6 ms·

This is fantastic, but not fully in the spirit of the old web. Personal pages looked like they did because they were essentially outsider art: the product of ex

This is fantastic, but not fully in the spirit of the old web. Personal pages looked like they did because they were essentially outsider art: the product of experimentation by teenagers and rank amateurs, who had no idea what we were doing. In 1999 we were using Netscape Composer and FrontPage Express, because they came with our browsers and were fun to explore. Only a web professional could use these tricks today to simulate that appearance. The click-and-drag tools and absolutely garbage code generators were integral to the experience, because they brought in the weirdos who didn't know we were doing it wrong. We learned, but lost something along the way.

lnxg33k1 4y ago
I used coolpage :D http://web.archive.org/web/20010517033954/http://www.klimanet.3000.it/ http://web.archive.org/web/20010517033954/http://www.klimane...
- mysterydip 4y ago
  HotDog Professional, anyone? https://archive.org/details/tucows_194462_HotDog_Professional https://archive.org/details/tucows_194462_HotDog_Professiona...
  - nickthegreek 4y ago
    Hotdog Pro was everything to me. Going from Notepad to Hotdog opened my eyes to the future of the Internet. It set me down a path where I would eventually get my first paid tech gig working at my local newspaper in high school maintaining the photo departments daily web presence.
Waterluvian 4y ago
The beautiful result of copying and pasting html from your favourite sites. No CSS so the styles came along.
user3939382 4y ago
> FrontPage           
- jonathanoliver 4y ago
  I only had Notepad (the default Windows text editor). I longed for Microsoft Frontpage and HoTMetaL and Dreamweaver. Looking back, I'm glad gained experience on the native experience rather than through the editor abstractions because it forced me to learn.
  - rafale 4y ago
    I longed for Flash but I learned DHTML instead. I bet many young readers haven't heard of that "technology".
- kyleyeats 4y ago
  Now I have to do stuff like this manually. Seems like things are regressing.
- Shared404 4y ago
  Confluence does the same thing now.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  we love to see it
- chrisweekly 4y ago
  Having cut my teeth on FrontPage, I remember being unreasonably happy with the markup generated by DreamWeaver.
  - alberth 4y ago
    No-code. What’s old is new again.
    - 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
loloquwowndueo 4y ago
HoTMetaL! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HoTMetaL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HoTMetaL
actuallyalys 4y ago
I think the comparison to outside art is very apt, although I think the boundary between professional and amateur was porous. Professionals wrote the tools amateurs used, they wrote the books and references at least some of those amateurs consulted, and I imagine they originally wrote at least some of the snippets that got copy and pasted endlessly. In theory, a return of the old web (aesthetically and socially) could involve people copying snippets like these. As you mention, the current web's complexity makes that unlikely, unfortunately.

lnxg33k1 4y ago

I used coolpage :D http://web.archive.org/web/20010517033954/http://www.klimanet.3000.it/ http://web.archive.org/web/20010517033954/http://www.klimane...

mysterydip 4y ago
HotDog Professional, anyone? https://archive.org/details/tucows_194462_HotDog_Professional https://archive.org/details/tucows_194462_HotDog_Professiona...
- nickthegreek 4y ago
  Hotdog Pro was everything to me. Going from Notepad to Hotdog opened my eyes to the future of the Internet. It set me down a path where I would eventually get my first paid tech gig working at my local newspaper in high school maintaining the photo departments daily web presence.

Waterluvian 4y ago

The beautiful result of copying and pasting html from your favourite sites. No CSS so the styles came along.

user3939382 4y ago

> FrontPage           

jonathanoliver 4y ago
I only had Notepad (the default Windows text editor). I longed for Microsoft Frontpage and HoTMetaL and Dreamweaver. Looking back, I'm glad gained experience on the native experience rather than through the editor abstractions because it forced me to learn.
- rafale 4y ago
  I longed for Flash but I learned DHTML instead. I bet many young readers haven't heard of that "technology".
kyleyeats 4y ago
Now I have to do stuff like this manually. Seems like things are regressing.
Shared404 4y ago
Confluence does the same thing now.
steveBK123 4y ago
we love to see it
chrisweekly 4y ago
Having cut my teeth on FrontPage, I remember being unreasonably happy with the markup generated by DreamWeaver.
- alberth 4y ago
  No-code. What’s old is new again.
  - 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

loloquwowndueo 4y ago

HoTMetaL! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HoTMetaL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HoTMetaL

actuallyalys 4y ago

I think the comparison to outside art is very apt, although I think the boundary between professional and amateur was porous. Professionals wrote the tools amateurs used, they wrote the books and references at least some of those amateurs consulted, and I imagine they originally wrote at least some of the snippets that got copy and pasted endlessly. In theory, a return of the old web (aesthetically and socially) could involve people copying snippets like these. As you mention, the current web's complexity makes that unlikely, unfortunately.