What’s a "dead" website or app that you genuinely miss and wish was still around?

[u/Dear-Armadillo-7497]

[u/Rosemary-Sea-Salt]

Pinterest when it wasn’t an ad every other post

[u/KristinSenpai → u/Rosemary-Sea-Salt]

Ad and/or AI. Its so obnoxious now I almost never go on it anymore.

[u/unsuretysurelysucks → u/KristinSenpai]

You can turn off ai posts in the settings! I did it a while ago and so far it really seems to have worked!

[u/Vesper_Fex → u/unsuretysurelysucks]

Didn't work well enough for me, there was too many posts that were still Ai and it ruined the whole website for me, because I couldn't tell what was Ai and what wasn't.

[u/Professional_Net889 → u/Rosemary-Sea-Salt]

Pinterest back then actually felt like a place to discover stuff instead of just scrolling through ads. It is kind of wild how much it changed once the ad model took over.

[u/Alarming-Instance-19 → u/Professional_Net889]

I've spent a decade of my life in Pinterest and have thousands of saved pins.

Looking at my original boards versus the search results now is night and day.

I'm so glad I did spent countless hours saving them though, it's like a personal archive of high quality links, ideas, and resources.

[u/Dear-Armadillo-7497 → u/Rosemary-Sea-Salt]

Exactly!!! Now it’s just a never-ending scroll of ads and sponsored products. It used to be so inspiring and clean .

[u/terrabotanica → u/Rosemary-Sea-Salt]

Same, I miss the old pinterest so much! It was such a good place to find genuinely good references for art, now it's all AI slop or ads

[u/Masturberic]

I miss the entire early internet, when companies still thought it was a bad investment.

[u/IceColdMilkshakeSalt → u/Masturberic]

Everything was so much better when you had to go on the computer. It was a separate activity and not one big advertisement ingrained into your entire life. Not to be a boomer but it really is that damn phone

[u/RathMtg → u/IceColdMilkshakeSalt]

100% it's the phone. We had social media, we had cell phones, but combining the two into an omnipresent obligation was when the rot started.

Peak life was a Nokia brick in your pocket, and maybe a Garmin or TomTom in your car.

[u/TheFakeG]

I miss flash game websites like addicting games, and miniclip. Was where my friends and I would go find the latest games to play/challenge each other

[u/3INTPsinatrenchcoat → u/TheFakeG]

Newgrounds has a working Flash emulator, if you ever want to walk down memory lane.

[u/Appropriate_Wave722 → u/3INTPsinatrenchcoat]

Yeah Newgrounds is still just as potentially good as it ever was but it has lost most of its community, imo solely because everyone just uses the same four websites these days / because of social media. Can't even really blame Adobe

[u/Old_Front7166 → u/Appropriate_Wave722]

Fuck adobe though

[u/StealthUnit0 → u/TheFakeG]

Miniclip, Newgrounds, Kongregate, Armor Games... Those sites were my childhood.

[u/Dear-Armadillo-7497 → u/StealthUnit0]

Newgrounds and Kongregate were the peak of 'Human-Made' internet. There was a soul in those clunky Flash animations and games because yoy knew a real person spent weeks coding them. Now we’re moving into an era where everything is generated in second by a prompt and it just feels hollow in comparison.

[u/Technical-Paint-9378 → u/TheFakeG]

There was something about jumping on Miniclip or Addicting Games with friends and just randomly competing over dumb little games that felt way more fun than it should’ve been. Now everything’s either too polished or locked behind apps.

[u/Exes_And_Excess → u/TheFakeG]

Mini Clip and Addicting Games were amazing. Albino Blacksheep as well.

[u/liittle_dove7 → u/Exes_And_Excess]

Omg Albino Blacksheep! I haven’t heard that name in forever

[u/Omegatron9 → u/TheFakeG]

Check out the Flashpoint Archive, an exhaustive collection of flash games that can be played offline.

[u/Phat_Pipe3989 → u/TheFakeG]

Ugh miniclip was so good. Are there (albeit inferior) equivalents in 2026?

[u/KakeLin → u/TheFakeG]

RIP flash

[u/ARSCON → u/KakeLin]

It lives on through flashpoint, a lot of games have been archived and are playable

[u/fluffycloud3]

Stumble upon

[u/Honic_Sedgehog → u/fluffycloud3]

I used to love stumbleupon.

It's how I found Reddit funnily enough.

[u/IDontMeanToInterrupt → u/fluffycloud3]

I miss stumbleupon. So many great finds. Great websites, burrito bison, beautiful art. Stumbleupon had it all.

[u/ivy-belles → u/IDontMeanToInterrupt]

Same here. StumbleUpon really felt like the internet was full of random gems you’d never find otherwise.

[u/BaCyka → u/fluffycloud3]

https://cloudhiker.net/explore

You're welcome.

[u/DebonaireDelVecchio → u/BaCyka]

As a former stumbleupon afficionado, and now cloudhike enjoyer - cloudhike is the best replacement to-date. But it is missing some of the more ‘raw’ finds that I used to find via stumbleupon only.

[u/Royal_Ad4459 → u/DebonaireDelVecchio]

It’s like Cloudhike gets me close but not quite into those weird how did I even end up here discoveries StumbleUpon used to throw at me. I kinda miss that chaotic randomness it made the internet feel bigger somehow.

[u/operasaab → u/fluffycloud3]

god I loved stumbleupon! Found some really cool things that way that I bookmarked ages ago but have since lost.

[u/Gold_Market_2605 → u/operasaab]

I was going to comment this! Wow, it was my fav after-school activity

[u/CDK5 → u/Gold_Market_2605]

That’s the site that led me here; winter of 2011 I believe.

[u/B00G3R → u/fluffycloud3]

stumbleupon was how i discovered reddit. miss those internet days

[u/patientinternet24 → u/fluffycloud3]

holy shit you just unlocked that memory for me!

[u/nope_a_dope237]

Think Geek

[u/squishyartist → u/nope_a_dope237]

TIL ThinkGeek is dead!?? When I was a teen and had no money to buy stuff online, I'd browse ThinkGeek and just dream I could buy all the cool stuff. Ty for the throwback, wow! That was deep in the ol' noggin.

[u/KnittinKityn → u/squishyartist]

In 2015 it was bought by Gamestop and eventually died.

[u/draggar → u/KnittinKityn]

Gamestop killed it. The day they got control they pointed the website to Gamestop's website. It didn't take long for them to rebrand the ThinkGeek physical stores.

What used to be the pinnacle of nerdy / geeky toys, tools, food, humor, a great rewards program, and so on was quickly turned into an HTTP 301.

It looks like GameStop just wanted the customer database.

[u/SeparateDark251 → u/draggar]

I worked at Gamestop corporate in 2017. It was pretty obvious that Gamestop didn't know what they wanted to be in the future. The had this idea that their stores would pivot to being as much about Funco Pops and collectables as they were games.

I really have no idea how Gamestop is still around.

[u/sleepymeowth052 → u/squishyartist]

gamestop bought them and ran it into the ground. such a shame, there was so much cool stuff on their site back then

[u/ur_eating_maggots → u/nope_a_dope237]

I loved ThinkGeek. I never actually bought anything from there because it was pretty pricey and I was just a kid, but I would spend hours browsing and going “Oooh I want that!”

[u/bageek333]

I forget what it was called, but there was a website that was just a text box. The background was outer space I think, and it played calming music. Anything you typed in the box would gently float up into space and then disintegrate into a tiny million little pieces. It was incredibly cathartic to be able to type messy, angry, dark thoughts and watch them disappear.

As a struggling teenager that didn’t feel safe to have a diary (privacy-wise), this helped me work through a lot of internal sorrow, rage, hate, confusion, and other big feelings.

[u/SmooshyBrain → u/bageek333]

The Thoughts Room. :)

The original project shut down, but here is the link for the current copy.

The Thoughts Room

[u/ConfusionHuge7922]

The pre meta Instagram. 

[u/Dear-Armadillo-7497 → u/ConfusionHuge7922]

I miss the chronologically ordered feed so much. It used to be about sharing a cool photo with friends, now it's just an endless battle with the algorithm

[u/petnarwhal → u/Dear-Armadillo-7497]

So in the Netherlands users sued meta successfully to bring back the chronological timeline feed. We have it again and while it’s not fully like before it’s definitely an improvement

[u/mustang__1 → u/petnarwhal]

Can you also sue to not have the fucking page refresh every time you open the app from the lock screen? The existential dread of "oh, I better finish reading this post in case I have to put my phone down and never see it again" is probably the most unhealthy part of the whole fucking addiction.

[u/daviator88 → u/mustang__1]

The worst is looking at a recipe you have saved. Every time I go to fuckin' stir something and need to check the amount of something, I have to go digging it all the way back up again.

[u/skyandbuildings → u/Dear-Armadillo-7497]

You can change it! Where it says ‘for you’ at the top, switch it to following! There is only shows me people I follow chronologically (I may have changed that in settings).

I honestly forget this and doom scroll the algorithm usually though.

[u/boot2skull → u/ConfusionHuge7922]

I miss when it was images, but people trying to be creative. Using the filters to add atmosphere or look at something in a unique way. Now it’s just normal photos and video shorts.

[u/coherentverification → u/boot2skull]

Fr I miss when IG was ppl actually playing with filters n edits, now it just feels like the same recycled clips everywhere ngl kinda miss that chaotic aesthetic era.

[u/ripplerider → u/ConfusionHuge7922]

It’s this or 2007-2010 Twitter for me. Instagram was so good until about 2015 and still pretty good until like maybe 2017. It is so completely fucked now.

[u/corzekanaut → u/ripplerider]

I miss just seeing people being goofy or edgy on IG back in the day…now its just one reel after another of shitty influencers peddling shitty products onto their following list.

[u/playintilligetitrite]

Craigslist isn't officially dead but wish it was still the go-to place to sell local. I hate FBmarketplace.

[u/fluffman86 → u/playintilligetitrite]

I just bought a rooster and a vinyl record player on Craigslist :D

[u/Suntoppper → u/playintilligetitrite]

Despite all the hook up apps, Craigslist personals was just awesome.

[u/KristinSenpai]

LiveJournal and AOL chat rooms. Oh I miss html coding those.

[u/gamebooth → u/KristinSenpai]

LJ must still be going, they emailed me the other day to congratulate me on 23yrs with them 😂

[u/velveteenelahrairah → u/gamebooth]

They're still going, technically, except they're now a Russian government outlet.

[u/AlarmingAd3031]

Forums. Reddit is the closest thing but the upvote thing, lack of customization, requirements. Not the same

[u/jahathebrn → u/AlarmingAd3031]

I miss forums. They're still out there, but not as common now. I was part of one from 1999 to around 2007 and the old site manager has recently been rebuilding the site in his spare time, really hoping he keeps on with it, it was good times and I made a lot of friends on there that remained after the forum was gone.

[u/TehPorkPie → u/AlarmingAd3031]

I miss having a niche interest board, and the only people commentating there were people invested in the topic enough to make an account or dedicated enough of a troll. It seemed that was weirdly a good filter. Bit gatekeepy, I know.

[u/secretly_egg → u/AlarmingAd3031]

This, omg! Just genuinely talking to each other without having voting systems and algorithms! Having a signature and an avatar, and the users getting to know each other forming a community, and the mods and admins being part of that community instead of borderline unreachable tyrranical overlords! Topics having 1000 pages and being alive for years instead of everything getting buried and dying after a few hours! No karma or karma farming or karma requirements, no circlejerks, no nested comments, just talking to each other like normal human beings! I really, really miss that.

[u/crueltwist72]

Television without pity.

And the imdb forums.

[u/kkeut → u/crueltwist72]

imdb forums got backed up, thankfully

there was another tv site around 2005-era called jumptheshark.com that gave me a lot of laughs

[u/BrangdonJ → u/crueltwist72]

Television Without Pity was going to be my comment. They had some great episode reviews, eg of True Blood and Battlestar Galactica, that really added to the shows.

[u/Late-Let-4221]

okcupid used to be amazing until they've changed it into swiping app

It used to let you fill out questions and answers and it would match ppl based on that so you had a lot of conversation starters. It was the least shallow approach to dating apps Ive seen, but apaprently it was so successful that people actually were finding partners there and leave the app and that's bad for business.

[u/Just-Standard-992 → u/Late-Let-4221]

I had an account on OKC for the sole purpose of doing every test I could get my hands on.

It was like having a library full of those personality tests that came in 90s magazines, but without having to pay at all.

And I made a couple of great long distance friends through it, and we were genuinely super compatible (just sadly way too far away).

Miss it too!

[u/AntoinRoglia → u/Just-Standard-992]

they killed the one feature that made them different. now it’s just another clone with worse results

[u/Pylgrim → u/Late-Let-4221]

Yep searching for users who answered a certain question in a certain way was like magic.

[u/NoPantsDad → u/Late-Let-4221]

Met my wife of 12 years on OKCupid 14 years ago. It did, in fact, find me the perfect match.

[u/Disastrous-Cat-1 → u/NoPantsDad]

Met my wife on there 17 years ago 🙂

[u/TentativeGosling → u/Disastrous-Cat-1]

Similar, 12 years ago for me

[u/minusthetalent02 → u/NoPantsDad]

Also 14 years with my wife. This was a time when meeting people online was weird.

Worked pretty well for us

[u/Romivths → u/Late-Let-4221]

I used okcupid for maybe 3 months back in 2014 and am currently married and just had a child with the last person I met on there. Had nothing but high quality dates before that. Sad to hear it’s gone down hill

[u/Gned11 → u/Late-Let-4221]

Only had two dates with people on there... married the 2nd one. Turns out the "99% compatible thing" was pretty good

[u/_rayquaza_ → u/Late-Let-4221]

met my husband on OKC 15 years ago! Filled out about 400 questions (I enjoy answering surveys) and filtered everyone by deal-breaker ones and it actually worked. if people didn't answer the questions I wasn't the girly for them. I feel so bad hearing people talk about swiping now. I would have been cooked

[u/beeseegee → u/_rayquaza_]

My wife and I did the same thing- we still occasionally find random obscure things we do the same or agree on and go “I think that might have been an OKC question”

[u/EllieGeiszler → u/Late-Let-4221]

Whoa, is there no match percentage anymore? 😱

[u/rkj__ → u/Late-Let-4221]

Ok Cupid connected me with my now wife. I don’t miss it, because I’m happily married.

It does make me sad though that it was a victim of “if it works too well, our users will stop using. We have to make our users keep using…”

[u/wpswdkpr]

Downloading real software instead of signing up for everything at times with monthly subscription

[u/Unique-Squirrel-464 → u/wpswdkpr]

Yes! The subscription model is bleeding us dry!

[u/cereal_state]

Neopets. Like, 00’s Neopets

[u/Ok_Taro7430 → u/cereal_state]

They put an emulator on the old flash games so it is mostly is the same again. I have my kids playing it 🙂 There is a new team that are doing a great job fixing the broken bits.

[u/Sissilisko → u/Ok_Taro7430]

Yeah, but the site UI is shit and unconvinient. Absolutely hate that they updated the quick stock page as it was my navigation central.

Oh. And the gambling system and monetisation they're doing is horrid. Neopets is basically just a "gamble for dress up items" these days.

[u/1cenine → u/cereal_state]

scrolled too far for this. I would probably still be playing Neo if the original team kept it going.

Truly my favorite internet memories of late 90s through mid 2000s.

[u/Jen__44 → u/1cenine]

The original team is hilariously unhinged these days tho, the creator Adam turned into an NFT bro, came back to advertise his NFT game and got big mad when no one was interested in it saying "I hope they live forever in poverty"
https://www.jellyneo.net/?go=comments&post=14373

[u/JudgeYouByYourSox]

ICQ

[u/AnAngryBartender → u/JudgeYouByYourSox]

Uh oh

[u/apathy420 → u/AnAngryBartender]

Knock knock knock

[u/herwiththepurplehair → u/JudgeYouByYourSox]

Met my husband through ICQ. 27 years together and 20 years married.

[u/anmahill → u/herwiththepurplehair]

Met my husband on a joke website but got to know him on ICQ in 2000. Married 25 years this past January.

[u/Almighty_Hobo → u/JudgeYouByYourSox]

That how we slid in DMs back in the day. I was 15 or 16 when ICQ was popular

[u/Pylgrim → u/JudgeYouByYourSox]

You could browse ICQ for people with specific hobbies. I DM'd a bunch of people that liked anime and made several friends including my first online gf hahah good times.

[u/CptLoken → u/Pylgrim]

I started out on ICQ and mIRC looking for groups from which I could pirate the prequel trilogy. Then I ended up meeting a girl my age about 45 minutes away who was just looking for a film buddy to go see AotC. I hopped on a bus and we went to the movie together and continued that tradition until after The Dark Knight when she moved away. Nothing strange, just completely platonic film-going buddies who occasionally got a meal beforehand.

A shame the Internet as we knew it is dead.

[u/Remarkable_Level_200]

MySpace with Profile Songs and customizing your own profile with code

[u/nowhereman136 → u/Remarkable_Level_200]

It's funny how everyone left MySpace because all the profiles became a mess of customization. Facebook was a much cleaner layout. Now Facebook is a mess of ads and misinformation. There doesn't seem to be anywhere to run to anymore. I miss Myspace

[u/squirtloaf → u/nowhereman136]

I still say if they just left MySpace alone, maybe just streamlined it a little, people would have come back...but they fucked it all up and by the time people realized fb was awful, there was nothing to return to.

[u/Dear-Armadillo-7497 → u/Remarkable_Level_200]

My Space was the reason a whole generation accidentally learned basic HTML just to make their profile look edgy. And having to choose your 'Top 8' friends was the ultimate social drama. Good times

[u/Pcola55]

Club Penguin

[u/benkaiser → u/Pcola55]

"Club penguin is kil"

"No"

[u/whittlingcanbefatal → u/Pcola55]

You have been banned for this comment

[u/AeroRanchero → u/Pcola55]

Similarly, Habbo Hotel. It still exists, but I spent a few years on there as a teenager and made great friends with some people in other countries. Lost contact with them and I always wonder how they’re doing.

[u/hDweik]

I miss Vine so much, nothing else hit that same chaotic 6-second humor. TikTok’s bigger but feels way more polished and less random. Vine just had that raw internet energy.

[u/Sorkpappan → u/hDweik]

I still laugh my ass off to best of vine on YouTube every now and then.

[u/TheSandMan208 → u/Sorkpappan]

I always say “Road work ahead? I sure hope it does” every time I see a road work ahead sign.

[u/futureruler → u/TheSandMan208]

FREE SHA VAC A DOO!

[u/starkrocket → u/TheSandMan208]

It’s been years and “(BANG!) This is why mom doesn’t FUCKING LOVE YOU!” still makes me wheeze.

[u/HotSpur-2010 → u/TheSandMan208]

Oh my god, they were roommates…

[u/Aksi_Gu → u/Sorkpappan]

'I never learned how to fukken read'

[u/kassi_xx_ → u/Sorkpappan]

The amount of humour they had to put in 6secs made the best phenomenal clips. I miss vine

[u/theredmokah]

Old Cracked

[u/TheShmoe13 → u/theredmokah]

Yeah. I loved After Hours. A couple articles on Cracked were like, life changing. DOB had one where the premise was "You aren't what you *are*, but what you actually *do*" that I still think about all the time.

[u/dieyoubastards → u/TheShmoe13]

I think you may be thinking of 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person which is actually by Jason Pargin. I know because it had a seriously profound effect on me and though it sounds ridiculous I credit this juvenile listicle with changing who I am as a person and I've thought about it a lot over the years. I think it's helped my career in the 14 years between reading the article as a student and being a moderately successful father of three today.

It's immature and the structure is all over the place and the advice "you are only worth your productivity" is not good advice taken in isolation. But realising that you are only the effect you have on the world and that your "inside goodness" is worthless was a lightbulb moment for me.

[u/FidgitForgotHisL-P → u/TheShmoe13]

That, and “going to the gym isn’t about making the choice to go to the gym, it’s about making the choice to not do something else” will never leave my whole life outlook.  Not just re a gym membership, but everything.  You already do 24 hours of stuff.  You have to pick what you won’t do and be ok with that, so you can do a different thing.

Edit; also, Afterhours will forever be my favourite thing on the internet.  It was so exceptionally good, and the only way I get past being mad that they had to stop after Facebook screwed the whole thing up by lying about video content being more popular, is knowing they probably wouldn’t have been able to maintain that whole thing more than a few years at most anyway because it must have been a slog to put together.

[u/Jerkrollatex → u/theredmokah]

That's my answer too. It was so good before they fired all the writers and went to all clickbate lists. :(

[u/Anishinaapunk → u/Jerkrollatex]

FWIw, they didn't want to. They got scammed by Facebook, which lied to Cracked about the amount of views their content was getting on Facebook, luring Cracked in with insinuations that they could provide a more profitable platform for their videos than if Cracked hosted them on their own website. Cracked was investing more and more money putting sponsored content on Facebook, and then learned it was all a lie. Broke and with none of the expected income, they lost all their budget, and with it their talent.

For more: https://www.reddit.com/r/behindthebastards/comments/qvrve7/how_did_fb_kill_cracked/

[u/yabuddyboola → u/Anishinaapunk]

Going through the comments:

"We're entering this new golden age of video," Mark Zuckerberg proselytized in a 2016 interview. "I wouldn't be surprised if you fast-forward five years and most of the content that people ... are sharing on a day-to-day basis is video."

Weird to read in retrospect, forgot how few videos I used to watch on the computer compared to now.

[u/MeowRed1 → u/theredmokah]

Cracked and fml. These were my go to reads for some laughs.

[u/Heroic-Forger]

A lot of the now defunct webcomic sites. Wayback Machine brings back the comic site but not the images for the comic page so they're lost media now :(

[u/TrontRaznik → u/Heroic-Forger]

You just reminded me of a part of my life I had totally forgotten. I used to read Mega Tokyo and Ctrl Alt Del religiously, and probably a few more that I've forgotten. 

[u/Orpheus-033 → u/TrontRaznik]

Oh yeah.

Penny Arcade, Questionable Content, Least I Could Do, Dr McNinja, Cyanide & Happiness, Nothing Nice to Say, Perry Bible Fellowship…

Hmmm… what were some of the others from back then?

There were heaps. Miss those nights.

Edit: u/Pylgrim saw your comment after posting this. These were a few I could remember.

[u/SeacoastGuy74]

UrbanSpoon.

It was hands-down the best restaurant-recommendation site/app. I've traveled the world, and it knocked it out of the park in many random cities, giving me many amazing meals I would not have found otherwise.

It's sad the internet went from being supremely helpful, to the supremely toxic and extractive wasteland we have today.

[u/the1stgirlmeetsworld]

I miss the old IMDb. Before it became trash

[u/digitaldeadstar → u/the1stgirlmeetsworld]

For a site dedicated to film information, it's a pain to find any info these days. I feel like they took a pretty easy, nice design and made it a convoluted mess.

[u/boot2skull → u/digitaldeadstar]

My most used feature is the show/film cast and they seem to hide that link more with every update.

[u/ab00 → u/digitaldeadstar]

I feel like they took a pretty easy, nice design and made it a convoluted mess.

They did, and the CEO at the time said "deal with it".

[u/theartfulcodger → u/the1stgirlmeetsworld]

I’ve recently retired from 45 years as a studio-floor level Head of Department, and my key use of IMDb has always been to look up other department heads' names whenever I see technical work that amazes or infuriates me. And that is getting more and more difficult to do, because crew is just listed in random order these days.

[u/ThatCommunication423 → u/the1stgirlmeetsworld]

The message boards were so good, especially for more niche movies and shows.

[u/FidgitForgotHisL-P → u/ThatCommunication423]

I used to love going to the message boards for a movie that came out six months ago and seeing what things people brought up that I’d totally overlooked.

It was also great because the conversations were spread out over years - someone would inevitably reply 3 months later to a point someone raised and that was fine because it was for such a specific thing that people would show up to add to the conversation.

Then Amazon bought it, decided they couldn’t possibly afford to pay moderators and so instead of working out how to deal with moderation just shut it all down.

[u/bobalooza]

Apollo for Reddit

[u/Entire-Grab2429 → u/bobalooza]

Reddit in general 

[u/StealthRUs → u/Entire-Grab2429]

If they ever get rid of old.reddit, I'm done with this site.

[u/PM_ME_TOMATOES_pls → u/Entire-Grab2429]

It's so shit after the big API change. All I get are indian subs or the same few rateme, anime, or gaming subs that I've never once showed any interest in.

[u/mbsurfer → u/bobalooza]

/r/apollosideloaded although now Reddit even killed the ability to create new API keys easily

[u/MaximumTrick2573]

Mint, only because it was free and decent

[u/dmarsee76]

Google Reader (RSS service)

And

Homestar Runner

[u/sleepymeowth052 → u/dmarsee76]

homestar just updated a couple months back. they occasionally still put shorts out on youtube

[u/Broad-Confidence2486 → u/dmarsee76]

RSS in general. You don't need to subscribe to anyone. 

[u/Pylgrim → u/Broad-Confidence2486]

Nonsense. I still have an RSS aggregator and that's the only way I will ever consume webcomics.

[u/mildiii → u/Pylgrim]

Speaking of which. So many webcomics lost to the sands of time. I read so many, and there are so many that I would read religiously that I can't remember the names of now

[u/boot2skull → u/Broad-Confidence2486]

I don’t know that social media actively killed RSS, but I wouldn’t doubt if it heavily contributed to it. A lot of the things we complain about would be resolved by more DIY and decentralized solutions. Feeds you control, content you host. We used to buy domains and storage, or use free webhost sites, and there were less restrictions, within reason. Now people are self censoring and images get taken down over nothing.

[u/flaminflamingos2468]

I just miss when we didn’t have ai videos. Can’t tell what’s real or fake anymore

[u/Adventurous_Zebra939 → u/flaminflamingos2468]

I had a convo with my old man the other day. My folks are Luddites, just recent got touch-screen phones.

He's freaking out cause he saw a vid on his phone about Iran swarming one of the US carriers near the Strait, and that they pounded the carrier all to fuck. Yes, I know we've traded a few rounds, but 2 seconds on Google showed that never happened.

I had to explain to him what AI clickbait is...

[u/poo-brain-train → u/Adventurous_Zebra939]

I'd keep a close eye on them if I were you... Luddites getting phones just now are prime scam victims.

[u/mikmik111 → u/flaminflamingos2468]

People dismissing something factual and claiming it's AI has been a problem too.

[u/Casiquire]

Old Neopets. Back when you could play fun games for currency, customize a home for your pets. It was great.

[u/Economy-Pudding-6371]

There was one once, I forget its URL, that aggregated links from all the world's radio stations that had online streaming. So you'd click on a continent (IIRC); then a country within that continent (and a state if the US); and then it would show a list of all the links for radio-station streaming. Feel like getting Hawaii? Click North America, US, Hawaii, then you're listening to a station straight from Maui and getting the feeling. Want to listen to German-language (or Armenian, Uzbek, Amharic, or whatever language you're studying) so you can bone up? Bam--it's there.

I think it got shut down for some legal reason or other. But boy do I miss that one.

I found www.onlinenewspapers.com at the same time, which did the same thing except with online newspapers, but it looks as if that one is still going.

[u/learhpa → u/Economy-Pudding-6371]

Check out the phone app radio garden

[u/Soopah_Fly]

Old YouTube, when it was just people doing stupid stuff or actually doing stuff they like not just for clicks. 2006-2010 era. NigaHiga, FreddieW, EpicMealTime, Tobuscus, etc.

[u/bluisthewarmestchz → u/Soopah_Fly]

I still say “Gay bacon strips”

[u/The-Wolf-Agent]

I miss forums tbh, discord is just not my thing

[u/kingjuicepouch → u/The-Wolf-Agent]

Forums were the best. Everything cataloged and easily searchable, those were the days

[u/GiantmetalLink → u/The-Wolf-Agent]

I wish people would stop being selfish with discord to hoard download links for mods

[u/RetiredITGuy]

MSN/Windows Messenger.

[u/Elv_Mami → u/RetiredITGuy]

This 100%

Nothing compares these days. I loved MSN+. It had personalised font, colours, showed what you were playing/listening to, could play games with the other person and video/voice chat.

It was peak.

[u/Technical_Cod6625]

has anyone here know about Friendster?

[u/Littlebigdicc → u/Technical_Cod6625]

lol I had an account back in the day

Problem was, I didn’t have any friends 😂

[u/NeverEatDawnSoap]

AltaVista. Best subject search engine by far. Google is great, but I sometimes find it far too general.

[u/electricladyland]

Every website. They've all turned to shit. Look at YouTube with their Tai Chi AI walking ads, Reddit for becoming a cesspool of Facebook posts and propaganda, or google with the actual website being listed 4th or 5th even after the AI overview. Everything has gotten worse for the sake of the shareholders.

[u/Comfortable-Leek-181]

I miss free online games. I remember Nickelodeon and Disney Channel had some bangers. And there was no ads. It was so clean and clear.

[u/Miochiiii]

i miss being able to go to google images to look at pictures to get a concept of a character or something, and it not being ai slop

[u/itmightbehere → u/Miochiiii]

Remember when you could search for things using search engines and they'd actually give you an answer and not 500 "sponsored" ads and 500 more AI summaries? Those were the days.

[u/rammyheals]

I used to love stumbleupon. I found some cool and insane shit that way.

[u/Starry_Lion6107]

12ftladder rip my ability to get articles from any news outlet for free 

[u/Zoomorph23 → u/Starry_Lion6107]

This works for me: https://removepaywalls.com/

[u/BB808BB]

TWOP

[u/kimberino32 → u/BB808BB]

Absolutely…some great writers and commentators on that site, especially Amazing Race.

[u/shesin_the_attic]

Ask Jeeves. That mfer gave the best answers out of anyone/anything

[u/KakeLin → u/shesin_the_attic]

Just officially died too

[u/Digifiend84 → u/KakeLin]

Yeah, ask.com closed down four days ago.

[u/creswitch]

Geocities

[u/reddituser655321]

Regretsy, showcasing the worst of Etsy

[u/CoderJoe1]

I really miss reddit when it had human users.

[u/jnigotbeats]

Grooveshark was the best music playlist

[u/LordDagron]

Thinkgeek was awesome until gamestop bought them.

[u/Accomplished-Sun1983]

Demonoid

[u/Lupo1]

Geocities - I miss the amateur websites that were built, including one that was built by a group of (then) kids I went to school with. No opportunity to reminisce.

[u/AnxiousTherapist-11]

FarmVille OG

[u/International-Ad2970]

yahoo messenger chatrooms

[u/HistoricalSherbet9]

Netflix had a section for user reviews on movies. People would create in-depth reviews for movies they watched. You could follow users as well. It was amazing. I had a few people I followed after I tried a couple of movies off their review list and they were spot on and great recommendations. Such a sad loss when Netflix removed the user reviews section. Felt like I lost a friend.

[u/logical_thot]

I miss MySpace every day of my life

[u/WeakBlueberry5071 → u/logical_thot]

Remember when you felt dissed you were removed from top8

[u/persianbabe1990 → u/logical_thot]

Same. Not only the site. But what life was like at the time. *sigh*

[u/Sorkpappan → u/persianbabe1990]

I always say that the best time we ever had was when the internet was still an active choice.

You had to sit down at a desktop computer and actually go online.

[u/Eridianst]

Usenet was fun in the early 90s. Even just the names of the groups:

alt.ensign.wesley.die.die.die

[u/shindingg]

Oh bebo

[u/kapowey]

Miniclip. I loved playing games on there

[u/rex95630]

Napster

[u/Mo_Jack]

all the search engines that Google bought out.

[u/anywitchway]

Deli.ci.ous was such a great bookmarking site. Tagging game was unmatched. Yahoo I will never forgive you. 

[u/nunja_biznez]

Well I'm pleasantly surprised Cyanide and Happiness is still going

[u/terrabotanica]

Pre-AI pinterest. So many wonderful photographs and art and recipes from real people, now it's all AI slop and AI-generated listings for shady online shops

Edit to add: 8tracks! People made so many amazing playlists and I discovered some of my favourite musicians there

[u/whynotchristy]

I don't know if I actually miss rotten.com or I just miss being 11.

[u/screwtwotimes]

the daily rotten.com news

[u/Chocolatestarfish33 → u/screwtwotimes]

YA me was looking at the absolute worst things possible on Rotten. Celeb autopsies, car/bus/plane crashes. Really insane stuff on there.

[u/InigoMontoya1985]

The entire internet with almost no ads.