What's this?

The button wall has a different purpose than my organized directory of links. Here I link to sites I find cool, mostly on an aesthetic level. Also directories or webrings I belong to, comrades in the web revival, and whatever else I feel like.

This was initially more of an actual wall, but as I have come to value contextualizing links more, this has changed. I hope this change will also encourage you to actually seek out these sites. I'll do this more in-depth than my regular link list, even sometimes highlighting specific pages, because these are mostly personal pages that can vary wildly in subject matter.

Take this handy button if you want to link back:

There's also a static button in case you, like me, also cater to people who rather avoid animations on the web.

The wall

Patrons of the 32-bit Café

The café is a community of small web hobbyists. With a strong stance against bigotry and doomposting, it bulwarks itself against two of the most common problems I see in some of the other retro web communities.

By positing her website as a museum, Xandra highlights the core curatorial role of personal websites. It's a very personal site, and if you look into only one specific personal thing, make it her dog Pepper. Pepper is like a furry real-life incarnation of the pleading face emoji, which is an extra cherry on top of dogs already being the bestest of the best.

For me, the highlight is of this very colorful website are the shrines. Some of which have grown into their own separate webpages (the ones dedicated to Mighty Ducks & Invader Zim, for example)! Key's got great taste! Sea Monkeys, green iced-tea, Lordi, … And I see plenty more of shared interests among the impressive galleries of artwork which you should definitely check out as well.

My favorite page is probably the one on Pet Games, which expanded into a dedicated subsite about so-called oddpets. There's also a page dedicated specifically to the first Sims game, which is a real blast from the past for me.

Check out the animated story of PNG! I also guest star on one of the pages of this website, and I'll leave it to you to find it.

The website of my plastic porygonal pal Jay. They've got an impressive collection of Pokémon curiosa, which they've lovingly displayed on their website. Love how they've blinged up pictures of their outfits, a nice throwback to the MySpace days.

I'm eager to see how Dizzy's shrine to the lovable muppet Gonzo will evolve. She also has a pretty extensive link page, and most links have a short description which I really appreciate.

A beautifully designed website. Outside of the extensive art galleries, a highlight for me is the shrine dedicated to Sonic Adventure.

Pinkvampyr runs the Accessible Net Directory, having previously signaled the need for such a thing in his blog.

Conceptualized as a cross between an old school adventure game and a magazine, there's plenty to discover here. My favorite is the research into the origins of the mysterious purple radio plush.

A truly labyrinthine website, and I don't think I've uncovered every nook and cranny. Instead of spoiling that for you by linking to anything specific (like the pages on drag or haute couture), I invite you to stumble around yourself.

This entire site is slathered with (often animated) 3D renders of its mascot, wow! I've got this small hunch that Nick really likes Waluigi…

Check out his Garfield shrine! Also really dig his crafts, especially the plush frogs and sculptures.

I like the page on government cats & riot dogs, and her trip reports of places off the beaten path, like the Desert Bar.

I appreciate fLaMEd's more essay-like blog posts, since they often provide a lot of food for thought. For example, a post musing about hyperlinking practices was the final push towards at me writing descriptions on my links pages.

Describing the website as a garden feels apt. It's like strolling through an English garden, meandering along the sprawling pseudo-natural environment and never feeling like you've quite seen everything, as opposed to the rigid French gardens.

Personal sites with lots of content

A wonderfully weird nostalgia-fueled website. Some articles that stand out for me are a series of pages on the second & third generations of My Little Pony, and a page about old Neopets designs.

I really appreciate the in-depth game review page, and I discovered some really interesting artwork I was unfamiliar with on their art inspiration page.

A wonderfully chaotic website. I especially like her Muppet tarot designs, as well as the collection of vintage gamebook and sci-fi/fantasy covers.

Since my local rendition of The Masked Singer is one of my favorite shows, I really appreciate the shrine dedicated to the American version, since it's all new to me! The Toon World setting is really neat too, especially the juxtaposition between 30s and 90s inherent in the character Rufo!

I really appreciate the curated list of obscure media, his Disney trip reports, and I always love a good bit of sleuthing into unidentified merch.

Push Button reviews is what the web needs more of.

Blue provides his very particular perspective on a wide range of topics.

Aesthetic

Website in a beautifully idiosyncratic Y2K style. The design is continued in the associated fediverse instance, and I simply adore it.

Neat little website that successfully blends the so-called Frutiger Aero graphical design style with solarpunk imagery and themes.

Designer Louie Mantia's blog and portfolio. Check out his icons, typefaces and playing cards!

Directories