Thoughts on the Protoweb
This post is part of Agora Road's November 2024 Travelogue.
Main thoughts
Last weekend, I stumbled upon the Protoweb project. It is a proxy that hosts historical internet websites. Considering that sort of thing is right up my alley, I have no idea how I never heard about this before.
After I heard that the service had a replica of old YouTube, my curiosity was piqued. As such, I decided to check it out.
As the thing is designed to be compatible with old web browsers, I fired up my Windows XP virtual machine and configured the proxy in Internet Explorer.
The first thing I checked out was the YouTube replica, which they host on a website called WarpStream. For starters, the thing requires you to install Flash player. This is not an issue as the service provides you with the historical installer your need.
Unlike VidLii which also replicates YouTube's old style, this website is a bona fide archive. It contains a dataset of video from the early 2000s. To my surprise, the comments were also archived. Although the dataset shows its limitation, it still provide a good insight into the culture of the time.
The main portal of the Protoweb is a website called iNode. Although the most websites appear to have been simply pulled from the Wayback Machine, some websites go a step further as they are modern replicas of bygone services.
An example that caught my eye was an early replica of Miniclip. I must admit I did not expect to play a flash games in Internet Explorer in 2024. I knew that flash games wouldn't be gone, thanks to some preservation efforts, but I had not imagined that some people would make full-on website restorations.
Other games playable are RuneScape Classic (via OpenRSC) and RuneScape 2 (via 2004scape). As the writing of this, 2004scape appears to be bugged out as I could not get past the title screen. I have not tested RuneScape Classic.
Overall, this is a very good preservation project. You should definitively check it out. It should be noted that Protoweb websites only works through their proxy.
Thoughts on the Internet
As some of you may know, I have some issues with the internet in general. I had heard many things about the old web, but seeing this preservation project really putted things in perspective.
One thing that became immediately clear to me is that the internet back then was mostly composed of nerds, children and teenagers goofing around. This still true even today, although now we are in the presence of corporations that try to monetize anything.
This experience made me realize that something is off about the internet in general. You are telling me that the result of all mankind becoming interconnected is just this? I am confused. I feel like that the web should have given us more progress than just this. I am talking like "uplifting our species to a new level" kind of progress. Something is off.
Perhaps it is all due to an accessibility problem. Creating content on the internet, does have a barrier of entry. But even so, I would have thought that some university, laboratory or someone would have come with something greater than this.
The internet does not feel like the apex of mankind's success. Why is it that way? Hmm, I will some time to think about this.
Thoughts on revivals
I can imagine a similar project to this emerging in the future. Something similar to the indie web revival going on, expect everything would be compatible with old web browsers. Considering how many people seek to escape the modern web, this seems to logical endgame to me. A way to fully reject modernity as to shield oneself from the darkness of the world.
I don't think this would solve anything - at least not completely.
Many people on the internet are of the opinion that modern social media websites are ruining society. I beg to disagree. Although they certainly don't help, I believe that the internet as a whole is an issue (or at least how we use it). I think people absorb too much information without having the time to process it.
That being said, historical archives like the Protoweb are good in my book. If similar projects emerge in the future, I will certainly check them out. What would interest me the most would be a project that restores a wide array of old flash game websites. That would be cool to see.
Written by manpaint on 27 November 2024.