July 24, 2026
Web nostalgia gets ratioed
The small, real, original web
The cozy old internet is still alive — but the comments are having a meltdown
TLDR: The article says the personal, homemade internet is still alive and worth protecting from big platforms and AI clutter. Commenters were split between romantic nostalgia and brutal reality checks, arguing the old web was harder, less inclusive, and maybe no longer matters socially.
A love letter to the “small web” — the handmade, personal internet of blogs, quirky websites, and fewer corporate vibes — has people feeling all kinds of ways. The article argues that the old-school web never really died, it just got buried under a shiny layer of ads, giant platforms, and now a fresh coating of AI sludge. Its pitch is simple: the human internet is still out there if you’re willing to go looking, with resources like IndieWeb and 32bit.cafe helping people build their own little corners again.
But in the comments, the nostalgia train hit a wall. One camp was fully in the “yes, bring back the weird little websites” mood. The other immediately yelled: hold on, the old web wasn’t some magical utopia. One of the sharpest clapbacks said these “the web used to be better” takes often really mean it was better when only privileged, highly educated people could publish anything at all. Ouch. Another commenter threw cold water on the fantasy by pointing out that you can’t just do things “the old way” anymore unless you enjoy drowning in spam and fending off constant digital break-in attempts.
Then came the existential sadness: sure, the indie web still exists, but one commenter argued it’s now socially irrelevant — less a bustling town square, more a hidden forest cabin. And yes, there was a mini side-quest of confusion over the article’s random “skip Mullvad” VPN jab, with one reader basically asking, excuse me, what did Mullvad do?
Key Points
- •The article argues that the non-corporate “small web” of personal sites and blogs still exists and remains viable today.
- •It cites Terry Godier’s writing as a historical account of the web’s shift from an ad-free environment to one dominated by advertising and corporate platforms.
- •The article points readers to Indieweb.org and related writing as background resources on the history and definition of the small web.
- •It recommends browsers and privacy tools for exploring the small web, including Firefox, Waterfox, Vivaldi, Zen, Tor Browser, and Proton VPN.
- •It highlights 32bit.cafe’s Resources List for the Personal Web and names directories, hosts, and search tools such as Neocities, Kagi, wiby, Marginalia, and Teclis.