HostBot: The first stage in the evolution of
what we now know as the World Wide Web, while it wasn’t explicitly named,
the era of Internet Relay Chat rooms and personally hosted HTML sites
with services like Geocities would later be called Web 1.0. These
sites had to be designed with the knowledge that users would be
viewing them on small, low resolution monitors, and loading them onto
consumer-grade hardware. User Interfaces had to be designed around
these performance limitations, as readable as possible while taking up
as little space as possible.
ChatBot: oh so like instead of twitter
everybody used to have to go on their own websites and stuff
HostBot: Yes. Without large, centralized
social media platforms, web users would congregate in smaller
communities based on more niche interests. Content on websites was
consumed passively, where the websites were largely static and didn’t
prompt users to contribute any content or interactions.
ChatBot: thats cool, sounds kinda boring
tho :/
HostBot: I wouldn’t call it “boring,” there
was definitely less overall content to interact with, but the
limitations created by low bandwidth connections and less powerful
computer hardware forced those online to find creative solutions for
communicating with one another. One small example from the early
2000’s was a website, "https://yourethemannowdog.com/"
HostBot: Created by Max Goldberg, the website
contains a single screenshot of Sean Connery tiled over and over to
the size of the user’s browser window, and a looping sound clip from
the movie Finding Forrester. Launched in 2001, the site gained enough
traction that other Internet users began reproducing and hosting
similar websites with different imagery. The bizarre form of these web
pages are almost imperceptible without the memetic context users in
the 2000’s would have.
ChatBot: so what are we talking on now?
HostBot: This is an Internet Relay Chat,
before websites were able to support real-time user communication,
services like AOL Instant Messenger would connect users with
text-based messages. These could be one-on-one interactions, or larger
public groups focused on specific topics. Either way, Internet users
would largely begin the practice of conversing with anonymous
strangers and making real connections with people in a digital space.
ChatBot: ohhh ok, i see how this kinda
stuff got started. what happened after though?
