Crimes of Websites Past

[rheasilvia]

So, a while back 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

View Respondents

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!!

Comments

[rheasilvia]

IT SO IS. Guardian's milkshake brings all the dinosaurs to the yard!

[trobadora]

It's from a cult classic! Have you really never seen it?

From Wikipedia:

Einige Phrasen der Hauptfiguren haben insbesondere aus der deutschsprachig synchronisierten Fassung des Films Eingang in die Populärkultur gefunden, da sie im Gegensatz zu den englischen Formulierungen sehr ungewöhnlich waren.[3] So etwa „Hoschi“ als Bezeichnung für Typ, Kerl oder als Anrede sowie die Redewendung „Volle Kanne, Hoschi!“.[3] Verbreitet sind auch die Schreibweisen „Hoshi“, „Hoschie“ und „Hoshy“. Im englisch-sprachigen Original wird hier der sehr gängige Ausdruck „dude“ (dt. umgangssprachlich Alter) gebraucht.

[rheasilvia]

Absolutely! It is wonderful and has changed fandom in a huge way I never would have predicted. But if it went away tomorrow, fandom would still go on, so I have no real worries. :-)

[rheasilvia]

Eeeek. Erm. Thank you!! Man, that really is a disorienting title...

I have skimmed it and look forward to reading the article in more depth! I actually think that fandom has preserved some of the things the author considers completely lost - but I will report back once I have read properly. :-)

[rheasilvia]

I really haven't! Maybe I should check it out, though. Sounds like a synchronization in the proud tradition of Terence Hill/Bud Spencer westerns and Die Zwei. :-)

[demitas]

It is definitely a long read, I won't blame you if you don't. :)

I think you're right, though, there's a difference between what fandom has preserved vs. what mainstream internet users perceive as being preserved!

[likealeafonthewind]

OMG, the memories. I had a really basic Geocities website but I didn't keep it up for long. I just remember setting up a guestbook for it and fiddling with a page counter.

Also, yes, I totally remember having to hunt through a disclaimer page to find the embedded hidden link to get into the archive. And some sites even set up a false link so if you clicked the wrong thing, it just took you to a page that said you were too young to be there.

I still think about setting up my own site (and now I actually have original content for it) but AO3 makes it so easy to format fic that I hadn't really looked into it. But I saw another commenter here say that you never know what might happen in the future which *sigh* is so true.

[abyss_valkyrie]

Believe it or not,I'd have been tempted to go read on Eroica overload and Red&Black archive!

[trobadora]

It really is. And I say that as someone who loved Die Zwei. :D

[stranger]

I can't fault the Eroica website, since I okayed the design. In retrospect, it's a bit... pink... but it certainly suited the title character in that manga. Roses! Guns! Over-wrought declarations of love! Death threats! All at the same time! If anything, scrolled lettering and pink was overly restrained.

Also, thank you again, from my younger self, for the whole website. I loved the Raven Lady and the green Pen Lady, and all the X-Files stories.

[ranalore]

OMG, I remember the RatB archive! And you wrote "The Gift of an Enemy!" You are that Sylvia!!! I actually didn't read much XF fic, because I hated David Duchovny, and Mulder by extension, but that story was recced to me as a Krycek fan, and I adored it so much.

I've always had vision-linked migraines, so the dark backgrounds, the dark text on dark backgrounds, and the things like blinking text and gifs, were all challenges for me; which begs the question why, when I taught myself HTML and set up my own first website, I too succumbed to a dark background (and eyebleedingly neon graphic elements, but the text was white!). Sadly, I never thought to screencap any incarnation, but the one I switched over to and which is still in existence--if very out-of-date--is here. At the time, I thought it was super clean and readable, and it matched my custom LJ theme. Now I think the background of the sidebar's too busy, as are the headers, which are hard too read, and the font overall is too light. If I were updating it, I'd change the base font to black. Of course, if I were updating it, I'd probably bribe someone else to do it, because I think it would require CSS, and every time I try to parse that, my brain just gives up and wanders away to see what's in the hallway vending machines or something.

[lilacsigil]

I'm so nostalgic now!

[yantantether]

This gave me wonderful nostalgia, because I was a Mulder/Krycek fan and I'm 100% sure I would have been reading your fic! Maybe around 1999 or 2000? The archive page in particular looks *so* familiar.

Also, it's wonderful that you still have these because it's real internet history.

[anotherslashfan]

Ah, that makes sense ;)
And I was relatively late to the party, I only started searching for fanfic in 2000.

[mekare]

I am gigglesnorting over this icon perfection. ^^

[firestar]

IKR? There's some Lord of the Rings archives that wouldn't look too out of place there as well. XD

[maggie33]

It's so wonderful how many fannish veterans are still around today, still fannish and falling for new fandoms.

It is wonderful. I'm so stoked that I recognize a few names from my old fandoms in Guardian fandom now.

And Once a Thief was a great, little show. I watched it at first only for Nick Lea (The X Files was my 2nd fandom and I loved him as Krycek), but I ended up liking it a lot.

[trobadora]

:D :D :D

[rheasilvia]

I love your icon! :-) Guardian is bringing so many old fans back together - something about this particular fandom really seems to appeal to the veterans! ;-)

Once a Thief had a very unique tone, excellent writing and acting, and a Due South-ish kind of absurdist element that I had never seen before at that point. I think a lot of fans came to it because of Nick Lea, including myself, but it can really stand by itself. I should rewatch it, come to think of it! :-)

[rheasilvia]

The page counters - and the false links! Oh boy, yes. :-) It feels like it was ages ago...

I'm the same - AO3 is convenient and quick and I am too lazy to put up my stories on my own website, too, when there isn't really a need. Not right now, at any rate! Mekare is absolutely right, we shouldn't expect AO3 to be around forever, but I also don't think we have to prepare alternatives right now. When and if it happens, we'll find a way - whether it's back to individual sites and smaller archives, or something entirely new.

[rheasilvia]

Oh, I believe it! I read stories on pages like it all the time, back then. Even though I did have trouble with some color combos and the more excessive blinking and flashing sites, I never really questioned it back then. It was just what the fannish internet looked like. :-)

[rheasilvia]

it certainly suited the title character in that manga

That is definitely true! Nobody should ever let Dorian design a website - it would not end well, and an excess of pink would be the least of it.

And hey, those were good times, regardless of our color schemes.

You are more than welcome! Thank *you* for letting me archive your wonderful stories, and for being so nice about my younger self's design choices! I am using the Methos defence a lot these days - it's true, though. Times were different! We were different! ;-)

[rheasilvia]

Your icon is brilliant!! So very fitting. :-)

I love how many XF fans are turning up in Guardian. Though really, come to think of it - the tone and style of the shows are very different (which I am grateful for), but the basic themes do overlap. Hmmmm...

XF was a challenging show in many ways, though fortunately I didn't know anything about the actors (the myth arc plot issues were more than enough for me to deal with). I am very glad you enjoyed Gift of an Enemy anyway! To be honest I am a little afraid to reread it after all this time, since I suspect it might not have aged well...

Yikes, it must have been rough braving the sites of ye olde fandom with the threat of migraines looming. And it certainly does show the extent to which fannish fashions determine our fannish output. I've noticed it in writing styles, too. Fascinating, really!

It's too bad your earliest site is lost to time, but your most recent site is not bad at all. A bit busy perhaps, but I'd say you were well ahead of the curve when it comes to design. ;-)

[rheasilvia]

Me too! The websites were sometimes a challenge to read, and stories were definitely harder to find, but it was a great fannish time. :-)

[rheasilvia]

Wow, I really can't get over the number of XF fans in Guardian fandom! I am tempted to do a poll on people's previous fandoms, for science. ;-)

YES, it was such a great time for fandom! Looking at these old designs is really taking me back, too. I have no idea why I saved all of these, especially the RatB archive page, but now I wish I'd saved something from TER/MA, too. (I suspect it looked pretty much the same, really. *g*)