I know, I’m so late on this but I recently found out about WayBackMachine.org, which is a website that stores most–not all–archived webpages across time. It’s brilliant! I thought my old blogs from five, seven, ten years ago were forever lost in the e-abyss, but apparently not! Wayback Machine allows me to travel through internet-time and visit the shitty sites I use to make as a kid.
I looked up a lot of my old webpages and found some interesting things I didn’t remember existed. What’s really cool about this is, in terms of style and design, you get a glimpse of what use to be trendy for blogs YEARS ago, and look at how much we have evolved ever since. I love it. Web designing is no different from clothes and fashion. They are constantly evolving and changing overtime.
Here’s the first screenshot I took of one of my old sites from 2ndtolast.com/tiff (Jamie was my host!). Oh yeah, pardon the bad grammar and uber lame entry topics, I was 16 years old at the time…nothing really happens when you’re 16! Here are some of the things I noticed that use to appear a lot in 2004, not just my old blog alone but other blogs I use to visit during that time:
Paddings were non-existent: For the noobs, CSS padding essentially defines the space between the border and the content. Looking at that image makes me want to go back in time and throat-punch the 16-year-old version of myself because it’s bugging the HELL OUTTA ME. The text are on the very edge of the box–Present day Tiff does not approve of this.
Mini font size & line height: Text use to be so miniscule and bunched up together in one little box. It’s so frustrating to try to read the text. Today, it’s the complete opposite; you can just tell by looking at my current theme: It’s bigger, more spacious, and doesn’t make your nose bleed when you read the text. We care a lot more about legibility and readability now, thank the lord.
Crediting the commenters: Each time a visitor writes a comment, the blogger “plugs” their website on their next entry. It’s really just an incentive to get more comments and people to read your stuff. Apparently, it worked because according to that screenshot, I use to get an average of er 30 individual comments per entry. Kind of nuts for someone with shitty topics and hard-to-read text.
The next screenshot is from another old website of mine, Vicious-Doll.org.
Cam pictures: If you look at the yellow image that says “Click Here Now!” that actually use to be where I’d post webcam pictures that were updated regularly. Having a special little section for your cam pictures was something that you did back in ’04 or ’05. LOTS of chicks did it. It was so big that people created “portals” where you can post your webcam link and have visitors rank them (ie: “VOTE 1.2.3.4″). Today, the one’s who are still doing cam stuff probably have daddy issues and have no dignity. They’re typically known as cam girls.
Going BIG: The one “trend” I truly, truly miss is how most bloggers were also talented designers. Everyone was really into creating beautiful, extravagant works for their sites (the first person I thought of was Richl). Even if the design was shitty, you can tell there was a lot of work and thought put into it. Like, look at my old layout. I CREATED A FUCKING CHICK ON A BEACH. AND THERE’S PALM TREES AND SAND AND SHIT. Today, we’re going for a clean, minimalistic look. You want to know what I think of that?
ZzzzzZZZzzzZzzzz
If you can’t tell, I haven’t been able to completely let go of that trend. I prefer my themes to be loud and obnoxious most of the time.
Oh gawd… I remember when I first started off with blogging/web-designing back in the early 2000s. I’m so glad that I never saved anything otherwise I’d be forced to re-live those days of horrible web-design trends. Even WayBackMachine.org doesn’t access my old stuff. LOL
Reply
lol i rmb the font thing
the mini font
silkscreen was a favorite
everybody did the same thing
yes i remember when i use to make layouts
SO MANY LAYOUTS
i used div layer and CSS
basically the same code
fitted into new image slices
lulz
i can’t do anything now
it has changed too much
guess what
i dont even remember any of my old URLs to look up stuff
bad…
Reply
HA HAWKJSDHFSJKDHFKEFDKJ~!!!!
I tried the wayback machine years ago and it has content and not my graphics (I lost it when I had a PC). I felt so stupid reading my old shit I just pressed the [x] button.
I’m still into the big graphics too! So many sites are so “zZZzzzz” nowadays. I just want to say, “Hey let me make you something.” LOL
Thanks for the plug, lady! We’re old school
Reply
Tiff Reply:
May 9th, 2011 at 12:49 am
Wait, you lost all of your old layouts, like for good?
SAY IT AIN’T SO.
If you still have images of your old layouts (from Urbanfunction, Profanefemale, etc) I would LOVE, LOVE to see them once again.
Reply
True THAT. That chick on a beach design looks like (a much better version of) one of my old sites. Pop up web cams, tiny text, brand name and beach designs and “plugs” in the meta text. Also, posts used to have a lot less images, which I think is why it made sense to have such extravagant layouts. Modern day blogs are more minimalist but the posts themselves are more image heavy.
Wayback is SO embarrassing.
Reply
Tiff Reply:
May 9th, 2011 at 12:53 am
“Also, posts used to have a lot less images, which I think is why it made sense to have such extravagant layouts…”
YES! Absolutely, yes. You’re totally right, how could I have missed that?
Haha Wayback can be so embarrassing, indeed. I was reading all of my old entries, and I couldn’t help but giggle. The topics were silly, but ah, life was so much simpler when you were a kid.
I’m so glad you’re still blogging! It’s been a while since I’ve last seen your site. I’m pretty sure I was one of your regular visitors from many moons ago. I WILL NOT LOSE YOU AGAIN! <3 Lol
Reply
I really wish I saved my old sites
And I had that plugin for, well, plugging commenters when I started my blog in 2006 lulz.
AND OMG REMEMBER THAT SITE WHERE YOU HAD TO COMMENT ON 3 RANDOM BLOGS DAILY AND YOU’D GET 3 RANDOM COMMENTS IN RETURN??? What was that???
Reply
I’m normally a silent reader of your blog but I HAD to comment on this one because all the things you mentioned are so true! This takes me back to my days as a 15 year old coding layouts and blogging about mundane things, hahaha.. Actually I just looked up my old sites and they are pretty embarrassing, I’m glad they’re no longer accessible lol. In a way I miss those days when I actually cared about this kind of stuff! Thanks for letting me reminisce
Reply
Tiff Reply:
June 20th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
When I wrote this post, I seriously first thought it wasn’t going to make any sense to most people, but I’m quite relieved to hear that you can relate to these old yet embarrassing trends.
Thank you for reading! =D
Reply