What should I add to my '90s website?
So I’m currently toying around with NeoCities, and decided to trial it by building your classic mid '90s Geocities/Tripod/Angelfire pastiche website.
Some of the most important elements are already in place.
Tile background? Large font? Heading in bright pink with a shadow? Unusual colour choices? Random cat gifs? Under construction gif? Check! Check! Check!
In the true spirit of the '90s DIY web, some more pages (including the links page) are coming soon.
(I’m thinking of adding a page dedicated to either Britney or a nu-metal band.)
You can see the page so far here: https://that90ssite.neocities.org/
There are a few things that I want to add to make it complete, and I’m looking for suggestions.
The first, is to embed a midi file that plays automatically. Any suggestions on the best way of doing this?
Second, it’s just not going to be complete without a guestbook.
Third, any webring suggestions?
Fourth, what’s the best way of adding a java chat room in 2024?
Finally, anything else that really needs to be a part of a great '90s website?
UPDATE: Thanks for all the feedback! I’ve added more annoying GIFs, a guestbook, a links page, and a cyber cat hangout.
UPDATE 2: And added even more gifs, an amazing Amiga demo, and a ton of links.
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You 100% need a visitor counter at the bottom.
maybe even a fake gif one, that speeds up more and more until it explodes
And a guestbook, though thats a bit trickier nowadays with bots everywhere.
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Holy shit it’s been a while since I’ve seen that gif
I just teared up a little.
Why are there no sparkles that follow my mousepointer?
Remember that JS file that rendered a text besides your mouse pointer and when you moved your mouse, the text would follow it letter by letter?
😀
Remove adaptive formatting, fixed width everything. Why should you care about my browser and screen size? That was part of why the pages looked more clunky in later years: the increase in screen resolution were not taken into account, so that pages sat tinily in the top left of the screen. Generally, lack of useful formatting was widespread. Just writing the text into naked HTML, having a few links (in default blue/purple) and you’re good to go. I’m not sure if bullet points were even used.
Once you add some content, put it into a default HTML table without added styling. I don’t even know if browsers still display these shitty gray bars, but you saw them everywhere.
And if you want to look professional, of course use frames! Preferably with fixed sites, too much text in them and scrollbars everywhere…
:funnytagthatonlytranslatedtoanemojionaspecificbulletinboard:
I remember feeling like a webdesign master when I figured out frames. I was always more of a backend guy (perl + CGI = ❤️), but frames enabled me to produce pretty decent looking websites.
`` 😠
`` 😒
`` 🥳
Honestly, ikr lol
Visitor counter
Absolutely needs a hit counter.
Guestbook, hit counter, a midi file playing in the background, and a dead hyperlink to another page of the same website.
Edit: omg I can’t believe I forgot about marquees. Do that too.
Are you in a webring with other 90’s websites?
I second this, they need a webring, it’s what I went looking for.
@HobbitFoot I’m not yet, but if there’s a good one then I’d be happy to add it…
other '90s* websites
other ’90s* websites
Typography matters too
Remember ``````? And maybe add some dancing hamsters?
Visitor counter
This! I remember putting one on a site I built way back then
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I had a song from Scooter playing on my page back then :D (in MIDI)
It’s readable on mobile. You need to unfix that immediately. The font must not appear bigger than 5px. Responsive layout is forbidden.
Also, no popups. That’s both retro and not retro enough. (Or were those introduced for the first round in the early 2000’s? I don’t know, I’m too young)
I was fully prepared for the experience from my teens. My first thought was “that loaded way too fast.”
Sorry but were you alive in the 90s? That tile background is way too big. Take it down to 128 x 128 anything bigger than that takes too long on my 56k. Also I don’t see one frame or table border.
frame
Man, how did I forget those abominations?
Saved so much time and bandwidth reloading several kilobytes of headers and menus.
Iframes with more iframes inside.
Regular frames, not iframes. We didn’t have iframes back then!
And a “Break out of frames” link
“Break out of frames” link
That is a memory I have suppressed.
Ironically still common today, just subtle. Open up any Google Drive picker and look at the page DOM
