[p3rls]

There is no alternative. People talk about alternatives but everyone I've checked is even worse. Bing, DDG etc. All give complete garbage results. Perhaps not as gamified, but usually that just means you're going to a wordpress of a less competent admin.

[kibwen]

Back to webrings! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring

(This is a joke (or is it?))

[somat]

I like webcomics, the scruffy sort, just one person a website and a dream. The best part of these little comics is where they will have a list of links to other comics they like.

This feels like one of the last bastions of the true web left, the small web that is actually interlinked, not the dead ends you find in your ecommerce or social networking sites.

But it too is disappearing fast, I for one will miss it.

[dmvdoug]

Without deciding whether your particular mention of webrings was a joke or not, the nostalgia for them that has been cropping up lately is a little bit puzzling to me as someone who remembers well those days. Because webrings themselves were often full of just pure junk, not to mention broken links, or websites that hadn’t been updated in years but we’re still “under construction” (with the de rigueur gif of a hardhat or something).

[mikecoles]

With its brokenness, those days were more enjoyable to many. The web was more interesting with the variety. Personal sites were a place for each mouth to speak. Today's sites are a place to be force fed pure junk.

[dmvdoug]

Oh, no, I certainly agree that the old web was a better, more interesting place than today’s. By far. If you invoked webrings simply in order to invoke the old web, I totally agree (as opposed to invoking webrings per se). I just pushed back a little bit because even back in the day I didn’t like webrings. :)

[noizejoy]

I also think (hope), that reach/scope reduction is a possible counter-reaction as the winner-takes-all empires enshittify beyond repair.

From food to manufacturing to music and other cultural endeavours: making communities small(er) might be an interesting counter (r)evolution.