4 ms·

The 88x31 GIF Collection

99 points by vladde 2y ago

Tepix 2y ago
Neat. However, with today's 4K screens, 88x31 is really tiny...
- filcuk 2y ago
  That's completely irrelevant?
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  I wouldn't be using native resolution on a 4K screen myself, everything gets too small then.
avian 2y ago
I was wondering where the odd 88x31 size came from. According to this [1] it's basically because at one point GeoCities used a GIF of this size and then everyone copied it. [1] https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/140100/why-has-8831-become-the-standard-ratio-for-micro-bars https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/140100/why-has-8831-b...
- jagermo 2y ago
  interesting, so basically a standard by simply everyone using it, like the #. Cool.
- rchaud 2y ago
  Keeping them at a uniform size probably helped them stack evenly when displayed in an HTML table. Back in the day, these GIFs served as site badges or favicons, which weren't created until 1999.
card_zero 2y ago
Seeing all these load immediately, and none of them stall, and then they all animate simultaneously and the browser doesn't crash ... feels really weird.
- ramon156 2y ago
  Funny, on the in-app browser of Harmonic it still goes on-by-one. Firefox on mobile also instantly loads. More nostalgia I suppose!
- jFriedensreich 2y ago
  The joke is on me because i still see them load in slowly about 10 at a time.
  - Cthulhu_ 2y ago
    It's still HTTP 1.1, it's got 5 or so requests at a time but many short iterative download bursts. Since the server seems to use nginx and already uses https, upgrading to HTTP 2 or 3 shouldn't be a big issue.
drbig 2y ago
The visual cacophony! The silent scream! A truly marvelous collection.
patates 2y ago
There are some which may be NSFW. Just FYI. I'll wait until I switch to my private computer to dive into it more :)
jFriedensreich 2y ago
One phrase caught my attention saying "No frames now!" in a few variations. Were frames a disputed feature at one time?
- rendx 2y ago
  Aren't they still, or rather, almost completely dead and gone?
  - hatsuseno 2y ago
    I wouldn't say dead and gone, tabular data is still a thing.
  - tiagod 2y ago
    Still used to embed YouTube videos in a page, for example.
    - pjc50 2y ago
      Iframes are not <frameset>. Frameset really is dead now you can have CSS fixed left and top headers.
- theshrike79 2y ago
  Frames were used because server side rendering of partial pages was sometimes a massive pain. There was no fancy React DOM that could refresh just the relevant bits. In these cases you just added a frame and you could click through content and the navigation would stay in place. ...but then, like always, people went overboard and pages started to have 42 frames within frames within frames and it made everything painful.
  - 2mlWQbCK 2y ago
    Even when reasonably sensibly used the result was a page where you could not bookmark sub-pages (important at the time, when everyone was still using bookmarks!). This forum thread from 25 years ago that came up near the top when I searched for frame hate was a fun window into a different time with many expressing just why and how much they hated frames: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/why-do-people-hate-html-frames.1045201/ https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/why-do-people-hate-htm... Happily surprised to see that the page linked towards the end of the thread, last modified in 1997, is still online: https://www.htmlhelp.org/design/frames/whatswrong.html https://www.htmlhelp.org/design/frames/whatswrong.html
p0w3n3d 2y ago
Looks like www.milliondollarhomepage.com
yapyap 2y ago
ah man, them loading in was satisfying!
Philpax 2y ago
If you enjoy this, you may also enjoy https://eightyeightthirty.one/ https://eightyeightthirty.one/, which is a network graph of every website with 88x31 links, updated weekly.
- BugsJustFindMe 2y ago
  Page crashes repeatedly for me in iOS Safari
  - lotrjohn 2y ago
    Username checks out…
myfonj 2y ago
For crisp and quadrupled device pixels there, F12 console and: with( document.documentElement.style ){ transformOrigin = '0 0'; imageRendering = 'pixelated'; scale = 1 / devicePixelRatio * 4; }
jwilk 2y ago
Previously: 2023: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34465455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34465455 (45 comments) 2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27500624 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27500624 (124 comments)
- matsemann 2y ago
  In the same vein, under construction geocities archive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=879255 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=879255 / http://www.textfiles.com/underconstruction/ http://www.textfiles.com/underconstruction/
jihadjihad 2y ago
Seeing all the Macromedia ones (“Made with Macromedia Dreamweaver”) right next to the Adobe ones is probably intentional, but still a little jarring even all these years later. I cut my teeth building sites with Dreamweaver back in the day and still am sore about Adobe letting it wither on the vine after the acquisition.
dialup_sounds 2y ago
You may also enjoy 80x15 badges: https://web.badges.world/ https://web.badges.world/
acheron 2y ago
What were the ones that were narrower that usually said things like “Apache” or “XHTML” or something technical? Ah here, 80x15 badges: https://web.badges.world https://web.badges.world I think those were popular a bit later than the 88x31 ones.
- biofox 2y ago
  What happened to these? They were on every website, then without me even noticing, they just disappeared.
  - markstos 2y ago
    The have a spiritual successor that you still see on software project pages: https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/blob/main/README.md https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/blob/main/README.md
talles 2y ago
I've picked my favorite: https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/nowebp.gif https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/nowebp.gif
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

99 points by vladde 2y ago

Tepix 2y ago

Neat. However, with today's 4K screens, 88x31 is really tiny...

filcuk 2y ago
That's completely irrelevant?
Cthulhu_ 2y ago
I wouldn't be using native resolution on a 4K screen myself, everything gets too small then.

avian 2y ago

I was wondering where the odd 88x31 size came from. According to this [1] it's basically because at one point GeoCities used a GIF of this size and then everyone copied it. [1] https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/140100/why-has-8831-become-the-standard-ratio-for-micro-bars https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/140100/why-has-8831-b...

jagermo 2y ago
interesting, so basically a standard by simply everyone using it, like the #. Cool.
rchaud 2y ago
Keeping them at a uniform size probably helped them stack evenly when displayed in an HTML table. Back in the day, these GIFs served as site badges or favicons, which weren't created until 1999.

card_zero 2y ago

Seeing all these load immediately, and none of them stall, and then they all animate simultaneously and the browser doesn't crash ... feels really weird.

ramon156 2y ago
Funny, on the in-app browser of Harmonic it still goes on-by-one. Firefox on mobile also instantly loads. More nostalgia I suppose!
jFriedensreich 2y ago
The joke is on me because i still see them load in slowly about 10 at a time.
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  It's still HTTP 1.1, it's got 5 or so requests at a time but many short iterative download bursts. Since the server seems to use nginx and already uses https, upgrading to HTTP 2 or 3 shouldn't be a big issue.

drbig 2y ago

The visual cacophony! The silent scream! A truly marvelous collection.

patates 2y ago

There are some which may be NSFW. Just FYI. I'll wait until I switch to my private computer to dive into it more :)

jFriedensreich 2y ago

One phrase caught my attention saying "No frames now!" in a few variations. Were frames a disputed feature at one time?

rendx 2y ago
Aren't they still, or rather, almost completely dead and gone?
- hatsuseno 2y ago
  I wouldn't say dead and gone, tabular data is still a thing.
- tiagod 2y ago
  Still used to embed YouTube videos in a page, for example.
  - pjc50 2y ago
    Iframes are not <frameset>. Frameset really is dead now you can have CSS fixed left and top headers.
theshrike79 2y ago
Frames were used because server side rendering of partial pages was sometimes a massive pain. There was no fancy React DOM that could refresh just the relevant bits. In these cases you just added a frame and you could click through content and the navigation would stay in place. ...but then, like always, people went overboard and pages started to have 42 frames within frames within frames and it made everything painful.
- 2mlWQbCK 2y ago
  Even when reasonably sensibly used the result was a page where you could not bookmark sub-pages (important at the time, when everyone was still using bookmarks!). This forum thread from 25 years ago that came up near the top when I searched for frame hate was a fun window into a different time with many expressing just why and how much they hated frames: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/why-do-people-hate-html-frames.1045201/ https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/why-do-people-hate-htm... Happily surprised to see that the page linked towards the end of the thread, last modified in 1997, is still online: https://www.htmlhelp.org/design/frames/whatswrong.html https://www.htmlhelp.org/design/frames/whatswrong.html

p0w3n3d 2y ago

Looks like www.milliondollarhomepage.com

yapyap 2y ago

ah man, them loading in was satisfying!

Philpax 2y ago

If you enjoy this, you may also enjoy https://eightyeightthirty.one/ https://eightyeightthirty.one/, which is a network graph of every website with 88x31 links, updated weekly.

BugsJustFindMe 2y ago
Page crashes repeatedly for me in iOS Safari
- lotrjohn 2y ago
  Username checks out…

myfonj 2y ago

For crisp and quadrupled device pixels there, F12 console and: with( document.documentElement.style ){ transformOrigin = '0 0'; imageRendering = 'pixelated'; scale = 1 / devicePixelRatio * 4; }

jwilk 2y ago

Previously: 2023: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34465455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34465455 (45 comments) 2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27500624 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27500624 (124 comments)

matsemann 2y ago
In the same vein, under construction geocities archive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=879255 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=879255 / http://www.textfiles.com/underconstruction/ http://www.textfiles.com/underconstruction/

jihadjihad 2y ago

Seeing all the Macromedia ones (“Made with Macromedia Dreamweaver”) right next to the Adobe ones is probably intentional, but still a little jarring even all these years later. I cut my teeth building sites with Dreamweaver back in the day and still am sore about Adobe letting it wither on the vine after the acquisition.

dialup_sounds 2y ago

You may also enjoy 80x15 badges: https://web.badges.world/ https://web.badges.world/

acheron 2y ago

What were the ones that were narrower that usually said things like “Apache” or “XHTML” or something technical? Ah here, 80x15 badges: https://web.badges.world https://web.badges.world I think those were popular a bit later than the 88x31 ones.

biofox 2y ago
What happened to these? They were on every website, then without me even noticing, they just disappeared.
- markstos 2y ago
  The have a spiritual successor that you still see on software project pages: https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/blob/main/README.md https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/blob/main/README.md

talles 2y ago

I've picked my favorite: https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/nowebp.gif https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/nowebp.gif

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]