I think the article has a point, but I'm not convinced the fun and weird stuff really went away. Social media probably had a pretty big impact on people losing ownership over their online presence, but often I think it's just harder to find the cool stuff.
A few years ago I attended a 60th birthday, and I was seated next to a retired biologist. He was a wonderful man, full gray unkept beard, and, the only man attending who wasn't wearing a suit. Instead he wore a striped shirt, some green work pants, suspenders and a green hat that he only reluctantly took off as his wife shot him a look. A real character, and a great conversationalist. When he found out that I worked with EDB he enthusiastically told me about his blog about the fauna of Bornholm (one of our islands). I looked it up when I got home, and it was exactly what I had expected. He obviously build it himself, without the use of any form of blogging engine or framework, and it was this really nerdy thing full of stories and pictures of the fauna of Bornholm along with his journals of discovery. Sadly I didn't keep the link, and I haven't been able to find it since.
I have another great gem though, it's the webpage of my psychologist: http://psykoweb.dk (please don't crash it). I think it certainly lives up to what the article is about, but it's actually also full of useful information and science done, found and tested in a long life of psychology. Most of the other places I follow aren't like this. They look more akin to https://www.valdemarsro.dk , but unlike the article, I don't think the uglyness was really the true value, I think it was the content, and you can certainly have that in a nice package.
I personally hope a lot more people start taking ownership, and start building their own little places on the internet and I wish it wasn't so hard to find these days. I don't think they need to look like Geocites, I really don't. But I do miss the bravery in the openness and honesty of the early internet, because that stuff was just more interesting. As I write that, I know I'm a bit of a hypocrite, because I'm completely guilty of being uninteresting myself. My main socialmedia is linkedin, and it's where I put most of my musings, and as such they're marketed to represent exactly the sort of message you'd expect to find on linkedin. They're informative, but they're also selling either myself or my points. Which is fine for linkedin, but it's also a lot less interesting than the authentic interent where things were actually fun, weird and entirely geninue.
A few years ago I attended a 60th birthday, and I was seated next to a retired biologist. He was a wonderful man, full gray unkept beard, and, the only man attending who wasn't wearing a suit. Instead he wore a striped shirt, some green work pants, suspenders and a green hat that he only reluctantly took off as his wife shot him a look. A real character, and a great conversationalist. When he found out that I worked with EDB he enthusiastically told me about his blog about the fauna of Bornholm (one of our islands). I looked it up when I got home, and it was exactly what I had expected. He obviously build it himself, without the use of any form of blogging engine or framework, and it was this really nerdy thing full of stories and pictures of the fauna of Bornholm along with his journals of discovery. Sadly I didn't keep the link, and I haven't been able to find it since.
I have another great gem though, it's the webpage of my psychologist: http://psykoweb.dk (please don't crash it). I think it certainly lives up to what the article is about, but it's actually also full of useful information and science done, found and tested in a long life of psychology. Most of the other places I follow aren't like this. They look more akin to https://www.valdemarsro.dk , but unlike the article, I don't think the uglyness was really the true value, I think it was the content, and you can certainly have that in a nice package.
I personally hope a lot more people start taking ownership, and start building their own little places on the internet and I wish it wasn't so hard to find these days. I don't think they need to look like Geocites, I really don't. But I do miss the bravery in the openness and honesty of the early internet, because that stuff was just more interesting. As I write that, I know I'm a bit of a hypocrite, because I'm completely guilty of being uninteresting myself. My main socialmedia is linkedin, and it's where I put most of my musings, and as such they're marketed to represent exactly the sort of message you'd expect to find on linkedin. They're informative, but they're also selling either myself or my points. Which is fine for linkedin, but it's also a lot less interesting than the authentic interent where things were actually fun, weird and entirely geninue.