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I was thinking the other day that I liked the web better when it was just people who were passionate or nerdy running a website. It wasn’t about ad revenue. Ma

I was thinking the other day that I liked the web better when it was just people who were passionate or nerdy running a website. It wasn’t about ad revenue. Maybe it’ll be better this way.

Nicholas_C 1y ago
Are those passionate/nerdy people still running niche websites? A search engine that prioritizes that kind of content would be great.
- dboreham 1y ago
  And it would make no money therefore it wouldn't exist.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- viraptor 1y ago
  Kagi is fine doing that. See also https://kagi.com/smallweb https://kagi.com/smallweb
- c54 1y ago
  I haven’t validated it myself but Kagi is trying to offer this kind of small web search https://blog.kagi.com/small-web https://blog.kagi.com/small-web
- user432678 1y ago
  There’s a search engine for exact such websites — https://wiby.me https://wiby.me
- samrus 1y ago
  its not sustainable. any search engine that gets popular enough will get SEOd by bad actors eventually. we can enjoy it while its good though
- ripe 1y ago
  I've been using Marginalia to avoid commercial sites. Open-source and unencumbered by ads: https://marginalia-search.com/ https://marginalia-search.com/
- Pxtl 1y ago
  No they're running YouTube channels and Substacks because of built-in monetization.
- owebmaster 1y ago
  No, they got rich adding ads, sold their websites and are now influencers
- whytaka 1y ago
  I've been building https://www.webring.gg https://www.webring.gg . It's a webring creation and management tool that lets members vote new websites (and website owners) to join the ring. I'm hoping that good webrings can hold the integrity of human networks on the web.
mschuster91 1y ago
Back Then (tm) you didn't have to fear getting hacked all the fucking time. Shodan didn't exist, Metasploit was in its infancy, you needed to know where to look to buy DDoS and even then, half the offerings were scams themselves. The biggest threat was people abusing your SMTP server. Today? Run just a plain Apache without a domain name, just a plain old IPv4 and listen on ports 80/443. In seconds you'll get hit by a barrage of exploit attempts, scanners, god knows what. And manage to get something successful, you'll get a few emails that say "pay us X dollars in BTC and we'll leave you alone", and if not you'll get booted off the net if you don't hide behind Cloudflare. Discovery is also not a thing any more. The old "rings" have long since passed, RSS feeds went down the drain with Google Reader (IMHO, that decision effectively killed off the blogosphere), and Google Search got completely poisoned with SEO. The Internet has become the Wild West. Law makers have begun to notice but unfortunately they're so utterly braindead that fierce opposition to their regulation attempts is the only choice possible, so nothing happens. Rinse and repeat.
- stirfish 1y ago
  I have a server in my pantry hosting some stuff, including an anonymous ftp server. I get a bot that uploads fake screensavers once in a while, and one time someone on 4chan made a million empty directories in it before I turned it off for 30 minutes and they got bored. I might be naive about getting hacked, but it's been up for 5 or 6 years now and nothing bad has happened. Edit: actually closer to 12 years total now, wtf I'm aging?
  - whynotminot 1y ago
    Yeah, this was roughly my experience too when I ran a little Pi server for fun. If you check the access logs you’ll see a bunch of automated low-effort bot attempts at directory traversal and the like. But nothing serious. Generally there has to be an ROI for someone to really want to go after you.
    - stirfish 1y ago
      I had a note on there that said something to the effect of: If you think you can hack this server, you probably can! Please don't. I've invited you into my home for tea; please don't break my dishes to show me why I should've kept them in a safe. That was my attempt from changing the roi from "wouldn't it be fun to trash this stranger's secret clubhouse" to "oh cool, that stranger is letting me just wander around this secret clubhouse"
Ferret7446 1y ago
That web still exists and is still just as easy (read: hard) to find. I'm sure you can find hundreds of such sites by recursively asking people here. The commercial web didn't make it harder to spin up your own server after all, quite the opposite.
1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago
https://172.93.49.252 https://172.93.49.252 https://172.93.49.252/settings https://172.93.49.252/settings https://172.93.49.252/submit/ https://172.93.49.252/submit/ This website has some forgotten www features that are becoming rare thanks to Big Tech, Big CDNs, and their followers: 1. It does not require SNI (SNI was added to TLS in 2003) 2. It publishes a stable IP address. See https://172.93.49.252/submit/ https://172.93.49.252/submit/ One can use an IP address _or_ a domain name (any domain name will work) to reach it 3. It is available via HTTP as well as HTTPS http://172.93.49.252 http://172.93.49.252 For old time's sake, try requesting via HTTPS and then HTTP and see if you notice a speed difference To get a starting list of potential web sites, freely available DNS zone files (public information) remain available Every major www search engine has used these files at some point https://czds.icann.org/ https://czds.icann.org/ People often refer to DNS as the internet's "phone book" If that is true, then DNS queries are "directory assistance" The actual phone book is the zone files Perhaps we need a wiby.me for DNS to select from all those NS and A records that go undiscovered djbdns has a program called "random-ip" random-ip|sed 1q Besides PTR queries, there is an adundance of freely accessible databases to fecth information about an IP address This can often lead to a discovering random website The type of website that is worthless to so-called "tech" companies and their online surveillance advertising "business model"
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago
  Note to self. Originally received +1
  - AlexeyBelov 1y ago
    Note to self, but accidentally posted in public?
  - 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago
    Likely reason: site became inaccessible
    - 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago

I was thinking the other day that I liked the web better when it was just people who were passionate or nerdy running a website. It wasn’t about ad revenue. Maybe it’ll be better this way.

Nicholas_C 1y ago

Are those passionate/nerdy people still running niche websites? A search engine that prioritizes that kind of content would be great.

dboreham 1y ago
And it would make no money therefore it wouldn't exist.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
viraptor 1y ago
Kagi is fine doing that. See also https://kagi.com/smallweb https://kagi.com/smallweb
c54 1y ago
I haven’t validated it myself but Kagi is trying to offer this kind of small web search https://blog.kagi.com/small-web https://blog.kagi.com/small-web
user432678 1y ago
There’s a search engine for exact such websites — https://wiby.me https://wiby.me
samrus 1y ago
its not sustainable. any search engine that gets popular enough will get SEOd by bad actors eventually. we can enjoy it while its good though
ripe 1y ago
I've been using Marginalia to avoid commercial sites. Open-source and unencumbered by ads: https://marginalia-search.com/ https://marginalia-search.com/
Pxtl 1y ago
No they're running YouTube channels and Substacks because of built-in monetization.
owebmaster 1y ago
No, they got rich adding ads, sold their websites and are now influencers
whytaka 1y ago
I've been building https://www.webring.gg https://www.webring.gg . It's a webring creation and management tool that lets members vote new websites (and website owners) to join the ring. I'm hoping that good webrings can hold the integrity of human networks on the web.

mschuster91 1y ago

Back Then (tm) you didn't have to fear getting hacked all the fucking time. Shodan didn't exist, Metasploit was in its infancy, you needed to know where to look to buy DDoS and even then, half the offerings were scams themselves. The biggest threat was people abusing your SMTP server. Today? Run just a plain Apache without a domain name, just a plain old IPv4 and listen on ports 80/443. In seconds you'll get hit by a barrage of exploit attempts, scanners, god knows what. And manage to get something successful, you'll get a few emails that say "pay us X dollars in BTC and we'll leave you alone", and if not you'll get booted off the net if you don't hide behind Cloudflare. Discovery is also not a thing any more. The old "rings" have long since passed, RSS feeds went down the drain with Google Reader (IMHO, that decision effectively killed off the blogosphere), and Google Search got completely poisoned with SEO. The Internet has become the Wild West. Law makers have begun to notice but unfortunately they're so utterly braindead that fierce opposition to their regulation attempts is the only choice possible, so nothing happens. Rinse and repeat.

stirfish 1y ago
I have a server in my pantry hosting some stuff, including an anonymous ftp server. I get a bot that uploads fake screensavers once in a while, and one time someone on 4chan made a million empty directories in it before I turned it off for 30 minutes and they got bored. I might be naive about getting hacked, but it's been up for 5 or 6 years now and nothing bad has happened. Edit: actually closer to 12 years total now, wtf I'm aging?
- whynotminot 1y ago
  Yeah, this was roughly my experience too when I ran a little Pi server for fun. If you check the access logs you’ll see a bunch of automated low-effort bot attempts at directory traversal and the like. But nothing serious. Generally there has to be an ROI for someone to really want to go after you.
  - stirfish 1y ago
    I had a note on there that said something to the effect of: If you think you can hack this server, you probably can! Please don't. I've invited you into my home for tea; please don't break my dishes to show me why I should've kept them in a safe. That was my attempt from changing the roi from "wouldn't it be fun to trash this stranger's secret clubhouse" to "oh cool, that stranger is letting me just wander around this secret clubhouse"

Ferret7446 1y ago

That web still exists and is still just as easy (read: hard) to find. I'm sure you can find hundreds of such sites by recursively asking people here. The commercial web didn't make it harder to spin up your own server after all, quite the opposite.

1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago

https://172.93.49.252 https://172.93.49.252 https://172.93.49.252/settings https://172.93.49.252/settings https://172.93.49.252/submit/ https://172.93.49.252/submit/ This website has some forgotten www features that are becoming rare thanks to Big Tech, Big CDNs, and their followers: 1. It does not require SNI (SNI was added to TLS in 2003) 2. It publishes a stable IP address. See https://172.93.49.252/submit/ https://172.93.49.252/submit/ One can use an IP address _or_ a domain name (any domain name will work) to reach it 3. It is available via HTTP as well as HTTPS http://172.93.49.252 http://172.93.49.252 For old time's sake, try requesting via HTTPS and then HTTP and see if you notice a speed difference To get a starting list of potential web sites, freely available DNS zone files (public information) remain available Every major www search engine has used these files at some point https://czds.icann.org/ https://czds.icann.org/ People often refer to DNS as the internet's "phone book" If that is true, then DNS queries are "directory assistance" The actual phone book is the zone files Perhaps we need a wiby.me for DNS to select from all those NS and A records that go undiscovered djbdns has a program called "random-ip" random-ip|sed 1q Besides PTR queries, there is an adundance of freely accessible databases to fecth information about an IP address This can often lead to a discovering random website The type of website that is worthless to so-called "tech" companies and their online surveillance advertising "business model"

1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago
Note to self. Originally received +1
- AlexeyBelov 1y ago
  Note to self, but accidentally posted in public?
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago
  Likely reason: site became inaccessible
  - 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y ago