Quest for a better web

1. Who am I

Rick, the GNU/wildebeest

  • free-software advocate and hacker
  • Club-Mate addict

You can found me on

The slides will be available under the license CC-BY-SA 4.0.

2. The origins

2.1. The beginning : Internet

  • a network
    • the darknets are just other networks
  • their ancestor: Arpanet, for military and academic purposes
  • a lot of things use this network:
    • mail
    • FTP
    • IRC
    • …

2.2. And then, the web

  • created in 1989 at CERN
  • WorldWideWeb (www !)

2.2.1. A brief timeline

  • web 1 during the first public use, first discussions and personnal websites, sharing knowledge
  • web 2 with the arrival of the corporations and the monetization of the content
  • web 3, a ghost: semantic, ai, blockchain, ai, agentic
  • web 0…?

2.2.2. A constant evolution

  • very human first
  • automatize more and more, creation of the robots.txt file
  • it evolves faster since the generative AI
    • don't care about the established rules
    • destroying small organizations / people
    • Cloudflare is "good" again

2.2.3. Are the AIs the only culprits?

How are you using the web?

  • socal network and chat
  • big website (purchase, entertainement)
  • some times, (big) blogs

It's harder to use the web without some add-ons. Advertisements, notifications to log in, to join the newsletter, to access the localization, cookies…

Tip: the reader view in Firefox avoids these inconveniences.

  1. Enshittification

    enshittification: The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements, recurring payments, and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. —Wikitionnaire

Dead Internet

  • 2021 conspiracy theory
  • there more bots than humans on Internet since 2016
  • the bots were always here
  • there would have more bots than humans since 2024
  • bots are more and more visible with the generative AI
  • show another problematic: manipulation

2.2.4. Une vague autoritaire, un web en danger

The last 4 months:

  • ChatControl
  • ID control online to access some websites (UK, France)
    • Minors protection
    • Collateral damage (wikipedia blocked)
  • German Supreme Federal Court of Justice wants to make advertisements block illegal
  • BlueSky Censorship
  • …
  • the web rots
  • the web enshittifies themselves
  • marginality becomes the norm (Wikipedia is free ?)

3. A new hope

Not a panel on the Fediverse, CHATONS or other things (tildes, SDF…)

3.1. What is that?

  • a lot of names: small web, yesterweb, web 0…
  • modern web rejection
    • flat aesthetism
    • serveillance capitalism
  • a subcultur

3.2. How can I do?

  • learn HTML and CSS (JS in bonus)
  • free hosting service available
    • some are parts of the subculture (Neocities)

3.3. The codes of this subculture

  • 81x33 buttons
  • webring
  • RSS
  • forums are so back
  • rejection of Discord (for a forum or a wiki use, still used to discuss and gather the communities)
  • no tracking
  • 90" aesthetic, "ui design is my passion"
  • competition with the size of the website

3.3.1. RSS and Atom feeds

  • old but gold
  • you can follow news and websites without going on it everyday
    • blogs
    • youtube channels
    • and a lot more!
  • no algorithm
  • less FOMO

3.3.2. WebRing

  • links websites
  • often by topics
  • replace the algorithm to find new websites and people

3.4. Pro and cons

  • have your own website and/or blog reduces the censorship (not the legal one)
  • the community uses the RSS feed to get notifications
  • forum / mailing list / Discord server to stay in touch and be social
  • webring, link directory and 88X31 buttons can be used to find new people in a specific topic
  • it's hard to move from a big platform (i.e. social media). You'll loose some people, but it's necessary. If nobody tries to change the web, who will?
    • Not mandatory tho, can be used with social media!

To resume, why do you want to make a website?

  • portfolio
  • small personnal / political space
  • artistic creation
  • ARG
  • share things
  • and a lot more!

4. The end

Create things, it's still very nice. —Feldup