I had so much fun making this video about the very first web domain name, which was registered on this day in 1985.
I love making silly videos like this and learning about #WebHistory. I hope you dig it too!
On TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@wordpresscom/video/7481688415692524842
Today I ran across @ricmac and his new, truly expansive piece on the history of (the admittedly centralized) GeoCities and its origins.
I had a GeoCities site myself in the 90s (that is sadly lost to time now), and I didn't know all this wild history Richard dug up for this.
A must-read if you're into the whole 90s early web thing: https://cybercultural.com/p/geocities-1995
24 years ago this week, Google made its first acquisition, a Usenet archive called Dejanews. I was a regular. In this blog post I tell you where Google hides that treasure trove of information from long before Reddit. #retrocomputing #dotcomera #webhistory #usenet https://dfarq.homeip.net/deja-news-googles-first-acquisition/
I probably already mentioned it, but https://www.deadweb.club is a pretty interesting project that aims to connect people interested in exploring "defunct social media platforms, abandoned 3D worlds, and forgotten blogs".
Their newsletter hasn't been very active, but they just announced a new member joining the team, so definitely worth (re-)subscribing.
Twenty years ago today on November 9, 2004, Firefox 1.0 was released.
Here's an archived article from BBC News in 2002 announcing it. https://web.archive.org/web/20171220113953/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3993959.stm
Wild couple of decades.
i've noticed in recent years that the laudable return to personal homepages has generally brought with it a very specific re-imagining of 1990s web design - usually lo-fi 1994 html-only and neon cyberpunkish affairs with loud animated gifs.
lost in that specific imaginary are 1996-1997 corporate designs that brought a slightly more conservative aesthetic that nonetheless remained playful.
if you played Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb, Dinotopia, or Faery Tale Adventure 2 you would remember The Dreamers Guild. this is their corporate site still live and maintained by joe pearce and brad schenck.
Today I've been reading and watching several things on #BowieNet, because I thought there were some interesting parallels with smaller online spaces and servers now (and the Billboard article mentions Todd Rundgren, who is just cool). 
https://www.techradar.com/pro/cyberspace-oddity-the-story-of-bowienet
https://www.billboard.com/pro/bowienet-david-bowie-pioneering-online-fan-club-isp/
Friends, I am a total noob developer to CGI and Perl!
So I decided to finally try it.
It is so good and fun! I can totally understand the hype people had when then I was playing in the sandbox, literally in a sandbox.
This is my first CGI server app, screenshot is just amazing. Definitely adding this to my toy Github projects.
mp3.com as two vast and trunkless legs of stone...
https://web.archive.org/web/20010202170800/http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/8/grant.html
It's funny, when the web and personal computers first got started, recipes were often cited as the 'killer app' hauled out whenever an enthusiast wanted to explain why regular people would want a machine in their home, or why they'd use the 'net.
Now some 30yrs later, it seems like recipe sites are the harbingers of everything wrong with the web. So many of them are now mostly SEO-laden link-farms, and ad-revenue trash.
1) The world’s first internet cafe opened in London, England in 1994. Nearly 30 years later, Rest of World visits the few that remain and explores the history of web connectivity in Uganda, Nepal, Nigeria, Argentina, Mexico, and Hong Kong
Given the recent news about YouTube account deletion, I've started a public spreadsheet to collect links to tech/internet-related videos to download and save: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BApiBHo63Muxa567gcb0IewNHZPQT4UIJ26vzOKR1Hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
There's so much important historical ephemera - ads, edutainment, training videos, etc - that was never formally saved but can be found on YT.
My current plan is to slowly collect download videos and upload them to the Internet Archive.
(@admin1, would you consider boosting this?)
I've been on here for years and never actually did an #introduction post. Better late than never?
I'm a #neurodivergent #British #Trans Woman with #Dyspraxia, #Dyslexia and #Dyscalculia. I'm a recovering #tech / #computing hobbyist (trying to give it up, don't encourage me).
I'm into #art, #sewing/ #textiles (very much a newbie though), #crafts, #music, #writing / #fiction and #slowmovement.
I was atheist but I'm trying to get into #paganism (#celticpaganism / #celticreconstructionism specifically) and am planning to learn #welsh.
I'm a fan of #doctorwho and I've just started getting into #startrek.
I'm very interested in #webhistory and the #indieweb.
I've had follow requests on (and will likely indefinitely) since the Twitter exodus but feel free to request a follow, I'll accept if you seem like an ok person. Don't be offended if I don't though.
My latest newsletter, for all the #webhistory fans and Web 2.0 romantics -> What was it like using Flickr in early Web 2.0, in the age of digital cameras and before Instagram changed everything? 
https://www.cybercultural.com/p/flickr-before-smartphones-and-instagram
Re-#introduction: I'm currently a lecturer in WGS at Gonzaga Uni. I study #webhistory, specifically how #lgbtq folks used early digital communications. I founded and curate the Queer Digital History Project (queerdigital.com), which preserves info on #queer spaces online pre-2010.
I also have a book coming out in Aug 2023: The Two Revolutions: A History of the #Transgender Internet (https://nyupress.org/9781479818310/the-two-revolutions/).
So mostly, I share old tech stuff that amuses me.
