YOU ME WWW this page is a brain/research dump of what i remember of personal site/domain culture as a kid during early 2000s. it's very disjointed and messy, and the topic/time will skip. as i find enough info/stuff/whatever on something i'll gather it all into its own page. i'll try to offer a bit of info about what the items are at least for now.
quick note: warning for potential phobias/-isms/etc, things were wild back then. links out aren't endorsements of the ideas/word usage/etc contained within, and my notes are brain lint not facts. digging around internet graveyards from ~20 years ago is weird and i try to be respectful and avoid sites containing irl info/images, but as i'm only here for the general trends and not the individual content i don't look too closely or go through every capture. if there's personal info there i didn't see, when i'm made aware of it i'll remove links/etc.
go careful, tread respectfully and self research. peace.
notes sorted old >>>> new
i remember you/me/www being the standard navigation layout --
you > reads/contests/graphics/layouts/quizzes/site of the month/etc
me > about me/about site/old layouts/facts list/favourites/collected stuff >> sometimes fiction/art
www > links
i think whoever died with the most pages linked won
greymatter blog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greymatter_(software)
this was a pre-cursor to livejournal/myspace? you wrote a blog, people would comment. 01-03 personal sites would open with the greymatter diary, and from there would be armies of links/etc from the side menus. i don't know if it was used for any other purpose or by anyone who had left college yet because back then i was single-mindedly dedicated to being a cool girl on the internet lmao -- should look into it later
COMMON PAGES
READS were chain letters either copypasted or written by the host? like you know you're .... when..../things x always ask y/oh god it was buzzfeed we all had a personal buzzfeed >>> later reads evolved to linking your favourite blogs
FAQ apparently people got asked shit
SURVEY/READS PAGE EXAMPLES:
How well do you know me?:
When you first saw me what was your impression?:
What is the best feature about me?:
How long have you known me?: ummm since skool
How well do you know me?: i kno were u buried the bodies x_x LOL
When you first saw me what was your impression?: BITCH!!!! JK i thought wow what is that girl doin o_O
What is the best feature about me?: personality ^_^
---DAvID---
How long have you known me?: we met yesrtday lol
How well do you know me?: ??? ur okay
When you first saw me what was your impression?: cool pokemon cards
What is the best feature about me?: ur shiny charizard
this fell out of fashion as blogs became the centrepiece of the personal site i guess?
PICK-ME https://web.archive.org/web/20021129143318/http://www.pick-me.net/
people with domains would host those without. people would go here to request hosting on a personal domain or find people to host on theirs. i was never hot shit enough to get hosted, rip
glad to say in the year 2021, while homophobia is still annoying-through-lethal, that that there was a blogring proclaiming it proudly made my gay ass laugh out loud at the audacity
the link (https://web.archive.org/web/20021206034037/http://www.lovejunkie/~fuck) leads nowhere. homosexuality wins again.
aside: the blogrings were overlapped with public hosts like blogspot too. they seemed to have a huuuge range, the few links wayback could recover the blogs didn't have anything in common beyond whatever got them into the blogring.
BLOGGER https://web.archive.org/web/20021125085027/http://www.blogger.com/
like greymatter, this was also installed onto personal sites. i know the site is still up and offering blog hosting etc, but i dunno if you can still do whatever was happening in 2002.
looking around some pick-me.net sites, these weblogs (often still called that) were an elite kind of myspace, if myspace did or didn't exist yet? a diary, a sidebar with small chunks of info/likes/dislikes/favourites/etc. HUGE pride in the layouts and social connections. this diary method of running a website feels both low maintenence and easy content. pretty clear turning point where this trend grew into and finally was destroyed by the social media of today instead of staying isolated personal sites.
QUILTS
linkquilts??? patchwork of square blinkie gif links. come back to this later.
everything was in fuckin pop-ups. two splash pages: intro image > requirements/whatever > finally the site in a 500x500px pop up box with image mapping
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/bones/WhyIHateWebLogs.html -- i hope this person is doing okay out there in the social media hellscape lmao