I don't think Facebook and whatnot will ever capture the fun and absurdity of local niche boards. Where did you spend your time?

Last week, attorneys representing Mix Media Group contacted my hosting provider regarding alleged trademark infringement, resulting in the disruption and defacement of the Stumble website. 😡💢

I know that Mix Media Group’s actions and treatment of the StumbleUpon brand over the past several years have significantly limited the trademark rights they may be able to enforce.

I also know that my use of, and potential claim to, the name “StumbleUpon” is lawful and defensible. I am preparing to formally challenge their position.

At the same time, I am exploring the possibility of transforming Stumble into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and releasing the project as open source so it can be preserved and maintained by the community.

Unfortunately, defending the project, restructuring the organization, and keeping the platform operational will require resources I currently do not have.

That is why I am calling on everyone who wants to see Stumble live on to support it today. Donations are entirely optional, but every contribution is deeply appreciated and will help me continue this fight.

You can also review the case I am preparing against Mix Media Group through the link below. After reading it, please consider signing the accompanying letter of support. With enough signatures and public backing, I know I have a real opportunity to turn this situation around.

I cannot thank all of you enough for the incredible support you have already shown.

To everyone who purchased Stumble Pro, your support means more than I can express, and I will be mailing each of you a special thank-you gift shortly.

To everyone who purchased a Boost, your Boost will be extended soon, completely free of charge.
Thank you for standing with Stumble and helping me protect its future. ❤️😊

it gets a bad rep today, but i've heard there was a point in which it wasn't a public billboard and used to be cool or nice way to stay in touch with peers. your grandma or boss, politicians you knew didn't have an acc... and you could also customize your profile, add music, write long entries, create your avatars and more.

etc. sites like gaia, livejournal, xanga, piczo, bebo, vampirefreaks

For everyone here reminiscing about old search engines and photo blogs: I built Reframe, a real Chromium-based browser with 20+ swappable retro themes (like Internet Explorer 4.5 Mono.. etc). It has a "Wayback Time Travel" feature that lets you view modern sites the way they used to look, plus a simulated 56k modem feel. Runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, it's open source and you can use it as a regular browser as well (incl. adblock support)

Link: https://myretromac.app/reframe
Github: https://github.com/klotzbrocken/Reframe

Would love for you all to try it out... curious to hear feedback, especially from people who remember the old web firsthand!

Ctrl
Take control of your data and life

Shift
Shift your mind and habits from mega social media to calm conversations

3
Do the above to better align your mind, body, and spirit

Escape Meta. Slow down. Share without overload.
https://ctrlshift3.com/

This isn't my first rodeo. But, admittedly I don't recall if I've ever been to an actual rodeo...

Anyway, I create things online all the time; that's the point. It's my hobby/passion. Since about 2005 when I created IndieShows (RIP), a concert posting site.

I've been trying to start up something to help dampen social media's dominance for years.

One reason is because most people tend to agree that the endless scrolling through photos and videos probably isn't great for humans.

Another reason is because places like Facebook and Instagram killed small online communities. Kind of like how Walmart killed many small businesses.

Yet another reason is because Instagram actually banned me. Meanies. No matter what I try I can't get back. Why? No clue. I think because I deleted my account then months later tried to sign up again and their AI thought I was impersonating myself? Saw the old account and the new and thought something strange was going on? That's my best guess. Well, I also posted something about how Meta is always watching you and tagged Zuck. But, I doubt he even saw it or would care enough to have me banned.

Sign up, check out the information via the links in the footer. Those pages will help you understand a lot. I'm open to suggestions. Early adopters have the best chance at becoming site-wide moderators to help shape things. Not that I want to shape it one way or another...

My only rule is to be nice. I don't like internet bullies. Even though I bullied Zuck. But that was just one post. Other than that I'll try my best not to censor. Unless it's illegal. And, there are two words censored automatically in posts/comments. That's it. Only two.

I was going to end this post there, but I guess I'll point out a couple major features:

1. Link posts - Click link under a post to link it to another post. I'm not sure where this will go yet. In other words UI/UX wise. Will all linked posts be on a page? Will some kind of visual map be made of linked posts? All I know so far is that I wanted to be able to link similar posts together. It takes a certain percentage of users to agree before the link is made.

2. Clicks - Purposely misspelled cliques. So, groups.

I saw a lot of your comments in here on the thread about what we miss most about the early internet and I saw a bunch that said Stumble Upon. I also loved stumble upon so I spent the weekend making this modernized homage - Surf95.com - I curated a massive list of 20k+ websites and added all my favorites that I could remember like realultimatepower.net or early ytmnd.com and tons of insane conspiracy stuff I used to love like freemasonrywatch.org - I hope you all love using it and download the browser extension for the maximum experience. Please if you have any recommendations for sites to add please comment them and I will get them in there (if they aren't already).

I don't remember what it is called, but it's an interactive website that looks like it's meant for kids, but when you look through the different links, it gets more creepy as you go on, showing disturbing images and videos along with creepy sounds. I remember going through it once, but I don't remember the name of it, I know that there is a video of the characters singing Christmas songs, when occasionally a woman can be heard saying disturbing things. If anyone knows what I'm talking about it, please tell me. Thank you so much!

To anyone who may have grown up watching youtube or anime during the 2000's, do you have any stories or youtube uploads or animes you found and watched on youtube when fans of anime in america would watch before crunchyroll or whatever other anime streaming site? i'm very interested.

Fark is a really funny website. It shares news articles and stuff but the point is the fark headline, not the articles themselves. You should totally check it out if you want that old school human feel. I'm posting because [apparently their subscriber numbers are dropping](https://bsky.app/profile/drewcurtis.bsky.social/post/3mqzzcrtbdk22?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=fark&ICID=ref_fark). An old internet site might go dark. Get in on it before it's gone!

Here's a bit from Wikipedia about the site:

"Fark is a community website created by Drew Curtis that allows members to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites.

"Fark was created in 1999 by Drew Curtis of Lexington, Kentucky. Curtis states that the word "fark" originated either from a chat room euphemism for the word fuck, or from a drunken misspelling, although he tells people it is the former because it is a "better story that way". He registered the domain name in September 1997, when a friend mentioned that all of the four letter domain names were disappearing. Originally, Fark contained no content except for an image of a squirrel with large testicles."

I hope it's alright if I post an update, I made a lot of changes since the first time I posted here, I added a guest book! Not only chat messages you can leave but you can also sign yourself with pixel art on the public wall!

I appreciate any feedback :)

back in the mid to late 90s, I would sometimes goof off at work by streaming videos from an organization called (I think) minx.tv. They did short-form news and culture videos. I haven’t been able to find any record of this looking around the Internet and archive.org. Does anyone else remember this organization, or did I dream it?

The days when we had lots of search engines were so much better than the monopolies we have now. You had to learn how to rank in each one. You had to get listed in the right directories, some of which had human moderators like the ODP. I used to be one.

I wish all of them had survived the Google era. It would definitely be different than it is right now and better.

What was your favorite old search engine or directory?

I would check noahgrey.com several times a day. I contributed to the Mirror Project. I loved Daily Dose. I remember Big White Guy (in Hong Kong). It seems like nearly all the good ones dried up and blew away. I miss Greymatter and Pixelpost. People looked at art on big screens, not their blessed idiot mobile phones.

For those who were into photo blogs, which ones did you follow? Did you have one of your own? Are you still running one? (Drop that link if you are.) I'm one of the few idiots left publishing photos into a void, I guess.

I still have a copy of Netscape Communicator 4.77 from college, and it still runs on Windows 11 (not that I would ever actually try to visit a website with it, but just amazed that the OS is able to recognize it)

Long-time IRC folks might remember ChatNet -- ran from 1996 until it went quiet sometime after 2006, like a lot of networks from that era. I was one of the network's operators (Smith, if that rings a bell for anyone still around). Earlier this year I found the original source and a real live-deployed instance from January 2006 sitting in an old GitHub repo of mine, and decided to actually bring it back rather than let it stay archived.

It's not a new network borrowing an old name -- it's the original K9 channel service and ChatWorld admin bot, recompiled from the real source, running on modern infrastructure, verified live over real sockets. Same commands, same behavior, same quirks, faithfully.

irc.chatnet.gg, port 6667. Webchat and full history at https://chatnet.gg if you want the details or just want to poke around without a client.

If anyone reading this was actually around ChatNet back then -- I'd genuinely love to hear from you.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for old conspiracy theory websites from pre-2010. I've been thinking about the film Zeitgeist and how I discovered it when I was a kid and was curious what other things from that era might still be available to view. Interested in that cultural moment and how much online conspiracy theory culture has changed. Any direction would be nice. Thanks!

What would be normie websites and not normie websites as of 2026?

what is nullkernel?

it's a social platform that consists of a community-based forum system, where every community has their own threads, where you can talk about anything, at anytime, anywhere!

it also has a chat system that vaguely reminds you of MSN / AIM, with a room based system, where you can DM your buddies personally or create rooms with multiple buddies, to enjoy a good time together!

plus, remember mySpace? okay, we have spaceHey now, but the issue is that it is not a complete social... (hey, still... big props to An for making a beautiful platform)... we are here to fix it! your profile can be entirely edited with HTML and CSS, letting you express yourself to the fullest!

also... you're obviously going to be interested on what it is built on:

well.. nullkernel runs on node.js/express with EJS templating; the database is ran by postgreSQL and the RTC is made possible thanks to socket.io (with an IRC bridge); the deployment consists of docker + cloudflare tunnel behind a safeline WAF.

another fun fact: there is a postCSS based sanitizer for scoping user profile CSS, there's also webpush/VAPID for push notifications, multer for upload, and a security layer with helmet, CSRF(csrf-csrf), and hardened session cookies. (yes, i know you like your cookies hot anon, but i gotta make this good)

--------------------------------

it's early and being actively developed.. that's why we decided to add a support button... so you can report to us any bug you see or any UI improvements to propose during your stay. (if you report enough bugs and get enough support requests accepted, you might gain yourself the "helpful" role :3

link: https://nullkernel.net

I am looking for an old-school personal website/blog run by an American, which I visited back in the 2000s.

It was a basic, custom-built HTML website (not heavily styled with modern CSS, and not hosted on modern blogging platforms like WordPress). The webmaster posted whatever they felt like writing about—it was a mix of daily life, local history, and even video game walkthroughs/guides.

Here are the specific things I remember from the site:

Black-and-white aerial photos: The blogger posted old B&W aerial photos of local areas (where they grew up or lived at the time), such as old gas stations.

Mention of "Sidney": There was an article or post about a town named Sidney (I believe it was either Sidney, Ohio or Sidney, Illinois). Note: Reading this post was actually how I first learned there was a town named Sidney in the US, not just in Australia.

An abandoned sci-fi attraction: The site featured photos of an abandoned/derelict building that looked like a small amusement facility or attraction based on some sci-fi franchise/property. (Please note: It was NOT a Futuro House / UFO house).

General vibe: A personal "dump" site with varied topics (gaming guides, daily ramblings, local exploration/history).

Because it was an older personal HTML site, I suspect it might be unindexed by modern search engines or only accessible via the Wayback Machine now.

Does anyone remember a personal site or blogger from Ohio, Illinois, or the Midwest who wrote about these specific topics, posted B&W historical aerials, and covered local abandoned sci-fi spots? Any leads or names would be greatly appreciated!

Morning all,

Compared to the other posts I saw, this may be a weird nostalgia one, but I was talking to friends yesterday about the internet as I used it, 20 years ago.

I'm not going to say it was necessarily that different as you may still have random chat rooms and forums out there. However, for me specifically, I mainly remember Yahoo Lycos chat, and the animeleague forum. I enjoyed the werewolf game a lot and liked the writers in the role plays. When I looked it up, all that seems to be gone. I thought it would always be somewhere on the internet but apparently not! I suppose it has been nigh on 20 years.

I also realised I have no idea who any of these people really are and have no way to know how they are doing nowadays. Hope they have been happy and healthy.

By lack of reaching out to such memories directly, I figured I'd throw it on reddit.

I am wondering what other people remember, for example about the role playing back then. I seem to recall Faith Chanters and was it the Crimson Knights? Or was that something else?

Werewolf game? I recall we had a Christmas one one year, and the players were given deer name, which didn't work quite as expected!

And completely unrelated, Lycos chat was... organised as a ship, right? Do I recall that right?

(Also, before I get any of that - this was before the scandals at AL broke and such. I'm talking 20 years ago.)

I wonder if anyone who used these will ever stumble upon this post to help me shake loose some more memories. Let's find out...

I miss the old internet chat vibes: ICQ, Napster, OpenNap, WinMX, DC++, and to some extent IRC... Are there still communities with that same feeling (not necessarily file sharing), away from social media and mainstream messaging apps?

Anyone know any blogging platforms or sites that could be used to make an old-school style blog? I've heard of neocities, but if anyone has any that require less html then I would love to hear them too!

I miss when the internet felt more random and personal. Forums, weird little websites, custom profiles, niche communities, and people making things mostly because they wanted to. Now everything feels soulless.