A look back at the Yesterweb
Oh hey hi
Not that long ago, my mind decided to go down memory lane and scavenge a piece of the past like it usually does from time to time, but this time was different; instead of a awkward moment in high school or a random video that i saw once and will never find again, this was about the Yesterweb, a movement i sorta participated in and that, looking back, it shaped a lot of who i am today
Now, the Yesterweb doesn't really need a lengthy explanation, it's not some mystical and generational underground fandom that was kept alive despite it's odds, it's reality is much simpler and mundane
The Yesterweb was a movement started in Neocities around February 2021, it looked to revisit the ideas of the old, personal web; it wanted to go back to the days where, if you wanted to show yourself to the world, you had one of the most expansive and liberating canvases there were
The main focus point for the community was discord (i know.), but with time they set up a forum and a mastodon instance as alternative community hotspots
However, due to unmanageable growth and a myriad of other reasons, the Yesterweb closed it's doors near the start of 2023, closing the discord server and the forum
I highly recommend reading their manifesto to know more about how they worked, what its philosophy was, and what exactly led them to suspend all activities
That growth was not a surprise if you think about it, keep in mind that it was really close to the twitter buyout which made a lot of people rethink social media in general; suddenly having all of culture in a single space that might as well be in the hands of a complete maniac wasn't as good of an idea now
I think i discovered Neocities around that time too, i still remember my first website and how much it absolutely sucked (i didn't know about webmaps so i just screenshot the buttons and put them over an image, god), but it was thanks to the Yesterweb that i got the drive to improve my site, to learn more about site making and have a space that was truly my own
And that drive never really left, sure i had to abandon the site sometimes due to offline responsibilities and not feeling up to it, but the idea of having my own little pocket of the web, one which i could shape to my liking, who's only limitation was my knowledge
The Yesterweb might be gone, but what it fought for, an independent, connected, and de-centralized internet never left my head, and it's a philosophy that i still carry with me, sharing them around and putting it into practice
It doesn't feel right to finish a post like this with anything less than a bunch of shoutouts to the people that made such a wonderful place possible, so
*Sadness, Cinny, and all the wonderful maintainers that made the Yesterweb possible, and i'm sorry for being just another weight
*IowanEASFan, even after all these years i'm thankful for when you took the time to make that sidebar
*Virtue, all of you, you indirectly showed me ANTISONISK and were nice to me once
*That guy that was obsessed with that japanese firefox mascot, you're awesome