Relics of the Open Web

The internet died a death of a thousand cuts.

Relics of the Open Web is a personal digital archaeology project collecting artifacts, workflows, screenshots, files, stories, and fragments from the older, more open, more chaotic web.

This is not just nostalgia. It is a record of how people actually used the internet before so much of it was absorbed into closed platforms, algorithmic feeds, app silos, and locked-down ecosystems.

What Belongs Here

• Screenshots from dead or changed platforms
• Old exports, OPML files, PDFs, emails, and data dumps
• Stories about vanished internet behaviors
• Platform policy-change artifacts
• Old workflows that no longer work
• Early creator economy / self-publishing / affiliate marketing artifacts
• Forgotten web aesthetics
• Personal internet history with broader cultural context

Post Philosophy

Start small. Publish the relic first.

Each post can be as simple as:

1. The artifact — screenshot, file, quote, workflow, email, export, etc.
2. What it was — plain explanation.
3. Why it mattered — how people used it.
4. What changed — the cut that helped close off the open web.

Posts do not need to be definitive essays. Short field notes are welcome.

Suggested Categories

• RSS & Reader Culture
• Platform Deaths
• Accidental Infrastructure
• DIY Web Publishing
• Creator Economy Before the Creator Economy
• Craigslist & Classifieds
• Facebook Feed Archaeology
• WordPress Fossils
• Screenshots from the Sludge Era
• Personal Digital Archaeology

Project Structure

.
├── index.html
├── styles.css
├── posts/
│   ├── dropbox-public-folder.html
│   ├── google-reader-opml.html
│   └── facebook-sidebar-sludge.html
├── artifacts/
│   └── README.md
├── drafts/
│   └── artifact-post-template.md
└── README.md

Welcome

I’m glad you’ve decided to come along for the ride through my memories with me.

Relics of the Open Web is a kind of digital anthropology experiment where I attempt to reconstruct the essence of what I consider the internet’s golden age — roughly 2003–2013.

While I don’t mean to romanticize the era or get too lost in nostalgia for the past, I do try to illustrate some of the ways the open web felt healthier, stranger, more personal, and more human than the mostly corporate internet we inhabit today.

Whenever possible, I attach a meaningful artifact connected to each story posted here. Sometimes those are screenshots or images. Other times they may be PDFs, archived webpages, or strange file formats that people have mostly forgotten about but once meant something somewhere on the web.

Thank you for caring about the internet’s past and all the stories it still has to tell.