hello lovelies, happy august :3 

 

hope everyone is having a great summer and exploring some awesome old web resources and sites. this month we’ve yapped about blinkies, gifs and old flash games on our social media platforms, and the video game talk is gonna continue in this edition of the newsletter =] 

 

first though - we have a long-awaited cowsite feature to go on about. i won’t keep you long, so let’s get started! 

 

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we’ve come to make an announcement. 

 

 

a cowsites announcement, in fact. a cowsites announcement so awesome that cows everywhere are sensing the positive disruption in the force (and being encouraged to update their cowsites). 

 

and we begin with a thank you - to everyone who asked for a way to be able to view other cowsites and see what other people have been making. because now, it’s here. 

 

★ welcome to the cowshed, baby! ★

 

the cowshed is a page on cowsites where you can see other cowsites - the ones there already are folks who let us know they wanted to be a part of the grand opening of the cowshed, so a massive THANK YOU to those lovely people! peep it below =]

 

 

to check it out, head to https://cowsites.net/cowshed/

 

AND, there’s a nifty little button at the top that lets you add your own site to the ‘shed - if you want people to see your beautiful work, go ahead and get yourself on there! if you have multiple sites, select which one(s) you’d like to add, and there’s a little dropdown menu with the tags you can filter by at the top of the cowshed - this makes it easier for other cowshed users to find exactly what kind of sites they’re interested in =] 

 

 

if you have any questions or feedback about the cowshed, feel free to pop us a message!

 

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and now, onto gaming

 

the news this summer has been cursed for the video game industry, and catastrophic for media preservation. 

 

those of you who are less into video games may be thinking, cowsites, i don’t gaf, why are we talking about this? 

 

we’re talking about this because the old web relies on preservation – when we aren’t able to access the web from 20 or 30 years ago, we begin to lose the essence of what it stood for - freedom to express the self, and the newfound magic of the internet superhighway. it was new, and those times reflect that. similarly, when we lose access to video games, we lose important parts of technology history and childhood memories which are easily preserved, if not for corporate greed. 

 

1. sony have announced that all ps5 games published after 2028 will not be receiving physical discs

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/

 

this lowkey feels like old news by now, but hey - i wanna talk about it anyway because what the hell. we’ve made a little statement about this on our socials already, so bear with us - here’s a tiny recap of why this is terrible and horrible, for those who missed it: 

purchasing a digital game does not grant you ownership of the game – it grants you a license to download and play it. this license can be revoked by the publisher at any time, meaning you’re left without a game, without a refund. should this happen, the game itself will be unobtainable in its original form – which when we’re all nostalgic for this era in 20 years’ time, will be a nightmare. 

on top of that, the secondhand game market is fucked, as are brick and mortar game stores. you can no longer lend your sibling the disc for the game you both got for the holiday season, and you can’t sell the disc later to make a few quid back. most of my game collection has come from second hand stores, my favourite of which closed over a decade ago due to financial pressure. things are NOT any better now. sad times. 

and if nothing else, the experience of opening a game box will just be… gone. some of my most fond gaming memories started with the opening of the box – reading the manual, looking for easter eggs, references and little jokes in the included pamphlet, and reading all of the information on the back of the box. special editions would come with little goodies, extra codes, or the box itself came in a cardboard sleeve (or a steelbook, if you’re feeling fancy). this experience simply won’t exist. you don’t get to admire the disc art anymore, or hold the damn thing in your hands. sigh.

 

2. destiny 2 received its final content update in june

https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/article/d2_may_21_2026

 

this one is near and dear to me personally, so i’ll keep it short - the game wasn't everyone's cup of tea, with its heavy seasonal content schedule. a lot of people criticised how it preyed on the fear of missing out to incite players to buy each new content pack. but they've fixed this problem in june - by shutting the development down.

but with little warning, destiny 2 was given its last content update at the start of june, axing 50% of their development staff. on the day of the update, 800,000 active players were logged at once, and 2 million unique log-ins were detected throughout the whole day. the community really came together for this one and it’s beautiful, but poses a question for how live service games fit into the video game preservation scene. 

they’re almost impossible to bring back once they’re gone. even if the code can be ripped, the playerbase will never be the same as when it was live and officially supported; the casual fans will be lost, and only those who were more heavily invested will care enough to go through the bother of emulating the experience and finding private servers. luckily, destiny 2 will remain playable, but there is no guarantee for how long. so guardians, make the most of it. 

but what happens when they do get shut down for good? well, we’ll find out soon as… 

 

3. mario kart tour is being shut down in september

https://faq.mariokarttour.com/hc/en-us/articles/55861637745305-Mario-Kart-Tour-End-of-Service-Notification

 

we’re about to see a large-scale live service game shut down. granted, it’s a mobile game, but due to mobile gaming’s naturally predatory monetisation tactics, it acts as an even bigger example of what exactly we lose when a live service game is discontinued. 

yes, we lose access to the game itself. as a live service model, the game cannot simply be downloaded and rehosted, as it replies on multiplayer servers. that, and it’s nintendo we’re talking about - they’d crack down on that INSTANTLY. but when those live services games go, we lose access to all progress, unlocks, paid-for cosmetics and additional content from the years it was active. it simply ceases to exist.  

mario kart tour may not have been nintendo’s biggest success, but it was revolutionary for the franchise; it unlocked the game for those who cannot own a nintendo console, or afford a mainline mario kart game. releasing right before the covid pandemic, it carried school friendship groups through a rough time where routine was turned on its head, and kids were able to play together while socially distanced between lessons. many look back on it fondly, even if it isn’t the best entry in the series. rest easy, mario kart tour. 

 

okay, enough of the slightly grim news. 

 

obviously, there has been some awesome public backlash in response to all of this news, and in a way, it’s actually strengthened the gaming community; people have come together in a way we’ve not seen for a while, to speak up and let these companies know the harm they’re doing to the video gaming industry (mostly aimed at sony). a lot of people are being encouraged to collect physical media, or revisit their older consoles in order to avoid live server-based gaming. some have reported prices of playstation 1 and 2 era discs increasing in line with consumer demand - that bit kind of sucks, actually, but it's nice to know people are trying to buy them!

 

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welcome back if you hate video games and read absolutely none of that - no judgement!

 

here are some neat old web-core resources, as usual =] 

 

https://flashpointarchive.org is “the world's largest effort to preserve web-based games, animations, and interactive experiences.” this includes the flash and shockwave games a lot of us grew up on. they do an awful lot of hard work, and allow us to revisit browser games, a lot of which have been unplayable in-browser since 2020. if you’re unfamiliar with them, definitely give them a look! 

 

and here’s an awesome article on the internet achieve on why the preservation of flash projects is so important: https://blog.archive.org/2025/08/06/vanishing-culture-why-preserve-flash/ 

(they have a whole series on’ vanishing culture’, which is linked in the article - well worth exploring!)

 

who remembers 2000s gaming magazines? the kind with slightly too raunchy jokes, weird fake cheat codes and the craziest rumours and gaming ‘leaks’ that often turned out to be completely false. here’s an archive of exactly those:

https://www.retromags.com/ 

retromags is volunteer run and a preservation effort for an era of gaming magazines that’s behind us. even if a full copy has not been preserved, often the cover art is still available to view, which is super neat. plus, if you have a stack of old gaming mags somewhere – check it out. you might be able to contribute to the effort! 

 

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as always, thanks for reading, it’s a pleasure to have you =] 

 

if you have any topics you would like to see discussed, or would like to discuss them with us in a short, interview-style layout, please get in touch! we’re super open – you can reach out via instagram (@cowsites) or email (hello@cowsites.net) to let us know your thoughts <3 

 

and in case you missed it – we have a ko-fi that we opened last month! if you appreciate the work we do and wanna buy us a coffee, you can pop us a couple of dollars/pounds/pebbles etc over at https://ko-fi.com/cowsites =] <3 

 

And LAST THING i promise – we recently claimed our trustpilot account. if you love cowsites (or hate it, honesty is important) please let us know your thoughts over there! it helps us bring new folks in who need super cool, ai-free personal websites =] and if you’ve already left a review, THANK YOU! we love you <3 

 

take care of yourselves, and keep in touch!! 

 

all the best =] 

the cowsites team <3 

 

 

hello! 

welcome back, or welcome, to the cowsites newsletter B] 

this issue, we’ve got some awesome chatter about the ‘web 1.0’ and ‘web 2.0’, and how they work as a platform for artists to exist online. we also have an awesome interview with artist ian king, and i PROMISE you, it’s a good one!

 

but first, very quickly...

two tiny updates for you!

 

we now have a newsletter archive!

catch up on any missed publications here: newsletter.cowsite.net

 

we also have a kofi link <3 

if you appreciate the work we do, please feel free to donate at our ko-fi. there's zero pressure, but it's there if you'd like to <3

 

thank you! anyway, on with the show~

keeping space on the internet for artists is a super important discussion whether you’re an artist yourself or not, so buckle in and let’s get yapping! <3 

 

 

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web what now?

 

in case you’re unfamiliar with the terms, ‘web 1.0’ and ‘web 2.0’ are two distinct ‘eras’ of the internet which reflect a major shift in how we interact with the world wide web. notably, when people talk about the ‘old web’, we could be talking about either - it’s less of a distinct time period and more of a classification of a site in relation to its features and infrastructure. we actually asked our followers what the old web meant to them, and the majority said it was vibe based, which honestly, yeah – we agree with. 

 

web 1.0 was the internet we saw in the early days of consumer-end web surfing, mostly pre-2004. its websites were static, read-only and their main purpose was to feed the reader information. there was no real user interaction aside from clicking on navigation buttons to take you to another page. it was simple, sometimes a bit user-unfriendly, but it had its charm and definitely had its place. a huge amount of people have a lot of nostalgia for this era of the internet - maybe you’re one of ‘em! 

 

here’s an easy to digest breakdown of why so little still survives of the web 1.0, and it links to an accessible way to find awesome web 1.0 sites that are either still somehow standing, or built with web 1.0 ideology. it’s super cool!! https://setsideb.com/early-web-links/

 

additionally, here’s an excellent example of a site i’d call web 1.0: http://www.hiking.com.hk

 

it has that slightly hellish graphic design and it’s gif-city up in there, but it’s charming in that classic web kind of way. it doesn’t make any effort to appeal to the masses. interestingly, the english version of the website (there’s a little button at the top!) has a completely different aesthetic that still feels VERY 2000s. thanks to u/miklcct on reddit for linking to this site in this thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/caezeo/web_10_era_websites_which_are_still_maintained/).

 

anyway - the web 2.0 was the next stage of the internet. some refer to it as the ‘social web’, or simply the modern internet. the sites were no longer simply read-only, instead encouraging interaction and user uploaded content. generally seen post-2004, this is where forums, blogs and basic image-sharing websites truly had their moment. it paved the way for modern social media platforms, allowed users to create their own personal websites (hi!) and (for better or worse) cleared the path for interactive advertising to start popping up all over the internet. the web 2.0 is the web as we know it today - it has its pros and cons, but for the most part, it functions well for everybody. 

 

this is where the modern artist exists online, in a space where they can upload their own work freely and have others interact with it. one major feature of the web 2.0 is content algorithms, where platforms push content to those it thinks will appreciate it - or, in an awful lot of cases, showing it to 2 friends and then never pushing it again. social media can quickly start to feel like a vacuum for artists when their content is not being seen or interacted with. 

 

(this is partially why cowsites is built for artists and creatives. there’s no algorithm to make you feel a bit shit if you post something and it doesn’t get as much exposure as you’d hoped (we have literally all been there!!!). cowsites is almost like a hybrid of web 1.0 and 2.0 concepts, allowing you to upload anything you want, but your site is a space for viewers to read and look, rather than measurably interact with. anyway, self advertisement over.)

 

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so why does web 2.0 matter for artists?

 

there’s a real big conversation to be had about space for artists on the internet, but i’ll try and keep it short. it’s easy to list off the reasons why the ‘web 2.0’ has paved the way to success for millions of artists who would otherwise feel unseen: the ease of image sharing, the niche communities we become a part of, the potential to go viral... the internet is a space for everybody to exist, regardless of who you are and what you do, and it’s more accessible than it ever has been. it’s genuinely never been easier to find likeminded people and interact with art which means something to you. 

 

while the web 2.0 has been an overall positive for artists, it does come with a couple of pitfalls. as a starter, many artists find themselves stuck trying to force virality, churning out high and low effort content, bending to certain trends despite the fact they may not really be interested in them. there’s no way to predict virality either - it’s fully possible artists put in huge effort like this for no ‘reward’, and it’s incredibly easy to feel disheartened when a piece of art you’ve poured your soul into only receives 4 likes on instagram. with millions upon millions of artists sharing the same digital real estate, it can sometimes feel like a fight for attention, and many feel like they’re failing. social media has created an incredibly tough-to-break mindset whereby value is conflated with likes, and this is personally one of the things i disliked most about sharing art online in the 2010s. 

 

artists vs generative ai

 

as if this fight for attention was not difficult enough, we are seeing a sharp rise in the presence of ai generated artwork in online spaces. this is an incredibly sore point for many artists, especially as ai image generation becomes more advanced. while opinions on the images themselves vary wildly, it’s impossible to dispute the the most frustrating part of the whole thing: artists’ work uploaded online can be ‘seen’ by ai bots, and is submitted to a pool of millions of unconsenting artists’ work for ai models to pull from to generate its own images based on existing work - put plainly, it’s plagiarism. 

 

this is perhaps the most prevalent complaint that artists have about the modern web. it stings to pour effort into a painting or digital illustration only to have ai output a zero-effort copy. it also stings to not be recognised online for your work - but how do we combat this? 

 

in terms of ai, there are ‘filters’ you can place over your work that make it more difficult for ai models to ‘see’ your work, making it more difficult for it to reproduce it. you can also try to find sites that block these bots from trawling the page to see its content (every cowsite has this feature!).

 

it’s never been more important to keep commissioning artists when you have the funds to, and i promise you, something you whip up on your sketchbook or canva in 5 minutes will mean more to customers and followers than an ai generated poster will. has anyone read kazuo ishisguro’s ‘never let me go’? spoilers if you haven’t, but it’s about a boarding school for children who are later revealed to be clones raised for organ donation. one chapter mentions that they have the children create lots of art to show that they have souls - and i genuinely cannot stress enough the importance of this message in the big year 2026. keep creating. keep funding the arts. keep our artists alive and well <3 

 

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whew, thanks for reading - i know that was a long one, but that’s enough yapping from me for now. it’s interview time B]

 

you know the deal! this month we’ve got a phenomenal interview with artist ian king - i genuinely loved this interview so much so let’s get right into it =] 

 

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hi! can you tell us a little about yourself? =]

 

"My name is Ian King and I am a transgender multidisciplinary artist and mutual aid organizer based in Hudson County, NJ. Previously, I built my portfolio on Squarespace, but it never felt like it reflected me or my art: too polished, too corporate, and eventually, too many AI tools. My Cowsite showcases the entire breadth of my work–painting, collage, pen and ink, digital illustration, graphic design, zinemaking, writing and poetry–and allows viewers to expand images easier than any Squarespace gallery I've used. My homepage features any pertinent news flashes I want to highlight, which feels much more organic than competing in the Instagram attention economy or forcing myself to write a Substack post. The following I have on IG is pretty sizeable (and ranges from professional arts practitioners to random gay people), and it is my goal to divert more of that traffic to this webpage as a reminder of what online connection used to be."

 

amazing!! speaking of portfolios, if you could give one piece of advice to someone creating their first personal/portfolio site, what would it be?

 

"Updating my previous site always felt like such a chore. If you were a Tumblr kid in middle school like I was, or from the MySpace generation before us, tap into that inner preteen and have the liberty to make it yours! Uniqueness over "professionalism." My site has pixel .gifs and a media shelf where I share what is inspiring me! Who cares if that's "different?""

 

in a brief convo we had, you mentioned that capitalism is an issue in the art industry, and that generative ai is contributing to this issue. could you briefly explain a little more about this? 

 

"When I first graduated with my BFA degree in 2022, I dove head-first into the gallery world because I was interested in the creative freedom I believed it would bring me. It was fun for about a minute. As it turns out though, the competitive, hyper-capitalist, humiliating culture of this industry would eventually kill my spirit. Arts organizations are insidiously connected to each other, or corporate mega-donors, or genocide-enabling government institutions behind the scenes. You can apply for a grant, but where does that money really come from? Can you really express everything, or do you have to self-censor your art–art, one of the greatest tools of protest!–to make it palatable to a wider audience? There is pressure to promote on the mainstream Internet for anything to even matter, and as a result, your data and handiwork gets scanned and used to train Gen AI models across platforms. I got tired of feeding a machine and aspiring to be the type of artist I was not and did not want to be."

 

and further, could you explain more about how this affects artists and what you do personally to combat it? can other people get involved?

 

"As one of the lucky few who has a steady full-time job in my field, I am holding onto it for dear life because the market looks so dire. On scales both grand (corporate design roles disappearing) and small (the dispensary is full of fake art now instead of Rick and Morty murals), AI has eliminated plenty of opportunities for working creatives. I have an open commission policy for any community groups, organizers, small businesses, etc. who need artwork for something they are promoting: you can pay me whatever you can–or, what you think feels fair–for my work. People tend to carry this false assumption that consistent branding must cost a fortune to maintain, but I want to combat that notion and make beautiful stuff accessible to all. If you are an illustrator or designer with a stable income like I am, I implore you to adopt a similar model!"

 

similarly, what do you think is the most impactful thing a non-artist can do to support human creators right now? 

 

"As I elaborated above, please commission us! Personally, I would rather get haggled lower by a struggling cafe owner than have them generate a menu themself that says shit like "Crœssatn." Also, support your creative friends in ways beyond liking and resharing. You can break yourself out of that cycle too! Recruit other folks and generate foot traffic at their shows. Buy their crafts at fairs. Share their business card with people you meet. Anything you can think of to affirm that their work is a living, tangible thing."

 

the majority of indie web sites do not measure ‘success’ visually via likes or reposts. have you found that this lack of the modern algorithm makes any difference to how you view your own or others’ creative output?

 

"Yes, 1000%. Through my personal artistic journey, I have reached the resolution that yes, truly, I can make whatever I want, but I do not have to prove myself to others for validation. Honestly? I have no interest in showing work in a gallery setting any time soon, or measuring my success based on how many exhibitions I get accepted to. I would rather explore the mediums that are most interesting to me in a given moment, make what I can even if it's imperfect, and share it with more grassroots spaces that I know will support me unconditionally. And those spaces are where the real cool stuff is happening. Open your eyes to it and you will find a whole new world of art and ideas."

 

thank you SO SO SO much for the interview - what a genuinely awesome, inspiring read. is there anything you’d like to share to round off? 

 

"I'm going to use this space to share two examples of music and old web aesthetic intertwining in ways that influenced me in the past year. Firstly, I want to uplift Jersey City's local freeform radio station, WFMU–the oldest station of its kind in the US and entirely funded by listener donations, NOT advertising or underwriting! Seriously, it's commercial-free and the DJs are allowed to say or play whatever they want as long as they don't break FCC guidelines. They have live Internet streaming, an online archive dating back to 2000 (Y2K, the year I was born), customizable playlist pages for each show, a way to mark your favorite tracks with a "clicky-star," and a lively chatroom widget. I've made online friends near and far and broadened my music taste greater than algorithmic streaming ever could. Also, my current favorite musician Todd Rundgren has the most stupidly basic HTML webpage ever and it taught me that you can still sell out medium-size venues and be an icon to your fans even if your site looks like shit and is weird to navigate."

 

~~~~

 

a massive thank you again to ian - this was such a genuinely inspiring and interesting read and i appreciate the time you took to share your perspective =]

 

you can view ian's site at ianeking.cowsite.net. it's a wonderful example of using a cowsite as both a portfolio and personal site!

 

 

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this has been a rather long issue, so i’ll drop one indie website search tool and let you get on with your day =] 

 

blogroll.org in their own words, are a ’humanly curated list of 1254 fine personal & independent blogs and sites that are updated regularly. no algorithms ever!’ 

 

i love having a wee wander through what this site has to offer, and is wonderful for finding sites dedicated to your own personal passions. the first time i used this tool, i found a blog local to me about nature and coffee, and i do in fact love both of those things. i definitely recommend giving it a peep!!! 

 

thanks again for reading, and keep it cool B] 

 

love yous,

the cowsites team <3 

 

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

https://rowan.cowsite.net

 

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:

https://nariarts.cowsite.net/

 

 

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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