oldweb.today
December 4, 2015 10:02 AM Subscribe
At most 1231 user(s) ahead of you
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:09 AM on December 4, 2015
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:09 AM on December 4, 2015
The wait & load time looks like a feature of the old web.
I remember nothing so infuriating as to have AOL kick me off line for 10 minutes of inactivity, followed by a busy signal when I tried to dial back in. BASTARDS!
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:11 AM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
I remember nothing so infuriating as to have AOL kick me off line for 10 minutes of inactivity, followed by a busy signal when I tried to dial back in. BASTARDS!
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:11 AM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
This could get *way* too real if I finally get down to single digits and then the site craps out on me. It'll be just like waiting hours for a song to download from Napster only to get cut off in the final ten minutes.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:11 AM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:11 AM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
1,571 users ahead of me. So ... oldweb.nextmonday
posted by chavenet at 10:12 AM on December 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 10:12 AM on December 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
While waiting, type on an electric typewriter or move back to non-electric one...If line still too long, try ballpoint pen, or, fountain pen or quill...
posted by Postroad at 10:12 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Postroad at 10:12 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
It should auto-play Modemsong.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:15 AM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:15 AM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'm not sure it's functioning as intended. I finally got in with a date set for 2000-11-10 and nothing is loading. Tried Metafilter (natch), Yahoo, Microsoft, and my university (at the time) and all I'm getting is "url could not be found in the archives".
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:32 AM on December 4, 2015
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:32 AM on December 4, 2015
Yeah, so it made me wait for >15 minutes in a 1000 person queue, the size of which appeared to go up and down arbitrarily, and then it told me that the url "could not be found in the archives" which, you'd think, it could have checked for and mentioned before the 15 minute wait.
Just... no.
posted by Dext at 10:35 AM on December 4, 2015
Just... no.
posted by Dext at 10:35 AM on December 4, 2015
Yeah, so it made me wait for >15 minutes in a 1000 person queue, the size of which appeared to go up and down arbitrarily, and then it told me that the url "could not be found in the archives" which, you'd think, it could have checked for and mentioned before the 15 minute wait.
"Thank you for logging on to the DMV simulator. Please take a number."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:40 AM on December 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
"Thank you for logging on to the DMV simulator. Please take a number."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:40 AM on December 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
Iconoclast that I am, I was logged in after only ten or fifteen seconds, despite the queue of some thousands of people, and it loaded a 1999 version of Metafilter right up. Very satisfying. Although apparently in 1999 no one really ever commented on any of the posts :/
posted by Dr. Send at 11:15 AM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Dr. Send at 11:15 AM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
Netscape. I almost paid the 59 dollars.
posted by mule98J at 11:27 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mule98J at 11:27 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Aww, i was hoping this would actually have a bit more on it than archive.org. In a way, it seems to... but i still can't meaningfully get very far in to a couple websites i remember from 2000~ or so.
posted by emptythought at 12:42 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by emptythought at 12:42 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is interesting. I hit the "load a random URL"-type button, because I just wanted to see the old browser more than the old internet (which I can get on my own in archive.org). I got a session open pretty much immediately. Not sure if choosing "random" vs a specific URL and time makes a difference, or if all 1,000 people who were waiting left right before I tried it out.
It looks like there's some pretty neat stuff going on in the backend, tech-wise. I ended up with Netscape on Mac. The entire MacOS is usable from the VNC console embedded into the page. I poked around some control panels, the (presumably) VMs that are running this are using DHCP to grab internal IP addresses. No idea how they're doing the super-nifty archived webpage stuff, though - once you're in a session, you can change the date in the datepicker to the left and refresh the page in the oldbrowser embed to get newer (or older) content.
posted by notnamed at 12:54 PM on December 4, 2015
It looks like there's some pretty neat stuff going on in the backend, tech-wise. I ended up with Netscape on Mac. The entire MacOS is usable from the VNC console embedded into the page. I poked around some control panels, the (presumably) VMs that are running this are using DHCP to grab internal IP addresses. No idea how they're doing the super-nifty archived webpage stuff, though - once you're in a session, you can change the date in the datepicker to the left and refresh the page in the oldbrowser embed to get newer (or older) content.
posted by notnamed at 12:54 PM on December 4, 2015
the man of twists and turns: "Surf The Old Web!"
I'm already a metafilter member.
posted by boo_radley at 1:27 PM on December 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
I'm already a metafilter member.
posted by boo_radley at 1:27 PM on December 4, 2015 [5 favorites]
Wait, was this Before Goatse Era, or After Goatse Era? I'm not looking.
And yes, I'm suggesting a new calendar convention.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:37 PM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
And yes, I'm suggesting a new calendar convention.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:37 PM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
Abehammerb you got me curious so I tried to track it down. The year is for sure 1999, but not a lot of places have the exact date, and some old forum post mentions Oct. 8th with no evidence.
Going by that date, most of this are probably BGE.
posted by numaner at 3:43 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Going by that date, most of this are probably BGE.
posted by numaner at 3:43 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've had to explain goatse to some millennial coworkers. I think this calendar convention would help avoid such awkward conversations by allowing me to properly triangulate the right audience for a goatse joke.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:48 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:48 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I am totally using this to surf the old Chowhound.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:30 PM on December 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jacquilynne at 11:30 PM on December 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by rongorongo at 10:08 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]