hello hello!
how are we all? 🐄
WELCOME to the first edition of the super awesome cowsites newsletter. how cool is that? it’s been a long time in the making but finally the day has come - yippee! so let’s get right to it, eh?
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first, a tiny bit of housekeeping. this is a monthly newsletter, and we are SO open to your ideas. do you have a particular subject about the old web you wanna see us talk about? found a sick neocities site? wanna yap about custom cursors? hit us up via email at hello@cowsites.com or pop us a message on instagram @cowsites. we wanna hear it!!
but, who are we, anyway? we’re two people at present; i think introductions are in order! (◍•ᴗ•◍)/
here’s some lovely words from cowsites’ developer, maor, to start us off:
“Hii I’m Maor :] I’m 27 and I’m a programmer by trade, in the process of forming a cooperative of freelance developers so please wish me luck!!
I made cowsites for my technophobic artist friends because I love em and wanted to introduce them into my other subject of love which is computers. Anyway they did NOT use it at all but you guys do. Thanks =)
Cowsites exists because I need the indie web movement to grow, for the sake of my sanity. I want more people to have personal websites and engage in spaces that aren’t controlled by big tech, and this really is my humble attempt at making personal websites more accessible for some people it’ll click for.
Tysm for checking it out! And check out my site at https://maror.cowsite.net while you’re at it =^]”
(big thank you to maor, that was awesome)
and now i get to do my one!
hiya!! i’m row, i’m from SCOTLAND and juuust about to graduate from my masters degree in advertising. woo! i also have a degree in acting for some reason ಠಿ_ಠ
anyhoo, i run the social media pages for cowsites and write up this lovely lil newsletter every month =]
i originally hopped on cowsites because i am forever nostalgic for the late 90s/2000s internet and its simplicity - both in design and its lack of unspoken, arbitrary social rules. i am still there so i’ll let that speak for itself hehe. you can check out my site here!! <3
we’ll be the two you’re chatting to if you ever pop us an email or instagram message, so come say hi!! we’d love to hear about any site feedback, cool sites you’ve made, or literally anything else you wanna message us about <3
so, with hellos said, i think it’s a good time to start yapping about the old web. after all, i imagine that’s why you’re here :D
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ye olde web
the old web is also known as the personal, independent, or indie web, and i think that it’s SO important to be a part of it. in recent years, the corporate web (see: pretty much everything on the surface level of the internet) is scrubbing every last ounce of individuality from the internet. everything is an advert, or a way to harvest your personal data to sell it on for profit. you, the internet user, are a product. most major sites are owned by the same handful of mega corporations, selling collected data on what demographics you fit into, how you spend your time online and how best they can market to you. It’s draining. if you crave escape from it, and want some quick pointers in the right direction to do so, here’s a lovely ‘internet manifesto’ maor found detailing the harmful nature of modern social media and the importance of retaining the old web’s original aim – to make information accessible and free, and foster real connections with other internet surfers:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230417093525/https://sadgrl.online/cyberspace/internet-manifesto
but to expand on the corporate web’s vice-grip on the internet, their chokehold means that there’s ‘no space’ for personal websites on the modern web. they don’t hold any financial value, silly. they’re pointless - why on earth would you write about unique hobbies and interests, share new art and film, unapologetically be and express yourself. how very dare you.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
so, clearly, the answer is to keep (or start!) making these personal sites which the likes of meta cannot profit from. to be human is to be creative, and this has never been more important. generative ai is actively destroying the planet, and being trained on the hard work of real, dedicated artists. i promise you, it doesn’t matter if you’ve not picked up a pencil since you were in school; all creative output matters, and if that means building a website just for you, then let it be that. bonus points if it’s hosted on a site that tries to block ai (not to self-advertise but we do that!) ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
here’s another brilliant article on the importance of personal websites. it’s a super inspiring read! to quote the article: “if you take just one thing away from this article, i want it to be this: please build your own website. a little home on the independent web.”
https://localghost.dev/blog/this-page-is-under-construction/
i’ll say something rogue: i wasn’t always invested in the old web. maybe you haven’t always been either. for some folks reading this, the independent web might be something completely new to you, and that’s okay. the reason i say this is because i struggled to know where to start when i first started getting into it. maor has been an absolute star and compiled some really helpful tools for everyone to use, regardless of your experience with the old web, so here they are below :)
old web for not-so-dummies
https://susam.net/wander// is a tiny, open-source tool to explore the old web. From the site: ‘wander console lets you discover random personal websites from the wander community.’ there’s a ‘wander’ button that takes you to a random site as well :)
https://old-search.marginalia.nu/ is an open-source independent search engine which focuses on non-commercial content. it shows you sites you may not be aware of rather than the ‘main’ few. it also has a fun ‘explore’ page to find new sites: https://marginalia-search.com/explore
https://indieblog.page/ is another open-source tool which will take you to a random indie blog. super interesting and i had a ton of fun with this one – there really is a blog about anything.
hopefully those links inspire you to go out there and make something awesome, or just explore those corners of the web. if you make or find anything cool, please let us know – i can totally add it in the next edition ;)
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alright! so to round off, we have an awesome little interview with one of our cowsites users, @nari.arts over on Instagram :) lezzgo!!! thank you so much to nari for this, literally the coolest thing ever
can you tell me a little about your site? what do you use it for, and what’s your audience?
I host my art portfolio on Cowsites! It's there for anyone who wants to have a gander, but I do use a hidden page to link specialised portfolio pieces when applying to zine fests, comic cons, and submitting art/writing for publishing. This lets me highlight my most relevant work, and gives them the option of noseying at everything else. I've gotten into 3 fests/cons and picked up for publishing in zines twice so far this year using this method.
how did you find the process of setting up your site? if there’s anything you found easy to use/a cool feature, pls do lemme know!
It was crazy easy. I used to use WYSIWYG site editors in the 2000s, and this feels more like those than the paid WYSIWYG editors that popped up later (like Wordpress, Wix, etc.). I enjoyed playing with the design tab - it gives you a lot of control while also keeping it fairly simple. I do get overwhelmed with choice with some other editors.
I tried to do it with Neocoties but I am straight up Bad at coding, so this was a godsend.
if you could give one bit of advice about creating a personal/portfolio website, what would it be?
Start small, start simple. It's really easy to build upon what you have with Cowsites, so you can come back later. And since it's not a social, you don't need to bait an algorithm; it'll be waiting for you to revisit when you're ready.
do you remember what your first experience with the internet was like? were there any particular websites you spent a lot of time on when you were younger?
My dad supervised me going online for the first time in about 1997. He was excited to show it off, and pulled up a site about dinosaurs for me. I have a photo of me still using a milk bottle while using the computer! I'd ask him to help me find sites about Pokémon, and I found out about Missingno. from some lovingly coded GeoCities sites, and proceeded to wreck my game by abusing it.
I spent a lot of time on forums when I got free access; and reading personal sites full of joke pages, image macros, and jumpscare flash vids; then I got onto Myspace and LiveJournal.
is there anything you wish you could bring back about the old web (90s/2000s internet era)? can be literally anything you like :3
Flash!!! It was such an important part of internet heritage and used so widely. The death of Flash gutted so many incredible sites
there is an 'old web resurgence' happening where people are returning to indie-web style sites and social media. do you have any personal thoughts on this, or why people might be doing it?
Having experienced old web extensively first hand, it is slightly weird to watch and take part. I don't really have nostalgia goggles on for it; the internet used to be user unfriendly, slow, difficult to find other people you connected with, and there were a lot of horrible people posting wretched things.
But... I feel like the current web has returned to all those worst bits; there's just corporations desperate to sell our data lurking behind so many sites.
The increasingly sinister decisions by existing social media sites regarding user privacy and scraping for AI is turning people away from web 2.0 socials. The web 1.0 nostalgia comes from this wish for the internet we were promised; free sharing of information and connection with others that isn't watched and controlled by people who have never met us and don't care about us.
thank you SO MUCH to nari for this; you can check out their site at the link below:
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as much fun as we’re having, i do have to sign off, else this thing will take a year to read (・_・;)
what are your plans for your site this month? uploading more artwork? a complete website refurb? absolutely nothing because life’s too darn busy? pls let me know, i wanna hear!! <3
until next month! 🐄
the cowsites team <3
