'Nobody should have to dance for their supper just to find out some folks have rediscovered The Wire again'
My journey to the heart of the forgotten internet
Slowly but surely, huge swaths of the internet are vanishing. But the artefacts of the early web are still out there, and they have lessons for the future.
The Sites We Lost
A memorial to the weird little corners of the internet that lived on The Useless Web.
Sad YouTube: The Lost Treasures Of The Internet's Greatest Cesspool
<b>"I would like to send you a memory."</b> Buried deep within the internet's most notorious comment section lies a treasure trove of personal stories that prove the power of pop music better than any video ever could.
FediForum | Growing the Open Social Web un-workshop, 2026/03/02
rip.so :: the digital graveyard
A memorial to the messengers, social networks, browsers and websites the internet forgot.
The Entire Internet Is a UGC Reaction Video Now
I keep a folder in Apple Notes called “cursed websites,” where I save various artefacts that make me feel like the social contract has dissolved. Call it an act of self-loathing. Call it collecting evidence of the fall. Dansugc.com went straight into the folder this morning. It’s a
Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media
When practitioners used the term “social media” to describe the internet tools that emerged in the mid-aughts, they were giving a name to the kinds of platforms and protocols that allowed people to socialize with friends and communities of interest by using digital technologies. Twenty years later, users of social media are far more likely to scroll than post – and the content that they consume is often strategically produced and algorithmically curated. In this essay, I argue that the very essence of social media has changed. To more effectively interrogate what we are witnessing, we need to stop presuming that these tools are “social media” and begin recognizing that they are now “parasocial media.” Doing so raises new questions about digitally mediated sociality, not to mention the politics and governance of these platforms.
L.A. TACO's Protest Survival Guide ~ L.A. TACO
Here is a guide of protest essentials for new and seasoned protestors, including a breakdown of important rights to remember.
The Sites of The Useless Web
The current roster of useless websites on The Useless Web — with the story behind each one.
What We Lost When We Quit Using Crappy Old Web Forums
Old web forums were poorly coded and rough around the edges, but maybe we gave up on them too quickly in the social media era.
The Skeleton Library
On Interpolatable Archives, Part 1: Compulsions to Connect, Warburg, Borges and Goldsmith, Cultural Technologies and Digital Oralities
The web we lost
A melancholy reflection about what happened to the web mixed with some positive imagination about to do about it.
What Was the Internet?
Google Reader was building the wrong future
We Build On Hope @ PublicSpaces Conference 2026
Against the dark forest
J. R. Carpenter || A Handmade Web
The web was always about redistribution of power. Let's bring that back.