Webrs is something of the past, and we are worse for that

by Robert Scotchi
| Published 11 seconds ago

I try not to look like an old man screaming on a cloud when I flow on Webrings, but they were the final form of discovering creative content in the late nineties and early 2000. In 2025, since Discovery is dominated by Seo Gamed search engines and social platforms, we no longer stumble through the content organically; It is presented to us as an algorithm as we arrest ourselves in the darkness of forgetfulness. The days of loss were given in the link pages, the stumbling of a comedy or blog by chance, finding something worthy, and transferring it to your friends.

Maybe I am old, but those were the days. Webrss are still present in small pockets, although they are increasingly specialized and difficult to embrace with more control over the algorithm. It may seem primitive now, but Woberss was once formed the backbone of the Internet, and we are worse if they are allowed to fade.

What is webring?

Webrings was simple in both theory and practice. The “links” page often contains a list of sites that indicate others in the same circle. In creative spaces, artists are associated with peers who admired, who in turn are associated with more creators, and they form a series. Click for a long time enough (while updating your reference signals, of course), and it will end from where it started, hence the name “Webring”.

In some way, webring was a primitive algorithm required an active exploration. The information has not been paid in an endless pass; It was searched for intent, which sometimes leads to a golden mine of content and community.

Content collection is the new global system

While reviewing Jay archiveand I remembered how I felt magic webrss. Comic’s Creator had a section of links that lead to teams he loved and the comedy he read. Nevertheless, hunting was maintenance: if the dark site appeared or its links ended, the episode was broken.

Today, everything is an algorithm. Log in to Tiktok, and your summary is coordinated in advance on the basis of previous behavior. See very few car -based dining reviews and the platform will feed you more until you intervene. The human element that made the Webrss Special has ended, replaced by the conclusions that assume they know what we want, and they are often right.

The Internet was better when it was organic

I began to hear myself saying “When I was your age”, and I’m not sure I feel about it. But living in multiple stages of the development of the Internet, I miss when I can find a group or artist liked, knowing who followed him, and a cycle of a cycle of discovery that I felt deliberate. In its own way, the best 8 myspace was the last webring on a large scale, a clear map of the communications that formed how to explore us.

We used to be a suitable country. Now it is All slope.

---