I realize this is a site about the past, but I really hope this is the future. I want an internet of specialty sites, browsable curations, diversity of offering, freedom of choice, and full of the quirky/unusual. It might have to do with growing up in the 90s and experiencing that kind of world wide web, w/o walled gardens.
Several years back, perhaps even via an HN post or comment, I came across a blog, hosted on a university network (IIRC, perhaps related to media studies). The page consisted of a group of possibly graduate students contributing some of the weirdest and most obscure media I've ever seen online. Nothing obscene and nothing seemingly new/current, so it was rather hipster in that sense, but I kick myself for not having saved the URL.
Nothing says I need to use walled gardens or get my news from the big networks, but I often feel I'm being pointed that way. In the end, I just want something different than what's usually being served up.
(It doesn't escape me that this 90's TV site is full of walled garden/big network type content of the time)
It's still REALLY EASY to make websites that look and feel exactly how you want, just like it was back then. Server space is dirt cheap. Anyone can register a domain, dirt cheap. HTML and CSS* still work without any JS whatsoever. And if you feel the need to use JS, it is absolutely not necessary to get sucked into the world of "modern" web development that suddenly requires 1000s of dependencies and a complex build process.
Be the change you want to see in the world. Get creative. Tell your friends.
* to be fair, CSS is possibly where the rot started to set in... some poorly thought-out design choices from 20 years ago are still haunting us. But stick to the basics and focus on the content instead, it still gets the job done.
I want an internet of specialty sites, browsable curations, diversity of offering, freedom of choice, and full of the quirky/unusual.
You can have that. All you need to do is make sure the developers who make those sites get rich. Find the sites and tell your friends about them. Subscribe to their work. Buy their merch. Click on the ads. Pay them. Then everyone else will see that sort of site making bank, and they'll follow along with similar things.
The only reason the web is what it is today is because the money went to the walled gardens and social media sites. To change that, change where the money goes.
Possibly an unpopular opinion but I'd argue that, in the main, the people creating interesting stuff as a sideline never got rich. Maybe it's a side effect of the startup and side-hustle mentality here but I'd argue that maybe discussions about these sorts of things emphasize monetization too much.
It’s not the site you’re looking for, but I found https://poolside.fm recently and it’s become one of those quirky corners of the internet that I have come to enjoy. I definitely miss the days of discovering weird specialty sites, and poolside gave me a bit of that new site discovery rush (also the music is great).
Do you not feel that the streaming options are up to scratch? There's so many now, from science doc specific (Nebula and Curiosity stream - I was eager to start with these but inevitably was let down with these 'speciality options') to anime too.
Personally, streaming has now also ruined watching the TV/movies for me.
Since my TV burned itself I've had a non-smart TV and it's actually really refreshing to have such minimal choice and be walled in as such. I end up watching films and actually enjoying them, not dealing with FOMO and wondering if there's something better).
I'm somewhat of an oddball in terms of content preferences. Sure, I have Netflix and use it, but during the past 20 years, over 50% of the tv/film content I watch is foreign (I'm American). I keep lists from my favorite countries and ask foreigners what I should be watching. What would surprise me is finding Netflix-like services that curate the best [insert genre].
So far, I've come across MhZ Choice (for EU shows, with subtitles), FlixOlé (for Spanishf films, no subtitles), Wlext (foreign tv shows...pirated). Also, I recommend using a VPN for Netflix to access different shows and films, depending on the country you choose. The other day I found myself watching a Chinese action film that only had Italian subtitles (luckily my Italian is up to scratch).
With music, my tastes are boarderless and timeless. At any moment, I'll put on 13th century Iberian cantigas, Latin motets, folkloric Sardinian, 90's French indie, 1970s Congolese rumba, modern Ivory Coast reggae, South African Xhosa pop, Indian mantras, Peruvian ethno-techno, and the list goes on.
But yes, the plethora of options is, at the same time, wonderful and dreadful. I tried to sit down and start reading a semi-dense physical book the other day and it's like my mind was too fried to focus due to having just got off the internet.
Human societies must have a free road to organize themselves and grow in a organic way.
Unfortunately our virtual world are built in a way to addict us with content we create ourselves giving a few monopolists total control of our virtual presence.
I'm boarded in a project to think in another approach, in a way the give us more power and freedom to shape our virtual collective consciousness..
Without us figuring out a way to get us all out of this trap, i don't see a very bright future for us, and the current political and social status-quo are a clear sign of what all this is making to us.
The power and control is too concentrated in the hands of a few, and its easier than ever to pull all the strings from a couple of places.
Eg. If we have a dozens of key people to agree into some plan to permanent power and control, it will be impossible for us to take our freedom back, of course it will not look like any sort of government that we have witnessed before.
I know this is a conspiracy theory and i dont like it myself, but its pretty possible and easier to happen with all the technological status-quo and tech monopolies we have nowadays.
"Human societies must have a free road to organize themselves and grow in a organic way."
How does this happen in the monoculture of the global internet, where local heterogenous subcultures (music, art, cuisine, traditions, languages) are eradicated?
In this age of "infinite" content curation is really important. Inspired by the 90's MTV experience I've built https://humanmusic.tv/ to replicate that but with indie music from the last 10 years.
I'm also running a web crawler to discover fresh music videos from various music blogs.
I wonder if a curated directory like the original 90s Yahoo! could work and experience a renaissance today? I could see that being more useful than search, honestly. Search today is just polluted with SEO trash.
I hit 1993 and David Letterman came on and I’m awash in nostalgia for what seems like such a simpler, happier time. People liked each other. They could concentrate longer than three seconds. Dave and Paul are genuinely laughing and everything is all right.
I am regularly watching historic news footage (1950s and 1960s) from the archives of my local TV station. While the people are indeed friendlier than today (and much more eloquent), they don't seem happier. They don't seem less stressed. The general problems are the same. I watched a bit from 1961 about the growing problem of extreme weather events (they discussed whether the atomic bomb was responsible). Another bit from 1962 reported youth crime at an all time high and blamed alcohol, sex and movies. They showed 15 years old tricking themselves into student clubs in Heidelberg to consume alcohol and drugs. A few weeks ago, I watched a bit about the Hong Kong flu pandemic in 1969 (40.000 deaths in Germany alone) where they discussed countermeasures like quarantine and closing schools.
Also, a national TV station here shows "News from 20 years ago", where they just show the entire evening news from exactly 20 years ago. I have been watching this for years now, often while I am walking around the room. Just from the audio, it is often very hard to decide whether the news is from today or from the 90ies. The topics are often the same: politicians accusing each other of X, party Y announcing they now do X, violent conflicts in X, latest election polls, fear of war in Y.
When I watch these bits, I often think of these lines from the Joan Baez song "Hello in There" [0]:
Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more
She sits and stares through the back door screen
All the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen
I used to regularly dig through news archives from 100 yrs ago, and I found a lot of similarities with the news today. I totally get what you're saying.
I watched the documentary called 1968 on HBO. It made me wonder if people knew they were in the middle of one of the most impactful years in American history (MLK and RFK assassinated, sentiment shift regarding Vietnam, Nixon elected, etc). I then realized that 2020 would be viewed in time in a similar fashion. It was somewhat comforting knowing that we’ve pushed through tumult in the past, and that we’re still perfectly capable of doing so.
It’s so easy to lose the context of our place in history when there’s a constant stream of voices all pointing and screaming at the “now”.
Things were NOT simpler. The problems were different. When you are living them in the moment, they are every bit as large as your problems are now.
And fwiw, people in the 90s looked back on the 50s and thought “oh what a simpler, happier time.”
It’s a filtered lens you’re using and you are deluding yourself if you think that any time before you had it simpler and happier simply because they did not have “X” or “Y” that you do today.
How about date rape epidemics in the 90s? And women’s right and outlook for careers and equal pay?
LGBTQ rights? Hahahahahah
I mean, I can go on if you want?
I’m guessing you were a kid in 90s so things were simpler and happier for YOU because you did not have to worry about adult problems?
Gay rights is the only civil rights related thing that's significantly changed since the 90s.
What rights did women not have in the 90s that they have now? Has date rape decreased in the West now? All I hear is that it's just as bad now as then.
The 90s like every time in history had unique problems. HIV/AIDS for example (still a huge problem, STIs are actually on the rise in the US). This time has its own unique problems the 90s did not (the rise of conspiracy theories, the rise of nationalism, the rise of the far-right, etc.) and those affect everyone.
Life isn't continual progress. Just because some things have changed for the better doesn't mean others haven't changed for the worse
What date rape epidemic in the 90s was there that didn't exist in prior decades?
At any rate, it is broadly true that the 90s was a happier time than present.
Today, people can't let you enjoy reminiscing about a period in time without bringing up everything horrible or sub optimal about that time.
It's a pervasive cynicism that wasn't broadly shared then. I was a kid in the 90s exploring AOL chat rooms, forums, the web, etc. It was a very groovy time. Lots of discussions about politics, but it wasn't toxic like today. There are sharp lines today and if you are right of center you're either being deplatformed or shadow banned or called a neo-Nazi.
I mean, you mention gay rights. AOL, the most mainstream internet app had a prominent Gay & Lesbian section and a chat room for folks to meet or discuss commonalities. Nobody was canceling AOL over it. It was just another interest group next to Sports, Video Games, Politics, Religion, etc. You'd wind up meeting gay people through some discussions on the various chat rooms. And we'd honestly debate about whether homosexuality was a choice or not. And in my naivete I took one side of that issue and a gay boy that posted in that vg forum took the other side. It taught me how to understand them. Today, if someone says something outside of whatever the prevailing dogma is, they are treated like they're terrible people. Experiences like that are how you grow as a person. And we cut that off at the knees today trying to make sure no one's feelings are hurt. But all that does is create resentment and divide.
I felt this on 80s french shows too. Its as if 1h back then was longer than 1h now. It's super odd. People were probably happier deeply because all of the new spaces to play on, without much structure and productivity. Things were to be invented. Whereas today, TV shows are long term businesses who have to hold market shar, ensure the same thing every day. No time for stepping aside, laugh or listen.
Probably a difference in human and emotional education. Times were slightly rougher in the 60-80s.. people may have had thicker skin and more social skills.
All in all it might just be a natural cycle of sclerosis, not help by the internet amplifier.
ps YouTube suggested some letterman shows with meg parsont (a random employee working in front of the studio building) I felt Dave was a bit intrusive if not bullish on her. Made me feel conflicted, as I hold the dude and show very high in mind.
I wouldn't hold any celebs too high in mind. Dave is a funny comedian but who knows what he's like in his personal life? Lots of celebs are either assholes or terrible people. Rule of thumb: if you don't know them personally, never put them on a pedestal. Even then, don't do it.
Not to go off on a tangent, but I’m not sure that’s entirely true.
To me, everything changed with the internet, and especially with smart phones + social media.
I was an adult for a period before all of this, and definitely still feel those were much “simpler times” vs. when all these things came about.
Information spreading literally at the speed of light has changed everything. And not all for the worse, but it’s definitely been a double-edged sword.
Wow... the first channel I landed was CBS from 1992 with coverage of the recession with the day labor for manual workers in Los Angeles with white guys next to Mexican laborers, and then as if that wasn't absurd enough the next segment for the 'Michelangelo virus' with John Mcaffee (the guy who I saw said he'd eat his dick if BTC didn't reach $1 million [0]) was pumping his anti-virus software in Santa Clara like it was the pre-cursor to Y2k or something. And then wrapped up with the breaking up of the Soviet Union's Red Army military disbanding to serve as local counterprts for now independent soviet satellite nations.
I'm not sure why I felt I was watching all of this like it it was the first time, even though I lived all of through this and saw a lot of it in TV first hand back then... it was incredibly surreal.
The same era also had Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer. Definitely not allowed where everyone was patient and loved each other. I think your vision of the 90s is too rosy :)
A year after the Los Angeles riots due to four officers being acquitted of excessive force even though they were recorded beating a single black man on the ground?
I distinctly remember the damage to Korean businesses during this time (sacrificed everything to come to America and start business in dangerous low income ghettos and proceeded to lose it all without the government helping) which seems to be an after thought very much like the businesses damaged by subset of BLM rioters but the difference is the rate and speed of information that distinctly produce a very different state of the collective mind.
The reason 90s were much simpler times were because all we had was the TV, mainstream news media outlets, which we know today as far removed from actual journalism. You could turn it off and read a book or play video games (which also suffer from the curse of connectivity today and makes multiplayer a lot more toxic experience).
Can you be more specific with what you're trying to imply with this question? Do you think that the Rodney King riots are evidence enough that what /u/JohnJamesRambo is observing is incorrect, that people weren't actually happier ~30 years ago?
I love the way each channel change takes you to a new webpage, meaning you need to press "back" button multiple times to leave. Truly makes it feel like the 90's.
If this hits you in the nostalgia, check out this project[1]. It uses raspberry pis to broadcast content over "channels" using existing coax to simplify finding something good to watch.
Alternatively, this project hooks up to an existing Plex server and allows you to build channels that can then be connected to over the network (VLC, or anything else that can take a stream, including Plex’s live tv function).
From the menu, hit P to turn on Playlist Mode. That should default to on. Without that, it seems to just play one vid on repeat until you "change channels".
Ooooh, nice-talgic! I'm reminded of the fact that the menus for the DVD release of Wayne's World (1992) were an approximate replica of the Prevue Guide of the day -- a channel dedicated to (Amiga-generated!) scrolling program listings for your particular cable system. The DVD menus even displayed movie trailers in the upper half for other Paramount DVD releases, the same way Prevue did for movies showing on premium movie channels.
There was a fantastic site which was basically exactly this called YouTube Time Machine. You could select the categories and the year and it was magical.
This is a pretty good facsimile of that! Wish they had 50s and 60s as well, but still.
It is awesome. Watched 1990s computer chronicles East Coast Vs West coast quiz test with 1990s computer gurus. It was filmed in World Trade Center. It had Bill Gates in it!
I've been bingeing Computer Chronicles on YouTube, as someone who was born in the late 80s and started really getting involved with computers in the early 2000s it fascinates me.
Is it just me or did the mood of the times have a sense levity and optimism that just isn't present today in 2021? I think so and I see it in the older tv shows.
The teenagers and young adults in the 90s were for the first time too young to remember the woes of the 70s.
The cold war was over, but pre 9/11.
Coordinated global action can solve environmental problems (phasing out of CFCs). Turns out CO2 emissions not such an easy problem to solve.
Rave / House music culture based on euphoric togetherness rather than sex and violence.
The economically rising east asian nations giving the west ever more affordable consumer goods, but not yet threatening US domination of the world order (especially after the bubble in Japan burst).
The utopian promise of the `information super highway'.
Nothing like that was on any TV i watched in the 90s.
Seems like something that I would have heard poorly described by some friend who had a giant sat dish in their yard and figured out how to reposition it when Dad wasn’t home.
Reminds me of the betamaxmas site I stumbled across a few years back. It’s not hard to forget what watching television used to be like. I’m still caught by surprise at how many commercials there are in a given broadcast.
One of the coolest things I've seen so far this year. "Have you seen The Rock vs Ken Shamrock for the Intercontinental Title on Raw last night ?" Man ... I miss all this.
Why is it that access to unlimited content leads to most people watching the worst content ever made, so much so that other people forget that good content exists?
I realize this is a site about the past, but I really hope this is the future. I want an internet of specialty sites, browsable curations, diversity of offering, freedom of choice, and full of the quirky/unusual. It might have to do with growing up in the 90s and experiencing that kind of world wide web, w/o walled gardens.
Several years back, perhaps even via an HN post or comment, I came across a blog, hosted on a university network (IIRC, perhaps related to media studies). The page consisted of a group of possibly graduate students contributing some of the weirdest and most obscure media I've ever seen online. Nothing obscene and nothing seemingly new/current, so it was rather hipster in that sense, but I kick myself for not having saved the URL.
Nothing says I need to use walled gardens or get my news from the big networks, but I often feel I'm being pointed that way. In the end, I just want something different than what's usually being served up.
(It doesn't escape me that this 90's TV site is full of walled garden/big network type content of the time)
It's still REALLY EASY to make websites that look and feel exactly how you want, just like it was back then. Server space is dirt cheap. Anyone can register a domain, dirt cheap. HTML and CSS* still work without any JS whatsoever. And if you feel the need to use JS, it is absolutely not necessary to get sucked into the world of "modern" web development that suddenly requires 1000s of dependencies and a complex build process.
Be the change you want to see in the world. Get creative. Tell your friends.
* to be fair, CSS is possibly where the rot started to set in... some poorly thought-out design choices from 20 years ago are still haunting us. But stick to the basics and focus on the content instead, it still gets the job done.
I want an internet of specialty sites, browsable curations, diversity of offering, freedom of choice, and full of the quirky/unusual.
You can have that. All you need to do is make sure the developers who make those sites get rich. Find the sites and tell your friends about them. Subscribe to their work. Buy their merch. Click on the ads. Pay them. Then everyone else will see that sort of site making bank, and they'll follow along with similar things.
The only reason the web is what it is today is because the money went to the walled gardens and social media sites. To change that, change where the money goes.
Possibly an unpopular opinion but I'd argue that, in the main, the people creating interesting stuff as a sideline never got rich. Maybe it's a side effect of the startup and side-hustle mentality here but I'd argue that maybe discussions about these sorts of things emphasize monetization too much.
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"...To change that, change where the money goes..."
Creative work is currently having its sources of income decimated, from all sides. We should get used to reminiscing.
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It’s not the site you’re looking for, but I found https://poolside.fm recently and it’s become one of those quirky corners of the internet that I have come to enjoy. I definitely miss the days of discovering weird specialty sites, and poolside gave me a bit of that new site discovery rush (also the music is great).
i just downloaded the app. this is amazing, thank you for posting!
Do you not feel that the streaming options are up to scratch? There's so many now, from science doc specific (Nebula and Curiosity stream - I was eager to start with these but inevitably was let down with these 'speciality options') to anime too.
Personally, streaming has now also ruined watching the TV/movies for me.
Since my TV burned itself I've had a non-smart TV and it's actually really refreshing to have such minimal choice and be walled in as such. I end up watching films and actually enjoying them, not dealing with FOMO and wondering if there's something better).
I'm somewhat of an oddball in terms of content preferences. Sure, I have Netflix and use it, but during the past 20 years, over 50% of the tv/film content I watch is foreign (I'm American). I keep lists from my favorite countries and ask foreigners what I should be watching. What would surprise me is finding Netflix-like services that curate the best [insert genre].
So far, I've come across MhZ Choice (for EU shows, with subtitles), FlixOlé (for Spanishf films, no subtitles), Wlext (foreign tv shows...pirated). Also, I recommend using a VPN for Netflix to access different shows and films, depending on the country you choose. The other day I found myself watching a Chinese action film that only had Italian subtitles (luckily my Italian is up to scratch).
With music, my tastes are boarderless and timeless. At any moment, I'll put on 13th century Iberian cantigas, Latin motets, folkloric Sardinian, 90's French indie, 1970s Congolese rumba, modern Ivory Coast reggae, South African Xhosa pop, Indian mantras, Peruvian ethno-techno, and the list goes on.
But yes, the plethora of options is, at the same time, wonderful and dreadful. I tried to sit down and start reading a semi-dense physical book the other day and it's like my mind was too fried to focus due to having just got off the internet.
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Human societies must have a free road to organize themselves and grow in a organic way.
Unfortunately our virtual world are built in a way to addict us with content we create ourselves giving a few monopolists total control of our virtual presence.
I'm boarded in a project to think in another approach, in a way the give us more power and freedom to shape our virtual collective consciousness..
Without us figuring out a way to get us all out of this trap, i don't see a very bright future for us, and the current political and social status-quo are a clear sign of what all this is making to us.
The power and control is too concentrated in the hands of a few, and its easier than ever to pull all the strings from a couple of places.
Eg. If we have a dozens of key people to agree into some plan to permanent power and control, it will be impossible for us to take our freedom back, of course it will not look like any sort of government that we have witnessed before.
I know this is a conspiracy theory and i dont like it myself, but its pretty possible and easier to happen with all the technological status-quo and tech monopolies we have nowadays.
"Human societies must have a free road to organize themselves and grow in a organic way."
How does this happen in the monoculture of the global internet, where local heterogenous subcultures (music, art, cuisine, traditions, languages) are eradicated?
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Let us be stronger.
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In this age of "infinite" content curation is really important. Inspired by the 90's MTV experience I've built https://humanmusic.tv/ to replicate that but with indie music from the last 10 years.
I'm also running a web crawler to discover fresh music videos from various music blogs.
I wonder if a curated directory like the original 90s Yahoo! could work and experience a renaissance today? I could see that being more useful than search, honestly. Search today is just polluted with SEO trash.
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Did the site have a video stream in the centre and a chat box below it? There were often streams of storms filmed from a beach front location?
Not that I recall, no. I only looked at it once, for maybe 20 minutes. It was more like a blog (ie, scroll bar, multiple entries).
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… but I kick myself for not having saved the URL …
Maybe https://neave.tv/?
That's a great site! Love it
But unfortunately, no. The one I remember wasn't TV-based. It was more like a normal blog but hosted on a university domain, iirc.
maybe https://www.kickscondor.com ?
If you do find the link, I want to know!
I hit 1993 and David Letterman came on and I’m awash in nostalgia for what seems like such a simpler, happier time. People liked each other. They could concentrate longer than three seconds. Dave and Paul are genuinely laughing and everything is all right.
What a fantastic website.
> what seems like such a simpler, happier time
I am regularly watching historic news footage (1950s and 1960s) from the archives of my local TV station. While the people are indeed friendlier than today (and much more eloquent), they don't seem happier. They don't seem less stressed. The general problems are the same. I watched a bit from 1961 about the growing problem of extreme weather events (they discussed whether the atomic bomb was responsible). Another bit from 1962 reported youth crime at an all time high and blamed alcohol, sex and movies. They showed 15 years old tricking themselves into student clubs in Heidelberg to consume alcohol and drugs. A few weeks ago, I watched a bit about the Hong Kong flu pandemic in 1969 (40.000 deaths in Germany alone) where they discussed countermeasures like quarantine and closing schools.
Also, a national TV station here shows "News from 20 years ago", where they just show the entire evening news from exactly 20 years ago. I have been watching this for years now, often while I am walking around the room. Just from the audio, it is often very hard to decide whether the news is from today or from the 90ies. The topics are often the same: politicians accusing each other of X, party Y announcing they now do X, violent conflicts in X, latest election polls, fear of war in Y.
When I watch these bits, I often think of these lines from the Joan Baez song "Hello in There" [0]:
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k41y5Pd5NU0
I used to regularly dig through news archives from 100 yrs ago, and I found a lot of similarities with the news today. I totally get what you're saying.
I watched the documentary called 1968 on HBO. It made me wonder if people knew they were in the middle of one of the most impactful years in American history (MLK and RFK assassinated, sentiment shift regarding Vietnam, Nixon elected, etc). I then realized that 2020 would be viewed in time in a similar fashion. It was somewhat comforting knowing that we’ve pushed through tumult in the past, and that we’re still perfectly capable of doing so.
It’s so easy to lose the context of our place in history when there’s a constant stream of voices all pointing and screaming at the “now”.
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Things were NOT simpler. The problems were different. When you are living them in the moment, they are every bit as large as your problems are now.
And fwiw, people in the 90s looked back on the 50s and thought “oh what a simpler, happier time.”
It’s a filtered lens you’re using and you are deluding yourself if you think that any time before you had it simpler and happier simply because they did not have “X” or “Y” that you do today.
How about date rape epidemics in the 90s? And women’s right and outlook for careers and equal pay?
LGBTQ rights? Hahahahahah
I mean, I can go on if you want?
I’m guessing you were a kid in 90s so things were simpler and happier for YOU because you did not have to worry about adult problems?
As someone who is not white, the thought of using a time machine and ending up in 1950s america is a terrifying thought.
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I think you're being a bit overdramatic.
Gay rights is the only civil rights related thing that's significantly changed since the 90s.
What rights did women not have in the 90s that they have now? Has date rape decreased in the West now? All I hear is that it's just as bad now as then.
The 90s like every time in history had unique problems. HIV/AIDS for example (still a huge problem, STIs are actually on the rise in the US). This time has its own unique problems the 90s did not (the rise of conspiracy theories, the rise of nationalism, the rise of the far-right, etc.) and those affect everyone.
Life isn't continual progress. Just because some things have changed for the better doesn't mean others haven't changed for the worse
What date rape epidemic in the 90s was there that didn't exist in prior decades?
At any rate, it is broadly true that the 90s was a happier time than present.
Today, people can't let you enjoy reminiscing about a period in time without bringing up everything horrible or sub optimal about that time.
It's a pervasive cynicism that wasn't broadly shared then. I was a kid in the 90s exploring AOL chat rooms, forums, the web, etc. It was a very groovy time. Lots of discussions about politics, but it wasn't toxic like today. There are sharp lines today and if you are right of center you're either being deplatformed or shadow banned or called a neo-Nazi.
I mean, you mention gay rights. AOL, the most mainstream internet app had a prominent Gay & Lesbian section and a chat room for folks to meet or discuss commonalities. Nobody was canceling AOL over it. It was just another interest group next to Sports, Video Games, Politics, Religion, etc. You'd wind up meeting gay people through some discussions on the various chat rooms. And we'd honestly debate about whether homosexuality was a choice or not. And in my naivete I took one side of that issue and a gay boy that posted in that vg forum took the other side. It taught me how to understand them. Today, if someone says something outside of whatever the prevailing dogma is, they are treated like they're terrible people. Experiences like that are how you grow as a person. And we cut that off at the knees today trying to make sure no one's feelings are hurt. But all that does is create resentment and divide.
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I felt this on 80s french shows too. Its as if 1h back then was longer than 1h now. It's super odd. People were probably happier deeply because all of the new spaces to play on, without much structure and productivity. Things were to be invented. Whereas today, TV shows are long term businesses who have to hold market shar, ensure the same thing every day. No time for stepping aside, laugh or listen.
Probably a difference in human and emotional education. Times were slightly rougher in the 60-80s.. people may have had thicker skin and more social skills.
All in all it might just be a natural cycle of sclerosis, not help by the internet amplifier.
ps YouTube suggested some letterman shows with meg parsont (a random employee working in front of the studio building) I felt Dave was a bit intrusive if not bullish on her. Made me feel conflicted, as I hold the dude and show very high in mind.
I wouldn't hold any celebs too high in mind. Dave is a funny comedian but who knows what he's like in his personal life? Lots of celebs are either assholes or terrible people. Rule of thumb: if you don't know them personally, never put them on a pedestal. Even then, don't do it.
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Not to mention liberal too with televised broadcasts like Le Narcisso Show
This entirely depends on when you were born.
For older people, the 50s and 60s were that. For others slightly older than you, the 80s were that.
For people younger than you, the 2000s were great!
Not to go off on a tangent, but I’m not sure that’s entirely true.
To me, everything changed with the internet, and especially with smart phones + social media.
I was an adult for a period before all of this, and definitely still feel those were much “simpler times” vs. when all these things came about.
Information spreading literally at the speed of light has changed everything. And not all for the worse, but it’s definitely been a double-edged sword.
very insightful. the secret is that everything just gets worse every decade
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Exactly. They were simpler for the parent because he was a kid during the 90s.... or just oblivious.
“Oh pity us, we got it so bad and they didn’t!!!”
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> What a fantastic website.
Wow... the first channel I landed was CBS from 1992 with coverage of the recession with the day labor for manual workers in Los Angeles with white guys next to Mexican laborers, and then as if that wasn't absurd enough the next segment for the 'Michelangelo virus' with John Mcaffee (the guy who I saw said he'd eat his dick if BTC didn't reach $1 million [0]) was pumping his anti-virus software in Santa Clara like it was the pre-cursor to Y2k or something. And then wrapped up with the breaking up of the Soviet Union's Red Army military disbanding to serve as local counterprts for now independent soviet satellite nations.
I'm not sure why I felt I was watching all of this like it it was the first time, even though I lived all of through this and saw a lot of it in TV first hand back then... it was incredibly surreal.
0 https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/john-mcafee-dick-bitcoin-bet...
Yeah, I had forgotten how much music sucked then though. ;-)
I want an 80's television, 70's television....
EDIT: Oh, I see the links on the site now to a 70's and 80's channel. Awesome.
https://youtu.be/9vyZK_CKkZo
The same era also had Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer. Definitely not allowed where everyone was patient and loved each other. I think your vision of the 90s is too rosy :)
Sorry I meant 'definitely not shows', autocorrect went on the fritz lol.
maybe ppl were happier in a sense that ignorance is bliss. they simply did not have access to information like we have.
We also didn't have access to targeted disinformation campaigns at the same scale. There's a lot of angry ignorance spreading these days.
A year after the Los Angeles riots due to four officers being acquitted of excessive force even though they were recorded beating a single black man on the ground?
I distinctly remember the damage to Korean businesses during this time (sacrificed everything to come to America and start business in dangerous low income ghettos and proceeded to lose it all without the government helping) which seems to be an after thought very much like the businesses damaged by subset of BLM rioters but the difference is the rate and speed of information that distinctly produce a very different state of the collective mind.
The reason 90s were much simpler times were because all we had was the TV, mainstream news media outlets, which we know today as far removed from actual journalism. You could turn it off and read a book or play video games (which also suffer from the curse of connectivity today and makes multiplayer a lot more toxic experience).
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Can you be more specific with what you're trying to imply with this question? Do you think that the Rodney King riots are evidence enough that what /u/JohnJamesRambo is observing is incorrect, that people weren't actually happier ~30 years ago?
I love the way each channel change takes you to a new webpage, meaning you need to press "back" button multiple times to leave. Truly makes it feel like the 90's.
This is 100% the right way to handle routing in single-page apps. The back button should work the exact same way it does in a server side render app
Now it's back, try escaping linkedin
It's actually just changing the hash.
Comments on this from 5 years ago, just for reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10308004
Fondest 90s TV for me was TGIF, no better way to end the week then sitting with your family in front of the TV on Fridays watching those shows.
Same here! Then in the late 90s it was Friends, Frasier, and Seinfeld.
If this hits you in the nostalgia, check out this project[1]. It uses raspberry pis to broadcast content over "channels" using existing coax to simplify finding something good to watch.
[1] https://hackaday.com/2020/02/07/raspberry-pi-serves-up-24-ho...
Alternatively, this project hooks up to an existing Plex server and allows you to build channels that can then be connected to over the network (VLC, or anything else that can take a stream, including Plex’s live tv function).
https://github.com/vexorian/dizquetv
From the menu, hit P to turn on Playlist Mode. That should default to on. Without that, it seems to just play one vid on repeat until you "change channels".
We're getting closer and closer to this commercial from the late 90s for Quest Communications https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ9qcp6Lcno
It is missing this: https://battaglia.ddns.net/twc/
Ooooh, nice-talgic! I'm reminded of the fact that the menus for the DVD release of Wayne's World (1992) were an approximate replica of the Prevue Guide of the day -- a channel dedicated to (Amiga-generated!) scrolling program listings for your particular cable system. The DVD menus even displayed movie trailers in the upper half for other Paramount DVD releases, the same way Prevue did for movies showing on premium movie channels.
I love coming across things like this. This is what makes the internet so cool to me, being able to just watch tv from decades ago completely wild.
Some times I want to set earth UTC to some year between 70-99 and wake up with news as if it was today.
coincidentally, I was just looking at Puffer project couple days ago when I was remembering how I used to couch surf and flip channels instantly.
https://puffer.stanford.edu
There was a fantastic site which was basically exactly this called YouTube Time Machine. You could select the categories and the year and it was magical.
This is a pretty good facsimile of that! Wish they had 50s and 60s as well, but still.
It is awesome. Watched 1990s computer chronicles East Coast Vs West coast quiz test with 1990s computer gurus. It was filmed in World Trade Center. It had Bill Gates in it!
I got sucked into that one as well and then went to the internet archive to watch some others. It was called the Computer Bowl:
http://tcm.computerhistory.org/computerbowl.html
I've been bingeing Computer Chronicles on YouTube, as someone who was born in the late 80s and started really getting involved with computers in the early 2000s it fascinates me.
I really miss the 90s.
Is it just me or did the mood of the times have a sense levity and optimism that just isn't present today in 2021? I think so and I see it in the older tv shows.
The teenagers and young adults in the 90s were for the first time too young to remember the woes of the 70s.
The cold war was over, but pre 9/11.
Coordinated global action can solve environmental problems (phasing out of CFCs). Turns out CO2 emissions not such an easy problem to solve.
Rave / House music culture based on euphoric togetherness rather than sex and violence.
The economically rising east asian nations giving the west ever more affordable consumer goods, but not yet threatening US domination of the world order (especially after the bubble in Japan burst).
The utopian promise of the `information super highway'.
I've always thought something shifted after 9/11.
Nearly everybody is nostalgic for their youth.
There's some pretty explicit stuff in there.
https://my90stv.com/#t91RVPnehDo
Nothing like that was on any TV i watched in the 90s.
Seems like something that I would have heard poorly described by some friend who had a giant sat dish in their yard and figured out how to reposition it when Dad wasn’t home.
It's so eurotrash I can't believe they're singing in English.
When I was growing up this is what I imagined Cable TV must be like.
This link took me to a Nine Inch Nails music video.
The music is Nine Inch Nails but the video certainly isn't.
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Now the next step is to add a VCR so I can take a bathroom break and then keep watching from where I left off :)
But only after the program you were watching finishes!
Reminds me of the betamaxmas site I stumbled across a few years back. It’s not hard to forget what watching television used to be like. I’m still caught by surprise at how many commercials there are in a given broadcast.
One of the coolest things I've seen so far this year. "Have you seen The Rock vs Ken Shamrock for the Intercontinental Title on Raw last night ?" Man ... I miss all this.
Just out of curiosity, where is all of this content coming from?
YouTube, or at least some of it is. On mobile it doesn't work properly and you can see the borders and titles from YouTube.
And in Canada, I see the YouTube's "this content in not available in your country" quite often.
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Lots of "this video is unavailable".
The Internet Archive should really start archiving youtube videos too.
(And youtube should have an api to detect whether the video is available or not)
Is the English-dubbed version of the original Japanese Iron Chef show on here? Would love to see some full episodes. That one has been hard to find.
I really really miss stumbleupon. This site is pretty cool though...those 90s music videos were so....those were the times
I know this says 90s, but when I see Max Headroom that's solidly 80s yo. Like, totally.
Encino is, like, so bitchin!
Cool site, well done. Too bad all the crap added by youtube kills the immersion
How editable are the resources/content to make an 80s and a 70s version?
There's already links on the page to the 70s and 80s version of the site.
Great, would be cool if you could set the language too... :)
Did y'all know Ben Shapiro was in a boys band in his previous career ? -> https://my90stv.com/#q3qDESAvzh0
This is fun.
I even like the commercials! You don’t realize how slick everything is nowadays. It’s kinda nice to see something simpler.
Yeah. Real tv was much more boring. Haha
def need some b/w filter, just for more "retro" feel
Interesting that you mention that. I grew up with colour TV so I associate black and white with faux retro.
The 70s version has a B/W button on the TV.
This is super awesome!
This is great
Why is it that access to unlimited content leads to most people watching the worst content ever made, so much so that other people forget that good content exists?