What should I add to my '90s website?

So I’m currently toying around with NeoCities, and decided to trial it by building your classic mid '90s Geocities/Tripod/Angelfire pastiche website.

Some of the most important elements are already in place.

Tile background? Large font? Heading in bright pink with a shadow? Unusual colour choices? Random cat gifs? Under construction gif? Check! Check! Check!

In the true spirit of the '90s DIY web, some more pages (including the links page) are coming soon.

(I’m thinking of adding a page dedicated to either Britney or a nu-metal band.)

You can see the page so far here: https://that90ssite.neocities.org/

There are a few things that I want to add to make it complete, and I’m looking for suggestions.

The first, is to embed a midi file that plays automatically. Any suggestions on the best way of doing this?

Second, it’s just not going to be complete without a guestbook.

Third, any webring suggestions?

Fourth, what’s the best way of adding a java chat room in 2024?

Finally, anything else that really needs to be a part of a great '90s website?

UPDATE: Thanks for all the feedback! I’ve added more annoying GIFs, a guestbook, a links page, and a cyber cat hangout.

UPDATE 2: And added even more gifs, an amazing Amiga demo, and a ton of links.

@asklemmy #tech #webdev #neocities #technology

    • SkaveRat
      29•9 months ago

      maybe even a fake gif one, that speeds up more and more until it explodes

    • Tar_Alcaran
      8•9 months ago

      And a guestbook, though thats a bit trickier nowadays with bots everywhere.

  • @IrregularActivity@lemmy.worldEnglish
    35•9 months ago

    Remove adaptive formatting, fixed width everything. Why should you care about my browser and screen size? That was part of why the pages looked more clunky in later years: the increase in screen resolution were not taken into account, so that pages sat tinily in the top left of the screen. Generally, lack of useful formatting was widespread. Just writing the text into naked HTML, having a few links (in default blue/purple) and you’re good to go. I’m not sure if bullet points were even used.

    Once you add some content, put it into a default HTML table without added styling. I don’t even know if browsers still display these shitty gray bars, but you saw them everywhere.

    And if you want to look professional, of course use frames! Preferably with fixed sites, too much text in them and scrollbars everywhere…

    :funnytagthatonlytranslatedtoanemojionaspecificbulletinboard:

    • @neidu2@feddit.nl
      6•9 months ago

      I remember feeling like a webdesign master when I figured out frames. I was always more of a backend guy (perl + CGI = ❤️), but frames enabled me to produce pretty decent looking websites.

  • @Furbag@lemmy.world
    27•9 months ago

    Guestbook, hit counter, a midi file playing in the background, and a dead hyperlink to another page of the same website.

    Edit: omg I can’t believe I forgot about marquees. Do that too.

  • Turun
    18•9 months ago

    It’s readable on mobile. You need to unfix that immediately. The font must not appear bigger than 5px. Responsive layout is forbidden.

    • @CanadaPlus
      7•9 months ago

      Also, no popups. That’s both retro and not retro enough. (Or were those introduced for the first round in the early 2000’s? I don’t know, I’m too young)

  • @TheHottub@lemmy.world
    16•9 months ago

    I was fully prepared for the experience from my teens. My first thought was “that loaded way too fast.”

  • @Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    15•9 months ago

    Sorry but were you alive in the 90s? That tile background is way too big. Take it down to 128 x 128 anything bigger than that takes too long on my 56k. Also I don’t see one frame or table border.

    • @Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
      1•9 months ago

      frame

      Man, how did I forget those abominations?

      Saved so much time and bandwidth reloading several kilobytes of headers and menus.