The internet used to be fun

The internet used to be fun The internet used to be* fun I’ve been meaning to write some kind of Important Thinkpiece™ on the glory days of the early internet, but every time I sit down to do it, I find another, better piece that someone else has already written. So for now, here’s a collection of articles that to some degree answer the question “Why have a personal website?” with “Because it’s fun, and the internet used to be fun.” If you’ve written something that feels like it belongs here—especially if your voice is one that’s frequently underrepresented—I’d be interested to read it! Holler at me via email (kwon at fastmail.com), Mastodon ( mastodon.social/@rjkwon ), Bluesky , or carrier pigeon. * (It still is, but it used to be, too) Updated 19 Jan 2026 Article Author Date published Date added ↓ Keep the Internet Weird Rachel White 2017-01-03 2026-01-25 Internet est mort. Voici comment le ressusciter. (The internet is dead. Here's how to resurrect it.) Arnaud Pessey 2025-11-06 2025-11-26 Guidelines for a smolweb -- 2025-11-06 2026-01-19 About the Outer Web Navicomputer Robert and Chris -- 2026-01-19 The Slow Web Jack Cheng 2012-06-01 2026-01-19 Manifesto: A call for individuals to take back rights and control of the web V.H. Belvadi -- 2026-01-19 A Vision For The Web Alan W. Smith 2025-04-10 2026-01-19 how to use the internet again: a curriculum Brooklyn Gibbs 2025-10-23 2026-01-19 A website to destroy all websites. Henry Desroches -- 2026-01-19 Unplatform: The definitive guide for escaping social media (and joining the indie web.) Damian Thomas 2025-01-19 2025-05-24 You should have a website Nora Reed 2024-12-03 2025-05-24 Our Online Homes Need Infastructure Jay Hoffmann 2025-03-25 2025-03-31 There is no ‘Nice’ Web. Yet Bri Griffin 2025-03-14 2025-03-26 Making the Web Fun Again Kyle Drake 2013-05-28 2025-03-22 In Praise of Links Coyote 2025-03-09 2025-05-24 How to make a website for your creative work Jason Huff 2019-01-10 2025-05-24 A love letter to my website Tobias van Schneider 2019-09-17 2025-05-24 Inside the dark forests of the internet Itay Dreyfus 2025-02-12 2025-05-24 Looking for humanness in the world wide social Itay Dreyfus 2025-01-15 2025-05-24 We Should Replace Facebook With Personal Websites Jason Koebler 2018-12-19 2025-05-24 Your Site Is a Home Naz Hamid 2025-02-17 2025-05-24 Bringing back the minimal web tarneo 2023-05-08 2025-05-24 the low tech manifesto synth-ruiner 2019-02-18 2025-05-24 This is Not My Side Hustle Matthew Graybosch 2023-07-19 2025-05-24 What Is To Be Done? A Manifesto To Return To Web 1.5 CJ the X 2024-03-01 2025-05-24 The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again Anil Dash 2023-12-30 2025-05-24 The Web Renaissance takes off Anil Dash 2024-01-03 2025-05-24 The Web We Lost Anil Dash 2012-12-13 2025-05-24 We Need To Rewild The Internet Maria Farrell Robin Berjon 2024-04-16 2025-05-24 The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet Yancey Strickler 2019-05-16 2025-05-24 Against the dark forest Erin Kissane 2024-11-22 2025-02-02 The Extended Internet Universe Venkatesh Rao 2019-05-24 2025-02-02 A Handmade Web J.R. Carpenter 2015-03-01 2025-02-02 Making space for a handmade web Chia Amisola 2025-01-09 2025-02-02 The Internet is (not) broken Paul Anthony Webb 2021-01-15 2025-02-02 The Calm Web: A Solution to Our Scary and Divisive Online World Karolina Szczur 2023-04-18 2025-02-02 Writing down what I know Rico Trebeljahr 2021-03-15 2025-02-02 Bix's story of his internet Bix Frankonis 2020-02-24 2025-02-02 Reweirding* the Web John Allsopp 2024-05-03 2025-02-02 Web of the People Erlend Sogge Heggen 2023-04-10 2025-02-02 The Revenge of the Home Page Kyle Chayka 2024-05-01 2025-02-02 Why you should have a website R Scott Jones 2024-05-05 2025-02-02 The Internet is a Series of Webs Aram Zucker-Scharff 2024-06-08 2025-02-02 Dead Internet Souls Vicki Boykis 2024-09-19 2025-02-02 Save the Web by Being Nice Andrew Stephens 2024-04-30 2024-05-27 We can have a different web Molly White 2024-05-01 2024-05-27 Is the internet dead? Are we? Chowder 3108 2024-01-02 2024-05-27 Manifesto for a Humane Web Michelle Barker 2024-04-06 2024-05-27 This Page is Designed to Last Jeff Huang 2019-12-19 2024-05-27 The life and times of a personal website Rebecca Mqamelo 2022-11-17 2024-05-27 The Internet Is Like a City (But Not in the Way You'd Think) Anton Cebalo 2024-05-01 2024-05-27 The Internet Isn’t Meant To Be So Small Kelsey McKinney 2023-05-01 2024-05-27 Internet manifesto sadgrl.online unknown 2024-05-27 404 Page Not Found Kate Wagner 2019-01-07 2024-05-27 The Impersonal Web Goodmode unknown 2024-05-27 Let The Internet Be Grimy Ernie Smith 2023-07-08 2024-05-27 What is the Web Revival? Lian unknown 2024-05-27 The "IndieWeb" feels like coming home Nathaniel Daught 2024-03-14 2024-04-29 You don't have to be a “content creator” to have a website. Ana Rodrigues 2024-03-14 2024-04-29 On content creation and personal web Juha-Matti Santala 2024-03-16 2024-04-29 Blogs are cool, actually Rina 2024-04-09 2024-04-29 The Analog Web Jay Hoffmann 2024-04-16 2024-04-29 Blogs Are Dead. Long Live Blogs! Gersande La Flèche 2023-03-26 2024-03-03 Surfing the Old Web Juan Villela 2023-01-11 2024-03-03 Why Personal Blogging Still Rules Mike Grindle 2023-04-12 2024-03-03 L'informatique, c'était mieux avant (Computing was better before) Richard Dern 2022-01-21 2024-03-03 shite: static sites from shell Aditya Athalye 2022-03-08 2024-03-03 Desktops.zip - Some thoughts on websites that look like desktops Simone Marzulli 2023-08-14 2024-03-03 Reviving Ye Olde Personal Home Page Dominik Rabiej 2019-06-30 2024-03-03 Digital Homes and Neighborhoods Jake Weber 2023-05-23 2024-03-03 Game of Content Deep H. Dave 2021-03-09 2024-03-03 The Internet Changed My Life Maxime Chevalier-Boisvert 2022-01-19 2024-03-03 Social Websites Matt Stein 2024-02-06 2024-03-03 The Web is Fantastic Robb Knight 2023-12-28 2024-03-03 Into the Personal Website-Verse Matthias Ott 2019-05-12 2024-03-03 Splitting the Web Ploum 2023-08-01 2024-03-03 Do You Remember the Internet Before Social Media? dear talula 2022-02-19 2024-03-03 Blog Bookmark Rot Skelly 2024-02-17 2024-03-03 Let Us Build a New Web Brad Enslen 2018-09-13 2024-03-03 Where have all the websites gone? Jason Velazquez 2024-01-08 2024-03-03 Ruminating on Walled Gardens Brandon 2024-02-16 2024-03-03 My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be? Laurel Schwulst 2018-05-21 2024-02-11 Rediscovering the Old Internet Vibe Noisy Deadlines 2023-09-07 2024-02-11 Click around, find out John Hoare 2024-01-21 2024-02-11 The Bullshit Web Nick Heer 2018-11-30 2024-02-11 The old internet Rebecca Toh 2020-01-16 2024-02-11 Computers: An Invocation for Soft Tech Katherine Yang 2023-09-01 2024-02-11 i really love the (hipster) internet Judah 2023-02-02 2024-02-11 Poor man's web Serge Zaitsev 2021-04-27 2024-02-11 The web is yours James G 2024-01-06 2024-02-11 Refuge in blogs and the IndieWeb Robert Kingett 2023-10-17 2024-02-11 I Love the Web fLaMEd 2021-04-06 2024-02-11 a personal manifesto Simone Silvestroni 2023-04-20 2024-01-04 Everyone Should Blog, And That Includes You Alexandra 2023-12-30 2024-01-04 My website as a home Nico Chilla 2023-11-13 2024-01-04 The Web Revival Melon 2023-11-10 2024-01-04 Make your own independent website Victoria Drake 2021-01-16 2024-01-04 Why the Indie Web movement is so important Dan Gillmor 2014-04-25 2024-01-04 It’s Time to Get Personal Laura Kalbag 2019-12-09 2024-01-04 Please for the love of Blarg, Start a Blog Jay Springett 2019-12-14 2024-01-04 Taking an Internet Walk Spencer Chang Kristoffer Tjalve unknown 2023-11-12 tiny internets Spencer Chang unknown 2023-11-12 You Should Have a Website Mark Murphy unknown 2023-11-12 Notes on the small web Felix Pleşoianu 2022-09-10 2023-10-24 The Quiet Web Brian Koberlein 2021-02-12 2023-10-24 Rediscovering the Old Internet Vibe noisydeadlines.net 2023-09-07 2023-10-24 Soft tech Helena Jaramillo unknown 2023-10-24 How to fix the internet Katie Notopoulos 2023-10-17 2023-10-19 Social Internet Is Dead. Get Over It. Om Malik 2023-10-15 2023-10-18 Build your own website! Devastatia del Gato 2023-07-09 2023-10-16 The Importance of Personal Websites Hayden White 2023-08-29 2023-10-16 why the web? Justin Hall unknown 2023-09-30 Exploring the Personal Web foreverliketh.is 2023-05-06 2023-09-30 Why you should have a blog (and write in it) Leticia Portella 2020-06-21 2023-09-30 My 20th anniversary of blogging! Tracy Durnell 2023-09-23 2023-09-30 About me (localghost) Sophie Koonin unknown 2023-09-12 At home on the internet Johnny Rodgers unknown 2023-09-12 How I experience web today Li Guangyi unknown 2023-09-12 About this website Zinzy Waleson Geene unknown 2023-09-12 How the Blog Broke the Web Amy Hoy unknown 2023-09-12 I miss the internet. Joan Westenberg 2023-07-07 2023-09-12 Every person on the planet should have their own website Amin Eftegarie 2023-07-06 2023-09-12 Eight years of blogging Paweł Grzybek 2023-03-11 2023-09-12 Blogging is alive and well Colin Devroe 2023-01-11 2023-09-12 The Year of the Personal Website Matthias Ott 2023-01-06 2023-09-12 Bring back personal blogging Monique Judge 2022-12-31 2023-09-12 Passionless Web Manuel Moreale 2022-08-16 2023-09-12 Building a Digital Homestead, Bit by Brick Tom Critchlow 2022-03-08 2023-09-12 Early Web Design Helped a Generation Express Themselves Online. How Do We Capture That Feeling Again? Nika Simovich Fisher 2022-03-08 2023-09-12 The Joys and Sorrows of Maintaining a Personal Website "Cheapskate" 2022-03-06 2023-09-12 On building a home on the web Daniël van der Winden 2022-02-25 2023-09-12 How Websites Die Wesley Aptekar-Cassels 2022-02-21 2023-09-12 “Tom had us all doing front-end web development”: a nostalgic (re)imagining of Myspace Kate M. Miltner Ysabel Gerrard 2021-10-07 2023-09-12 Why Personal Websites are Important Chuck Carroll 2021-03-25 2023-09-12 The Value of a Personal Site Marc 2021-03-15 2023-09-12 The small web is beautiful Ben Hoyt 2021-03-01 2023-09-12 envisioning my homepage as an online therapeutic space Winnie Lim 2020-11-22 2023-09-12 Hunting the Nearly-Invisible Personal Website "Cheapskate" 2020-08-27 2023-09-12 What is the Small Web? Aral Balkan 2020-08-07 2023-09-12 Rediscovering the Small Web Parimal Satyal 2020-05-25 2023-09-12 On attention management & owning your content Roel van der Ven 2017-06-04 2023-09-12 Stop Crowdsourcing Your Confidence Darius Foroux 2016-08-25 2023-09-12 Homesteading 2014 Frank Chimero 2013-12-21 2023-09-12 Death to Bullshit Brad Frost 2013-04-08 2023-09-12 A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden Maggie Appleton unknown 2023-09-12 E/N (Everything/Nothing) JR (Sawv) unknown 2023-09-12