HTMLs in notepad.