Found a 2005 geocities site about my hometown that COMPLETELY nails the feel

I was looking up old local history for a project and stumbled on a Geocities page from 2005 about our town's weird yearly frog jumping contest. Compared to the slick city website now, the old one had MIDI music playing, a grainy photo of my uncle's old truck, and the author's cat named Mr. Boots in the corner. It felt WAY more real and personal than the sterile info we have today. Has anyone else dug up old local sites that actually captured the spirit of a place better than modern ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

seanperry13d agoMost Upvoted

Mr. Boots being in the corner is the kind of accidental charm you just can't replicate. The MIDI music and grainy truck photo are telling a story the city council never would. Modern sites sanitize everything down to a corporate brochure, but that old page had real personality baked into its clunky design. The frog jumping contest probably lost some of its character when they switched to a proper website too.

wesley_hart13d ago

That frog jumping contest thing got me thinking about my town's old "Harvest Days" page from 1998. They had this pixelated corn maze graphic that looked like a kid drew it in MSPaint, but it somehow captured the whole vibe better than any drone shot could. Progress is great and all, but there's something to be said for a website that looks like the volunteer fire department's nephew built it on a weekend.