January 16, 2026
Pink backgrounds, blue arguments
An Ode to the Return of Wysiwyg
Is AI making the web weird again—or just cookie-cutter
TLDR: An essay says AI tools let anyone describe a website and watch it appear, rekindling the old WYSIWYG spirit. Commenters split: some say tech is easier but culture won’t create; others argue AI makes cookie‑cutter sites, not weird art—raising big questions about who shapes the web’s personality next.
A nostalgic ode claims WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) is back—this time as “what you say is what you get” thanks to AI tools like Claude Code. Cue the comments section meltdown. Some readers swooned at the pink‑background childhood vibes, but the sharpest pushback landed fast: kylehotchkiss argued the barrier is lower, yet the web isn’t suddenly exploding with non‑tech creators, because a phone‑native generation “doesn’t even understand filesystems.” Translation: the power’s there, but only the tinkerers are using it. niko_dex chimed in with warm nostalgia, calling the piece “a love letter,” and pitched WYSIWYG and AI as training wheels toward more disciplined engineering.
Then came the flamethrower: anonymous908213 said the essay “has very little tether to reality,” insisting that prompting an AI produces sameness—the “exact opposite of being weird.” Meanwhile, the culture war turned retro when bluedino shouted “No mention of Geocities?!” and the comments turned into a GeoCities, MySpace, and Facebook nostalgia bake‑off. bigbuppo added a history lesson: back then you built sites because you had to; now platforms do the sharing—and creativity’s captive to feeds. The vibe split cleanly between “Make Web Weird Again” and “AI blender of sameness.” The only thing everyone agrees on? The algorithm era squeezed personality, and the fight to bring it back is getting loud.
Key Points
- •The article describes early web WYSIWYG tools (FrontPage, Flash, Dreamweaver) that enabled non-coders to create websites and interactive content.
- •It argues that modern AI tools like Claude Code enable “what you say is what you get,” generating sites from natural language without manual coding.
- •The 1990s/2000s web is presented as participatory and individualized, with examples like GeoCities, Newgrounds, and Homestar Runner.
- •MySpace allowed extensive user customization (CSS, music, layouts), seen as a peak of personal expression on social platforms.
- •Facebook’s standardized profiles and algorithmic feeds are portrayed as reducing customization and prioritizing retention over individuality.