Greetings, dear friends!
Once again, the traditional moment has come when we meet on the pages of our magazine, and this is already the anniversary, tenth issue!
The tenth issue is already a milestone!
We are happy to welcome you to the anniversary issue of ELPiS magazine. It is the height of summer: some are just dreaming about a vacation, some are already wrapped in the sun and warm wind, and some have just returned and are slowly sorting through their impressions. Whatever the case, this is a great time to pick up your favorite magazine, pour yourself some cool mint tea and spend some time in the cozy space of the old Internet.
This issue is also special because it is entirely composed of articles by our subscribers.
Each of them is lively, personal, real. We are a little sorry that someone did not have time to prepare material for the tenth issue, but there are still many issues ahead - there will be a chance to catch up. And for now - just enjoy what has turned out. The magazine remains true to itself: it is still about the small web, about alternative paths of Internet development, about things that were and are, about the past that does not let go, and the present that we rethink together.
Some authors are not appearing on our pages for the first time - and this is truly valuable.
There is no better compliment than a returning author who has something to say and with whom we move forward. This is a sign that the magazine is read, it is needed, it lives. Thank you for this!
Your opinion is very important to us.
If you have thoughts about what you have read, ideas for future articles, criticism or just a desire to say "hello" - take a look at our guest book (contacts). We read everything you write and are always happy to receive feedback.
We wish you sunny weather, a warm summer, a vacation filled with inspiration and new meanings. May you have time for walks, for friends, for old sites and new discoveries.
Sit back and enjoy the anniversary edition! ;-)
As always, the ELPiS team is with you.
Contents:
The Web Outside of HTTP
Format that was buried with honors
J2ME: Run once, write everywhere or make button phones greate again.
Photomemorabilia and the Fight Against Digital Disappearance
If the Internet was invented in Italy
Epilogue
The Web Outside of HTTP
An application layer protocol (there are other protocols, but this is the type we'll be talking about today) is basically a method for delivering data from one machine to another via a network address. The most popular protocol is HTTP, or HyperText Transfer Protocol, and powers Google, Facebook, and just about every other webpage you've interacted with. That is, every time you type "http://" in front of the website you're visiting, you're interacting with the HTML protocol. But this isn't the only way to transfer data to each other. In addition to the older protocols that were developed before HTML, hobbyists and developers have been busy creating their own protocols, spurred by the enshittification of the web they once loved. Why would you want to use one of these protocols? I mean, aside from the fact that they're cool and fun to play with, here are some of the reasons that I enjoy interacting with them:
An alternative to the bloated web.- I'm not going to rehash my grievances with the modern web; if you're here and reading this, you're familiar with them. The modern web sucks. But fortunately, nearly all of these alt protocols cannot even support the technology that has ''caused'' the modern web to suck. Scripting (javascript) used to track you, flashing images, and feature fingerprinting quickly become irrelevant when you're in a space that supports none of these things. This is also in part largely why they remain so small; they’re anathema to marketers.
Power to the People - The Gemini protocol was meant to be easy to implement in 100 lines of code, whether you're writing a server or client. Although you do need a bit of technical know-how to set it up initially, beyond that the bar for buy-in is low, and many other protocols follow this same philosophy. Building a browser for most of the spaces detailed below is not and never will be the behemoth undertaking that building a web browser for HTTP has become, and that ensures that they will always be available to users, not owned by corporate spy entities.
Energy concerns - The environmentally conscious among us know how much energy it takes to run the modern web. And although most of us in the "global north" are spoiled with almost instantaneous wifi, there are still places where connections are sparse. Hell, some of us are just poor! I spent years carefully monitoring my web connection and living on public wifi because I simply could not afford high-speed access for my own home. Almost all of these alternative protocols are primarily text-based, and remain very small. Servers for most of them can be run on old, cast-off hardware. Whether you're worried about environmental destruction or just don't have reliable web service, these protocols will be easy and fast to access for the rest of time.
Fun! - Just as building your own web site is fun, and gives you a sense of ownership over the web, building your own protocol can be even more so. Protocols are developed for all sorts of different reasons, and can be enjoyed for different reasons as well.
Now on to the individual protocols:
Gopher
Gopher was created in 1991, and has been featured previously in this zine [https://elpis.ws/cgi-bin/cms/zine_nov_24#5 here]. It's probably the one protocol that is most known when it comes to non-HTTP protocols. Meant as an alternative to SSH, Gopher is heavily structured around its menu system, ensuring that all Gopher holes (the equivalent of 'sites' in Gopherspace) are displayed the same way. This uniformity makes it easier for users to navigate no matter where in Gopherspace they are. Modern-day users can surf Gopherspace using the text browser Lynx, or the Gemini-specific browser Lagrange.But wait! Did you know there are two additional protocols associated with Gopher? That's right! Gopher+ was developed in 1993 and aimed to extend the existing specifications to include meta data about the author of the page, when it was created, and a few other things. It never really did catch on, possibly because it required server operators to make significant changes to their existing configurations. The other one is Gophers, confusingly named, but basically adds encryption a-la https. I find it very interesting that this one exists, but I'm not sure of how relevant it is to most users, who aren’t writing anything more complicated than text.Interestingly, if you check out the Wikipedia article on Gopher, it reports that Gopher holes have actually been increasing in recent years. After staying at around 150 servers for a decade or so, it's now up to almost 400!If you're interested in learning more about Gopher, here are some good places to start:gopher://gopher.floodgap.com
Gemini
Gemini is a text-based protocol that was inspired by Gopher and created recently, in 2019. It is a little bit more flexible than Gopher, but not by much. Rather, it has a specific set of philosophies that governed its creation:Servers and clients should be easy to implement, with "100 lines of code or less"No support for tracking or other privacy-invading technologyGemini got a bit of a boost during the COVID lockdowns as people turned to the internet for escape, and again when Twitter was bought out and started hemorrhaging users. Not everyone has stayed, of course, but Gemini still boasts more servers and "capsules" (Gemini sites) than any of the protocols listed here, at almost 4000 total.While it doesn't support client-side scripting like Javascript, many Gemini servers do support CGI (server-side) scripting, so Gemini users have gotten pretty creative in making dynamic and interactive pages for the protocol. There is even a simple forum at gemini://bbs.geminispace.org where users discuss all sorts of things on Reddit-style subchannels. There's also the Astrobotany game at gemini://astrobotany.mozz.us/, where users plant and water a virtual seed everyday.If you're interested in getting into alternative internet protocols, this is definitely where I'd start, as it's user friendly and relatively active. My favorite client is Lagrange, but there are a lot of them available, which you can find here:https://codeberg.org/kr1sp1n/awesome-gemini#clientsThere’s also an excellent intro to Gemini here:https://admin.flounder.online/
Titan
Titan is a companion protocol for Gemini that is used for uploading files and data. It does this anonymously, so it is mostly used by wikis and other community-editable spaces. There are a couple of other protocols that were created for the same reason, but it seems that only this one caught on. If you're interested in interacting with this protocol, Lagrange has support for it natively, and there are a few sites, notably the TransJovian Council's Community Wiki (gemini://transjovian.org/), that use it to allow you to upload changes to their articles. Spartan
To most end users, Spartan will seem no different from Gemini, since most of its differences are on the back end. However, there are some slight differences for programmers in the way syntax is interpreted, and it includes some additional parameters in its URLs that Gemini chooses to ignore, such as the username parameter. Writing the syntax itself is very similar to Gemtext (Gemini's name for its syntax), and it is supported by Lagrange and a few other browsers. Spartan is probably the third most popular protocol out there, next to Gemini and Gopher.https://portal.mozz.us/spartan/mozz.us/spartan://mozz.us/spartan://tilde.team/
Scrolls
Scrolls protocol was inspired by Gemini and Gopher+. Specifically, the developer liked the Gemini spec, but wanted to add metadata to pages, so that we could see the author, date created, and a few other things. Although this protocol isn't very popular, I very much like the added functionality, and hope it catches on.There are fewer clients that support Scroll, and I had some trouble getting any of them to run on my native Linux Mint, since they are all written for newer versions of Ubuntu. On Windows, however, they seem to run without issues. Surfing around Scrollspace, you can see the extra data for each page you visit. In the Profectus browser, it shows up in a panel on the left-hand side, whereas terminal clients will show it elsewhere. Currently the main drawback is that there just aren't many pages available, which is a shame, because I think there is some real potential here.gemini://scrollprotocol.us.to/
Scorpion
Inspired by Gemini, Spartan, and the rest. Perhaps the oddest thing about this protocol is that is served to the user in binary format, and uses an unusual encoding scheme (TRON-8), instead of the more popular UTF-8. According to the creator, this is to simplify the interpretation of files, not necessary the creation of them. As far as I can tell, there are not any currently available clients or servers for this protocol, though the author is very active in online spaces, so hopefully someone will make one soon.https://github.com/zzo38/scorpion
Misfin
The project page sums this one up perfectly: "Misfin is to email what Gemini is to the Web." Like Gemini, it doesn't support images or formatting, and messages have a hard limit on how long they can be, but who needs all that extravagance, anyway? Setting up a Misfin server is a little technical, but if you're willing to learn about how certificates work and how you can import them into your browser, you can sign up for a free Misfin account at the Hashnix servers here:
gemini://hashnix.club:1958/More info:https://gitlab.com/cipres/misfin/gemini://misfin.org/
Nex
Nex is an interesting protocol not because of the features it does or doesn't support, which are almost identical to Gemini. Rather, Nex was built to serve the Nightfall.city community, and serves less of a philosophical niche than a social one. It is perhaps the only one I've found built with such motivations. But really, why not have a protocol that serves a group of people online? These protocols do end up drawing in their own communities anyway, and Nex simply embraces the idea and runs with it.Due to its similarity to Gemini, Lagrange and many other browsers support Nex by default, and you can browse around member sites by going to nex:nightfall.city in your favorite software. Molerat
Molerat doesn't have many users at the moment, but it is much more powerful than Gemini and its cousins, in that it supports almost anything you can do in Markdown, with the addition of different types of inputs. Brave! Images are supported, but it's left up to the client whether or not you'd like to display them. The developer has created a small server and terminal client to browse...erm...molerat holes I suppose? There's not really much to look at right now, but I'd be interested to see what people do if this one takes off!
Wireless Access Protocol
This was created when smartphones were young, and is now considered obsolete. Occasionally, however, hobbyists will create for it and have fun accessing it on old hardware. There is one working browser for it that I know of, called WAPua, a pure hobbyist affair that's written in Perl, but apparently Opera also still supports the format. I've linked below to a fun little thread on the MelonLand forums where this was discussed, and fun fact, you can actually browse the forum itself via WML!
These are only some of the protocols I’ve come across while surfing around. People all over are joining in by literally creating the web they want to see, and I'm here for it. I encourage everyone to reach out and broaden their horizons by checking out these and the many other ways of communicating over the internet. Get out there and explore!
Format that was buried with honors
In 1999, on November 5, on the day of Guy Fox, the GIF solemn burning occurred - a symbolic refusal of outdated format and the transition to PNG. I don’t know if at least one file transfer format was awarded such an action. If not, this makes GIF legendary not only in terms of age and huge cultural influence, but also the only format that was buried with honors.
GIF appeared at the very dawn of the wide spread of the Internet, or rather, a few years before the creation of WWW - in 1987. It was released by Compuserve and became one of the first formats using data compression. As a format for streaming files over the network, it was proposed by Compuserve itself, which initially developed it for this purpose. Due to the open specification and free distribution, many platforms began to be used, and with the advent of WWW, it became truly popular. In 1989, that is, two years before WWW, an improved format version was developed, which was an expansion of the original specification. It was in this version that the support of animation and onebic transparency appeared, that is, the lack of color in general.
Despite the fact that the image palette could contain only 256 colors (that is, the entire 8-bit palette), the colors in this palette could be 24-bit. Also, the restriction of 256 colors helped to overcome some programs - for example, GIF Construction SET. The palette expanded by adding several frames containing areas with missing colors. In addition, images with an extended palette could be animated, even if the shift in personnel turned out to be slower. However, then not all computers supported 16 and 32-bit color reproduction modes, so it was necessary to approach with particular caution. Images presented in 256 color reproduction mode looked terrifying.
In addition, GIF maintained a slightly storage of data, due to which the image when loading the page could manifest itself gradually, in several passes. Thanks to this, traffic could be saved by downloading part of the image, and then stop the load. To compress the image, the LWZ algorithm was used, which made it possible to compress the repeated sequences of pixels, in particular, areas with the same color. So, the fewer colors were used in GIF, the more volumetric areas were, and the better the image was compressed.
Unfortunately, this algorithm had a number of disadvantages. First of all, he squeezed the image horizontally, but not vertically. The dimensions of the initial image file and the same, but 90 degrees, could vary by an order of magnitude - which is why many GIFs were then elongated in width. To make it clearer, I will give a simple example. There is a picture in GIF format with alternating vertical stripes:
Turn it 90 degrees:
Graphic information remained the same, but the file size has changed: before it was 1.5 kilobytes, now - 400 bytes, that is, it decreased almost four times. The reason for this big difference is in the work of the previously described algorithm. Consider it in more detail, take the upper row of the first picture, one pixel high:
When compressed, the algorithm will record this line as an alternation of strips of black and white: “Eight black pixels, thirteen white, eight black ...” - a total of nine records of the number of lines. Now consider the first row of the second picture:
In this case, he will record the first line as “a black line of ninety -two pixels” - just one record. And the fewer notes, the shorter they are, the more easy the final file turns out. Knowing this, you can control the process of creating images, having them horizontally and trying to make more lines of the same color.
A typical example of the GIF era of the early Internet is the 88x31 Banner button. In the 90s and early 00x, no site was complete without them, and on some you could find entire walls from such buttons. Also, web designers resorted to the next trick: they squeezed the original vertical image, thereby reducing the file size, and later stretched it back in the browser.
Another GIF problem was that the compression algorithm, which he used, turned out to be patented. In December 1994, Unisys, which developed the algorithm, found out that it is used in a widespread format, and retroactively required deductions for use in commercial programs that have the opportunity to create GIF. At that time, GIF used the vast majority of sites, that is, we can say that Unisys has set the entire Internet for using its algorithm in format. This is the main reason for the creation of PNG - a completely free format, while devoid of GIF restrictions.
Most GIF at that time were static, so PNG did not imply the use of animation, although nothing prevented the use of its use in the standard. But then it was decided that the possibility of creating a pararodal animation was a funny but an unnecessary function, more suitable for video with sound, but not for the picture, which is why the PNG did not add animation support. It was this circumstance that allowed GIF to exist for so long. At the time of writing, the GIF is still used on 17% of all sites, and in 2013 it was used by 63%, that is, as often as PNG - after all, then it was not fashionable to insert the video on the sites.
Later, when animated images nevertheless paid attention to the popularity of animated images, MNG was developed in 2001 - an animated variation of PNG. The format was not widely used, despite the fact that plugins came out for browsers, which allowed to correctly read and reproduce this format - for example, MNG4IE. It also turned out that MNG was not compatible with the PNG popularity that had already begun to gain. The last nail in the coffin cover scored the end of the Unisys patent in 2003, thanks to which the GIF became a completely open format, and all interest in MNG. Later, in 2007, Mozilla proposed its version of the animated PNG, abbreviated as APNG. The subject to include it in the PNG format was rejected, and therefore Mozilla decided to promote the APNG, through their browser. This could bear fruit when Firefox occupied about 30% of the browsers market, but now, when its share is from 7% and lower, the future of the APNG remains foggy.
J2ME: Run once, write everywhere or make button phones greate again.
Remember before there were button phones with small square or rectangular screenings with a resolution of 128 to 128 pixels, and sometimes a little larger in height? And well, if it was already a color screen, which displayed at least a number of colors, sometimes it could be monochrome.
All of them had a certain functionality, of various kinds available from the firmware (built-in), such as a calculator or organizer.
And although there were already pocket computers and various kinds of communicators working on Windows CE or Palm OS operating systems or even a full-fledged 8086 compatible DOS, it was impossible to expand the capabilities of button mobile phones, until Java appeared.
How Java appeared and why
In the 1990s, Sun Microsystems developed Java as a programming language "write once - run everywhere" In practice, this, of course, was far from the case, even though the plan was good, it required a Java machine that at that time impermissiblely took away computational resources.
In 1999, when mobile phones began to develop rapidly, Sun introduced Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) - a cut version of Java for built-in devices with limited resources: mobile phones, pagers, microcontrollers.
By the way, SIM cards available we are using in our smartphones still also work on Java (Java Card to be accurate), but here we will talk about J2ME.
The first phones with J2ME support
Java in phones first appeared around 2000. The first noticeable models were:
- Motorola i85s (2001) - the first got support of J2ME in the early 2001s, the issue began in April 2001.
- Siemens SL45I (2001)- the first Siemens model with Java MIDP support, released in August 2001. This model differed from SL42 only with firmware, so formally it could also support Java. In addition, this phone was the first phone with a built-in MP3 player, supporting the RS-MMC extension cards.
- Nokia 3410 (2002) - the first Nokia model with Java, released in August-September 2002.
Java support made phones more advanced: users could install games, applications, utilities, they could interact with the Internet, camera, and file system and so on.
What is MIDP and CLDC
J2ME was not a single platform - it was divided into “profiles” and “configurations”:
CLDC (Connected Limited Device Configuration) - Basic Virtual Machine configuration for devices with 128-512kb memory - CLDC 1.0, 1.1.
MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) - API interfaces for GUI, networks, input and storage - MIDP 1.0, 2.0, 2.1.
Midp versions:
- MIDP 1.0 (2000): basic graphics, text fields, minimal capabilities.
- MIDP 2.0 (2002): sound, improved graphics, game API (Canvas, Gamecanvas), RMS storage, safety.
- MIDP 2.1: unofficial expansion, mainly in Nokia, with improved memory.
Why did some applications work and others not
Formally, the phone could support, for example, MIDP 2.0, but manufacturers added their API, available only on their models (Nokia UI, Siemens API). Support for the API could be partially implemented either with bugs. Different memory restrictions, jar files, Internet accessibility. Access level (for example, access to the network without confirmation is prohibited). Result: The same Java application worked on Sony Ericsson, but fails on Samsung.
What kind of J2ME applications were
Most Java user was remembered precisely thanks to games, such as Bounce, Asphalt, Prince of Persia, Gravity Defied, Worms. More advanced messengers were used on their phones: Jimm (ICQ), YmTiny (Yahoo messenger), MobiChess - a game on the network. Also, browsers were useful for students of schools or universities, which made it possible to surf only to WAP sites, but also web sites, they were Opera Mini, UC Browser.
Despite the limited capabilities of the screen, a lot of books were read using MobiReader and ReadManiac.
Installation went through WAP sites, infrared port, Bluetooth or data cable. Often - with converting *.jad / .jar. In *.jad.
What was needed to develop J2ME applications
- JDK from Sun Microsystems.
- Wireless Toolkit (WTK) - SDK with an emulator and tools.
- Netbeans Mobility Pack or Eclipseme - plugins for IDE.
- Java + API MIDP/CLDC
- manual testing on emulators and real devices.
Applications were written on Java 2 ME (Mobile Edition), compiled in .class → archived in .jar + .jad.
In the era of the Java button phones, the applications were the only standard way to add functionality to a regular phone without firmware modification. The Java applications actually gave the button phone the functionality of the smartphone, with some restrictions. Manufacturers and operators distributed content through Java applications catalogs on the WAP sites, web-sites, in the newspapers, magazines and even on TV and radio. Java games were real mobile hits and an alternative to pocket consoles.
Let’s now see what old button phones with Java support are capable of now, on the example of my collection of the application for Siemens C65 - the budget model of Siemens released in March 2004.
 | BitmapPainter - allows you to draw small drawings with pixels and save them
vNES - allows you to run 8-bit ROMs for the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) console
MicroReder - allows you to open and create text files
MobileBASIC - allows you to launch and create applications in the Basic language
MobileZIP - allows you to open and create ZIP archives
MidEdit - allows you to edit or create music in MIDI format
PhotoEditor - allows you to edit photos
ReadManiac - reader for electronic books in several formats
SieFM - is a file manager with accessing access to "hidden" discs on Siemens phones |
And now the most interesting thing is that it is still available to me using Java applications and GPRS Internet:
Opera Mini 4 - allows you to surf the web pages, adapting them for the mobile phone screen, compressing traffic, and it still works.
Jimm - instant messenger messages for ICQ servers. It works with kicq (kicq.ru).
MailMan is a postal client for phones on which there is no built-in client. It works great with the mail server Web 1.0 Hosting.
VFTP - allows you to download and upload files from FTP servers, it also works well with the FTP server Web 1.0 Hosting.
VIRCA - IRC Client, with which I connect to irc.retronode.org:6667, even supports UTF-8 encoding.
 |  |  |
| irc.retronode.org:6667 #webdev | KICQ or Nina.chat | web page http://web1.0hosting.net/ |
 |  |  |
| the same web page but closer | write to max hai in ICQ | go to the ftp server |
You can download part of these applications from the WAP site of Web 1.0 Hosting - http://wap.w10.host, which will allow you to work with your sites and mail even with an old button mobile phone with J2ME support. There is also a WAP gateway available, check the main page of the Web 1.0 Hosting or use 135.181.118.15:9201 as a WAP GW.
Why J2ME has disappeared
Android with a full-fledged Java support (but different Java Machine) and full-fledged access to resources came to replace the button phones. Apple did not support Java on iOS - instead, the App Store appeared later with programs that work only on the iPhone. The Java ME platform did not evolve over time: there were no new API for a long time, outdated GUI. Alternatives appeared with better performance, graphics and access to system resources.
What is now with Java applications
Currently, J2ME is used for nostalgia and retro platforms. In emulators: J2ME-Loader (Android), Kemulator, MicroEmulator, FreeJ2ME.
On old phones, that still in use in developing regions.
Some developers retain the archives of classic applications and games, and there are even communities that create "new Old-School J2ME games"
J2ME has become an “application platform” before iOS and Android. It allowed users to customize phones, and to developers to go to the global audience. Although they have gone in the past, the spirit lives - through a modern mobile development based on the idea of tolerance and open standards.
Photomemorabilia inglésPhotomemorabilia and the Fight Against Digital Disappearance
The Story of a Website That Exposes the Cracks in Our Preservation Systems
At the margins of the modern web—dominated by commercial sites flooded with ads, template-based designs, and frameworks updated weekly—there are still websites that withstand the test of time. Photomemorabilia is one of them.
Created and maintained since 2003 by Maurice Fisher—a retired chemical engineer and former researcher in the UK coal industry—Photomemorabilia now hosts over 300 pages dedicated to the technical (and in many ways cultural) history of analog photography. Its level of detail is hard to find even, I dare say, in institutional archives.
Photomemorabilia is a simple website—without responsive design, databases, frameworks, or complex scripts. And yet, it remains one of the most comprehensive and useful sites available today on analog photography.
1
A Website Made by Necessity, Not by Design
Maurice is not a web designer. In his own words, he learned HTML from a book by Elizabeth Castro (HTML 4) and used a software called PageMill, which was abandoned by Adobe over 20 years ago. The simplicity was not an aesthetic or ideological choice, but a consequence of the tools he had at hand.
The book that started it all: Elizabeth Castro’s "HTML 4" — Maurice Fisher’s first guide to web design.
"My original intention was to create one or two simple pages," Maurice explains. His son, then a university student, showed him how to upload content to a website, and he—having followed the evolution of the PC since the 1980s—decided to give it a try. He chose a topic he knew very well: photography.
Over time, those initial two pages multiplied. Maurice added descriptions of cameras, developing processes, defunct brands, and a vast collection of photographs and technical research. Everything is organized using simple HTML links, without any database or CMS involved.
The Paradox of Simplicity
Photomemorabilia’s greatest strength is also its biggest threat. The site works partly because it doesn’t rely on modern technologies that require constant maintenance. “By keeping it simple, I’ve been able to cope” says Maurice. But that same simplicity rests on discontinued software.
Screenshot of Adobe PageMill 3.0, the now-discontinued web editor used by Maurice to build Photomemorabilia. Source: WinWorld.
Today Maurice runs PageMill with ‘workarounds’ on operating systems that no longer officially support it. “So I worry each time Microsoft bring out a new operating system (I shall have to adopt Win 11 soon) in case this OS will be the one on which, despite all my ‘fudging’, I can’t get PageMill to run” he admits.
Functionality, clarity, and personal dedication can do more for collective memory than any trendy framework.
There’s no database to export nor backend to migrate. There’s no GitHub repository. Just HTML files and photographs, carefully edited and uploaded using trusty FileZilla. Like many personal projects born in the early years of the web, Photomemorabilia lacks an institutional preservation plan.
Who preserves the memory of the web?
Maurice has reached out to universities and organizations in the photography field, offering them to host his site as documentary heritage. So far, the response has been silence.
His concern is not trivial: what will happen to all those sites that, for the first time in history, allowed millions to publish content without intermediaries?
Shouldn’t they be treated as digital heritage?
When their creators are gone and stop paying for the domain or hosting, most will disappear without a trace. “People don’t understand that sites like mine might not be there when they need them,” Maurice told me.
There are web archiving services like the Wayback Machine which, although they fulfill a commendable mission and are useful in certain cases, do not offer the same navigability or depth as an active website.
Internet Archive also offers a service called Archive-It, which can host entire websites, making them 100% navigable and publicly accessible with full-text search. However, this service is limited to certain types of organizations, excluding personal projects like Photomemorabilia.
Photomemorabilia is a time capsule of the web as a free, self-sufficient medium, maintained by passion rather than profitability.
More Than a Warning, a Reality
The initial intention of this article was to explore the virtues of functional, minimal design, far from current web development trends. However, upon learning Maurice’s story and his Photomemorabilia site, I encountered an issue I had not previously considered—or had conveniently ignored: the digital preservation of the web.
Current digital preservation solutions for the web seem to focus only on large platforms or institutions. Thousands of sites disappear every year, and in the best cases, only a few isolated pages are preserved—but that is not enough.
It seems clear that simply relying on technology or institutions to solve this challenge for us is not enough. As a community—users and creators alike—we have the responsibility to value and protect those sites that, despite their simple design, contain knowledge that could be lost forever.
With over 20 years of sharing his knowledge on the web, Maurice invites us to reflect on how—and by whom—it is decided what deserves to be preserved.
by Henry tecnolocuras.com
If the Internet was invented in Italy
this text is in no way intended to offend the wonderful italians, it is just irony and humor. i hope the italians themselves will appreciate it, it is a cool country, and great people who love to make fun of themselves
If the Internet had been invented in Italy, it would smell of tomatoes, cheeses, sweat and Catholic shame. It wouldn't turn on without a family scream, without a cigarette in a shaking hand, without a grandmother's obscene whisper on the balcony. You wouldn't open a browser, you'd open a family quarrel.
The first modem in this reality is a sooty espresso machine with antennas made from pasta forks. When you connect to the network, the gas stove in the kitchen automatically lights up. Every message is filtered: "Would your mother approve of this?"
Passwords are screams. Real ones, with a heartbreak. Not a combination of symbols, but a whisper full of guilt. The network doesn't work until you confess. Logging into Googlino is through a call to a priest. He tells you: "Let your search be like a path to purification." Then he splashes holy water right on the screen. The screen cracks. You feel guilty, although you just wanted to find another recipe.
Wi-Fi in Italy doesn’t work, it suffers and gets offended. It has a temperament. If someone nearby argues about politics, the signal drops. If someone doesn’t eat basil sauce, it’s disconnected. Forever.
**Facebook** here is called **Facciabuona**, and it’s a site where you are obliged to congratulate all your second cousins on their birthdays, otherwise they won’t let you out of the house. Instead of likes, there are slaps. Virtual, but offensive and painful. And you know that one day they will become real. For every angry comment, you receive a message from your grandmother: “I didn’t raise you like this, Gustavo.”
The Internet here is not a global network. It’s a shared kitchen. Everyone knows what you were looking for, where you were, who you were watching. You turn on YouTube, and they tell you: “Have you been watching them again? Are you gay?” — and it's not my brother who's saying this. It's the site itself. It has a character.
VPN is prohibited. Because hiding something from your family is a crime. And family is not mom and dad. It's 98 people, including the neighbor who screams in the bathroom every night but still loves you. VPN here replaces the face of a priest who comes to you in your sleep at 3 a.m. and asks: "What are you hiding, my son?"
Porn on the Italian Internet... Oh, that's a whole other story. First, you can't just open it. You first have to watch 15 minutes of a family dinner where everyone screams, drinks wine, and accuses each other of all sins. Then a confession scene. Then a light erotic dance in a Celentano costume in a bowl of grapes. And only after that, if you're still alive, are you given access to "Mom and Dad Have Gone". Only it turns out that "mom" is your real mom, and she came to check your browsing history. Online.
Every website in Italy is styled like an old villa. The web design here is plaster, peeling windows and one very old photo of a grandfather in the army. Even *404 Not Found* here looks like: "Most likely, this site died of boredom. Try again later. Or don't try at all, why do you need it."
Online stores? Oh, yeah. But you don't pay with a card. You pay with respect. You have to know the seller's mother, go to his house, drink 3 espressos, discuss oil in Libya, and only then buy sneakers. And delivery? Your parcel will travel through five villages, go to a wedding, a christening, maybe give birth to someone, and only then will it reach you. If you're lucky.
Amazon? No. Here is *Ammazzone*. This is when you order a book and get a letter from an Italian grandmother: "Have you read Dante? Why do you need more books, hey?"
Forums? Every forum is a bar. You walk in and hear people yelling at each other about politics, sex, football, and wine. The moderators are old men in T-shirts with crosses around their necks who just periodically yell, "Get over it!" and throw a slipper at the monitor.
Every meme has to be approved by the Ministry of Culture. Or at least by your Aunt Rosa. Memes, by the way, are not funny. They are sad. One of the most popular is a photo of a man crying over a broken bottle of Chianti. The caption: *"He was not ready for life."*
Twitter here is just a bird. A real one. It flies onto your balcony and caws about politics.
Instagram is a photo of your pasta. It's a must. If you don't post your pasta, two men in suits come to you and ask, "Don't you eat at home? Are you a drug addict?"
Viruses on the Italian internet don't steal data. They steal self-esteem. You go to a website and it tells you, "You really think you're smart, huh? Look at yourself... and look at your mother. She's crying."
Scammers are relatives. They write to you, "Cousin, give me money, I'm in jail, but everything is fine." And you know that he really is in jail. Just over and over again.
The biggest security threat is not hackers, but grandmothers. They write to everyone, "Have you forgotten about me? Here's a photo of you when you were 4 months old. Do you remember that? No? I don't remember the last time you called either."
Zoom is not video calls. It's a real meeting in a kitchen where 17 people are talking at the same time. Nobody listens to anyone. Everyone is talking. You go out and you are accused of betrayal.
The Italian internet is not about technology. It's about smell. About fear. About family. He breathes like a father after 4 bottles of wine. He snaps his fingers, like the mafiosi before explaining to you that "this is not a threat, this is a concern."
The user agreement is a catechism. If you haven't signed it in blood, you're offline. Forever. Accept cookies? Cookies is the name of the prosecutor who is already looking for you.
Telegram is banned because it's suspiciously Russian. WhatsApp is allowed because the whole family is on it. And that's hell. Chatting with the family means thousands of messages about the weather, health, politics, and photos of someone holding a baby with something burning in the background.
The Internet in Italy is a theater. Every website is a stage. You open the news, and it screams: "Ma che cazzo succede oggi?!" - and you don't know how to react. You just close it and go drink wine. Or cry.
Internet addiction here is when you can't stop arguing with Aunt Rosa in the comments to a photo from 2007. And she still holds a grudge against you for not coming to her birthday party 14 years ago. Even though you were in a coma then.
Advertising banners are invitations to a funeral. "Discount on furniture in honor of Uncle Aldo's passing. Don't miss it."
AI is just a bunch of monks who answer your queries manually behind the scenes. Very badly. But with soul.
The Italian Internet will not forget you. It will remember. It will look at you from the monitor, like a father who suspects that you have become a vegan again. It will wait. Wait for you to make a mistake. Until you say something wrong. And then it will remind you: "And you said that you loved us..."
There is no privacy here. There is a kitchen. There is no speed. There is passion. There is no logic here.
You don't live in this internet. You experience it. Like a hangover. Like your first declaration of love. Like a fight with a relative at a wedding.
If the internet had been invented in Italy, every request you made would be an act of tragedy. Every video would be an opera. Every bug would be a stigma. And you would cry. Scream. Ate. Drank. And log back in. Because no matter how awful it was... it's still **your**. Your blood. Your pasta. Your pain.
Your network. Your family. Your....... Italy.
by Dan downgrade@meta.ua
Epilogue
Well, that's it...
Thank you for being with us and reading this issue to the end. We hope that you found it interesting, cozy and pleasant in a summery way. Such issues are like small parcels from the past, wrapped in the care and attention of our subscribers. Thank you to everyone who sent an article, and everyone who simply read - after all, all this exists only because you are with us.
And now - a little intrigue about the future.
In the next, eleventh issue, the editors decided to dedicate the magazine to women of the Internet. This will be a special issue in which we will tell about those who contributed to the development of the World Wide Web and the small web - about those who designed, wrote, coded, fought, created. About those who did the design, thought about the structure, filled the network with voices and meanings, influenced politics, culture and technology. About those who remain in the shadows, although without them there would be nothing.
We want to tell about legendary figures, and about modern enthusiasts, and, perhaps, about you. If you have a story, a site, a project, or you know someone who is worth mentioning, be sure to write to us. We will be happy to publish links, stories, and your thoughts. Let's show together that the history of the Internet is not only about servers and protocols, but also about people. And women have played and play a huge role in it.
May this summer be kind to you. May you have time to relax, to think, and your favorite sites.
See you in the eleventh issue!
Adios, and may the text Internet be with you.
The ELPiS Team
