rheasilvia: (Once Upon A Time)
rheasilvia ([personal profile] rheasilvia) wrote2019-04-12 05:08 pm

Crimes of Websites Past

So, a while back [personal profile] galaxysoup and I were reminiscing about the horrors of classic fannish website design. Remember when Geocities was a thing and disclaimer pages made you hunt for the second comma in the thirteenth line? Remember purple text on black background, blinking gifs and flashing text, cheesy ornamental buttons, weird graphics and crazy fonts?

Well, as it turns out, I still have evidence of some of my transgressions. Here they are, for your amusement!

You Too Can Learn HTML

My first attempt at coding a website did not show great promise.



You Too Can Learn HTML, The Revenge: X-Files Versus Readability

Especially because I succumbed to the dark background craze, and evidently only had one image of these guys. Why is Krycek’s face so bumpy?



Quoth the Raven

I quickly decided this would not do and found a nice dramatic pre-fab website design featuring a woman, a scarf and a raven. And of course a dark background. Nothing could keep me from dark backgrounds, obviously.



The Red and the Black Archive

Believe it or not: This was an entirely unremarkable look for an author’s page in an XF fanfic archive to have, at the time.



Eroica Overload

I also made a website for a friend, which seems unkind in retrospect. While it did fit the fandom, the combination of rose imagery, font choice and gold was perhaps a tiny bit much.



Art Nouveau Green

When I kept writing stories, Raven Lady’s scarf grew too restrictive, and I had to switch to Pen Lady. I remember I wasn’t terribly thrilled with the green, but the design seemed nice and simple.



My Current (Abandoned) Website

My most recent website is more or less abandoned, but does still exist. I include it for research purposes. I still quite like it, but the AO3 has made individual author’s pages largely unnecessary, IMO.





Sooo… what do you think?
Poll #21797 Times were different, MacLeod. I was different.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27


But why?

View Answers

You Too Can Learn HTML
4 (14.8%)

X-Files Versus Readability
5 (18.5%)

The Red and the Black Archive
5 (18.5%)

Quoth the Raven
1 (3.7%)

Eroica Overload
4 (14.8%)

Art Nouveau Green
6 (22.2%)

All of the above!
8 (29.6%)

OMG. WHY.
1 (3.7%)

None of the above!
0 (0.0%)

NO SHAME.
22 (81.5%)

Spar….kles?
3 (11.1%)

SPARKLES!!
16 (59.3%)



Do you have any early website crimes to share? Show us the evidence!!

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