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Some of it was the death of Flash (though with Ruffle now there may be hope) but the web now just feels much less diverse. Or possibly I just miss being a teen

Some of it was the death of Flash (though with Ruffle now there may be hope) but the web now just feels much less diverse. Or possibly I just miss being a teenager. Or some combination

tombert 6mo ago
I really feel like there are fewer websites now. When I was eighteen, I went to Something Awful, Newgrounds, ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, GameTrailers, Cinemassacre, YouTube, and SpoonyExperiment daily. Nowadays it's basically just YouTube for all that stuff (though I haven't watched Spoony for quite awhile). Newgrounds is still around, I probably should make more of an effort to go there, and I do have stairs in my house, but I definitely don't go on as many different sites as I used to. I certainly miss the days when everyone had their own web page.
- chadgpt2 6mo ago
  Do you have your own web page? Not just you, the parent commenter, but also you, the random HN reader. If not, why not? It's fine if it's a bit sparse. Most people don't have a whole lot to publish on the internet.
  - tombert 6mo ago
    I actually do! tombert.com. Though it's more of a blog than anything else. I might add some GeoCities web 1.0 junk to it at some point.
- bombcar 6mo ago
  Let's go back to a website! https://homestarrunner.com/toons/backtoawebsite https://homestarrunner.com/toons/backtoawebsite
  - spacebacon 6mo ago
    When I hear anything flash, home star runner comes to mind.
    - alex1138 6mo ago
      That sbemail, Virus, literally had virus-affected-Homestar removing links on the page. Something you just can't do in a Youtube video Edit: and real popup windows
      - spacebacon 5mo ago
        Yes… What have we done to entertainment?
dag11 6mo ago
I feel the same thing. I think part of it also is that, games with the same scope of flash games are still being made, but they're being made for phones which is where the customers. Flash games were the perfect mobile game before mobile games existed. But the magic was that flash games were created on the same machines they were made on, so curious players (often kids!) had a natural funnel in to dabbling with the creation side, so whole communities of creatives formed naturally. I don't know how we can solve this disconnect between creation and consumption :( Sure there's many apps that let you build content from phones (swift playgrounds, other game-making apps, and now a whole gold rush of agentic prompting app-building apps...) but a phone is inherently non-immersive so I don't know how a creator can ever get into a flow state of building content on a phone itself. But also we possibly just miss being teens on computers.

Some of it was the death of Flash (though with Ruffle now there may be hope) but the web now just feels much less diverse. Or possibly I just miss being a teenager. Or some combination

tombert 6mo ago

I really feel like there are fewer websites now. When I was eighteen, I went to Something Awful, Newgrounds, ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, GameTrailers, Cinemassacre, YouTube, and SpoonyExperiment daily. Nowadays it's basically just YouTube for all that stuff (though I haven't watched Spoony for quite awhile). Newgrounds is still around, I probably should make more of an effort to go there, and I do have stairs in my house, but I definitely don't go on as many different sites as I used to. I certainly miss the days when everyone had their own web page.

chadgpt2 6mo ago
Do you have your own web page? Not just you, the parent commenter, but also you, the random HN reader. If not, why not? It's fine if it's a bit sparse. Most people don't have a whole lot to publish on the internet.
- tombert 6mo ago
  I actually do! tombert.com. Though it's more of a blog than anything else. I might add some GeoCities web 1.0 junk to it at some point.
bombcar 6mo ago
Let's go back to a website! https://homestarrunner.com/toons/backtoawebsite https://homestarrunner.com/toons/backtoawebsite
- spacebacon 6mo ago
  When I hear anything flash, home star runner comes to mind.
  - alex1138 6mo ago
    That sbemail, Virus, literally had virus-affected-Homestar removing links on the page. Something you just can't do in a Youtube video Edit: and real popup windows
    - spacebacon 5mo ago
      Yes… What have we done to entertainment?

dag11 6mo ago

I feel the same thing. I think part of it also is that, games with the same scope of flash games are still being made, but they're being made for phones which is where the customers. Flash games were the perfect mobile game before mobile games existed. But the magic was that flash games were created on the same machines they were made on, so curious players (often kids!) had a natural funnel in to dabbling with the creation side, so whole communities of creatives formed naturally. I don't know how we can solve this disconnect between creation and consumption :( Sure there's many apps that let you build content from phones (swift playgrounds, other game-making apps, and now a whole gold rush of agentic prompting app-building apps...) but a phone is inherently non-immersive so I don't know how a creator can ever get into a flow state of building content on a phone itself. But also we possibly just miss being teens on computers.