A bit of webmaster nostalgia.

wish we could turn back the clock to the easy days

[londrum]

i remember putting my first website up five years ago, and thinking how difficult it was. but now when i look back it seems so easy.

all we had to worry about was HTML... maybe chuck in a bit of javascript as well for the mouseover buttons... and, bingo - we had a decent site.
these days the minimum we have to know is HTML, CSS and javascript. and then there's ajax, php... and all that other stuff.
we have to think about accessibility as well, and validating our pages. nobody thought too much about interactive sites - it was 90% static stuff.

we didn't have to worry too much about getting links - our pages would still get indexed without them. and if we didn't rank well in google it didn't matter. you could get equal traffic from yahoo, altavista, lycos... and even that ask the butler site.

who remembers web-rings? are they still going? and bomis.com. i used to use that more than yahoo. i went back and had a look at it the other day and it was like being in a timewarp. i don't think it has changed at all.

anyone else miss the old days?

[martinibuster]

...and bomis.com. i used to use that more than yahoo.

Some things have their echo in the present. Bomis was founded by the same guy who founded Wikipedia.

[rocknbil]

i remember putting my first website up five years ago

You call that nostalgia? :-D

Web rings are somehow (miraculously) still out there, but mostly on hobby, amateur, special interest sites. I remember 1995, which is still "only yesterday" in net-years. You don't *need* to know php or ajax to do valuable work. Just like JS, these are specialized tools that you only call into play if your task requires it. I can program in php, asp, Flash, coldFusion, etc . . . I still prefer perl, and only then if the task requires something server-side.

we have to think about accessibility as well, and validating our pages.

This was well in swing five years ago.

nobody thought too much about interactive sites - it was 90% static stuff.

Same here. Shockwave was the forerunner of Flash, even in 1995 it was making . . shock waves. :-)

[Key_Master]

Care to also bring back the Network Solution monopoly and their $75+ a year domains? :)

I think it's much easier today. More money and more opportunity.

[Key_Master]

Oh, almost forgot the "blink" tag. Good riddance!

[thecoalman]

these days the minimum we have to know is HTML, CSS and javascript. and then there's ajax, php... and all that other stuff.

Yea, I hate the fact I can change a link or any part of the main structure site wide by editing a few lines in one or two PHP pages or change the formatting sitewide by editing the CSS file. What a shame that is.... ;P

As far as Javascript goes, rarely use it and when I do it will work with or without it.

Like many people I built my first pages with frames until finding out the problems they produced. Ironically I can remember thinking to myself that I wish there was a way to template at least the main nav so I didn't have to edit every single static HTML page.

[jake66]

It was nice to have people exchange links with you because they liked your site, not because it will get them ahead in google.

[Rehan]

I remember when my personal homepage was listed on Yahoo. It's not so easy anymore, eh?

Is anyone still using the Netscape color cube?

[edited by: Rehan at 3:28 am (utc) on June 10, 2007]

[rocknbil]

^ ^ ^ Now *that's* nostalgia! :-P

Remember when animated .gifs were cool? And how about those animated icons of the mailbox - EMAIL ME!

Ironically I can remember thinking to myself that I wish there was a way to template at least the main nav so I didn't have to edit every single static HTML page.

SSI! :-P Even more ironic, system administrators used to consider an all-SSI site "selfish and excessive" because it took to much CPU to parse every page . . .

Who remembers the Captain Trips email spoof?

[piatkow]

>>Like many people I built my first pages with frames until finding out the problems they produced.

I'm glad it wasn't only me! Of course it wasn't such a problem with Altavista and the Yahoo directory but when that google thing came along ......

[lohia anirudh]

Its just above 2 years that I started my career in this field. I know the experience I have is very less compared to most of you present in this forum. But whenever I think of the stuffs I did two years back does make me a bit nostalgic.

Anirudh

[TerryG]

i dont do many sites anymore but just did one in the "old" ways just for giggles .

[LifeinAsia]

Remember when animated .gifs were cool?

I remember the first time I saw an animated gif on an "under construction" page (a guy furiously digging next to a Men at Work sign) and thought it was great. The second time I saw it, it was still cute. After a dozen times, it definitely started wearing thin.

I remember 1995, which is still "only yesterday" in net-years.

Huh? 1995 is ancient in net-years. And I hate to say it, but I remember it well. :)

I also remember a seminar I went to at the end of that year where the speaker was discussing the concept of having a site where people could come and BUY something from you, process the financial transaction online, then send the order to a distribution center where someone would grab the product, put it in a box, and leave it for FedEx to come pickup (because the sales system alerted FedEx'e web site of the order). I thought it was so cool and that I'd found my calling. The sentiment from most of the others there was along the lines of "Cool, but it will never happen." :)