HACKER Q&A
📣 Ostrogodsky

What defunct websites would you love to see revived?


There is this great literature site I used to love, which closed down some years ago. My only consolation was to visit the Wayback Machine and read all the pages there. I was wondering how many other great sites I am missing because they are no longer accessible. Do you have any suggestions?

In an ironic twist, I have just discovered that the site has been taken down from the Wayback Machine. It is redirecting now to a new site the authors are creating. It pains me to say it looks inferior in every single way, and most of the original content is gone. Their prerogative, I suppose.


  👤 maremmano Accepted Answer ✓

👤 romanhn
Back in mid-to-late 90s I was addicted to an online trivia game called Cosmo's Conundrum. It was a Java applet that had a large core of players, chat capabilities and cash prizes. The game went through some iterations and the parent company eventually folded, but many of the players stayed in touch, attempted migrations to different trivia platforms, and are still connected via Facebook. Many friendships and marriages came out of this simple game.

I've always wanted to rebuild it, but never quite had the time for it. Was even able to snag the original domain name years later, but even that went nowhere. In a few years my own kids will be the same age I was when I played it, it is an odd thought.


👤 chaz6
Definitely segfault.org. It was the satirical version of slashdot and was always a joy to read. https://web.archive.org/web/20000615013530/http://segfault.o...

👤 ArtWomb
I feel like the the two major ones that keep coming up are: Google Reader & NewGrounds during the golden age of Flash. Both could be revived for the TikTok era. But would probably reflect usage today: mobile native, algorithmically curated, etc.

👤 CodeGlitch
Probably a long shot that anyone has heard of this one, but BlueMars:

http://bluemars.org/

(Still links to a landing page). Basically a stream of ambient music. Many late nights were spent coding listening to "space ambient music".

Fortunately a kind soul has made an alternative stream at:

http://echoesofbluemars.org/

The site's description reads:

> In attempts to reestablish communication with the lost Bluemars fleet, an echo of past transmissions was found. Retransmitting signals from years ago, these echoes give us a glimpse into the past.


👤 andrewmcwatters
Sulake (of Habbo fame) built something called the Electrolobby Game Jam and I remember being a kid and hearing about it on Tech TV. It was probably made in Macromedia Flash.

I never got to try it! I wish there was an archived page of it somewhere but it was an online multiplayer game environment, too, so I don’t think it would have worked without the server.


👤 nicbou
Google Reader although I'm sure we have better alternatives now.

I wish I had saved a copy of my own old websites and blog posts. I used to have a Windows Live blog as a young teen. It would be interesting to find it again.


👤 strangelove026
Twoyoutubevideosandamotherfuckingcrossfader .com

I think the embedded video bit is broken


👤 rlopezcc
Not related to technology but there were two websites where I used to donwload lots of spanish and Basque punk rock. Comando Glaucoma (a private forum), and Yahorake.tk. I miss them a lot.

👤 HAL9OOO
OmgPop was a great games website that combined multiplayer flash games with a social experience. It's the origin of drawmything I'm pretty sure. Not sure why it went offline tbh.

👤 AtNightWeCode
ffffound.com - Was a great site for graphic designers.

👤 megalottachoc
xdude.com - flash site. Even though it was small by today's standards, it had some pretty handy info for MIDI and sound processing.

Winamp.com (from the 2.x days) was also full of useful stuff. The plugin architecture meant that you could make Winamp2 do just about anything with av files. Including DJ'ing and video playlists.

Those two and Geocities.


👤 gamd
8chan

👤 jimhi
Does anyone remember zug.com from the 90s?

👤 CommanderData
Tv-links.co.uk

(was in alexa top 10) at some point.


👤 blockwriter
What was the literature site?

👤 alexmingoia
deoxy.org - Thé Ðëòxÿríßøñµçlëìç HÿÞêrdïmèñsîøñ

If you know, you know. It was one of the coolest website gardens on the early web. It was a personal handcrafted wiki, art project, and community focused on psychedelics, anarchism, mysticism, futurism, ecology, and rave culture.


👤 macdaknife
Google

👤 noiseman
rootkit.com

I wonder what was in the forums.


👤 Lutzb
underground gamer

👤 benrapscallion
geocities.com

👤 karlshea
suck.com

👤 coder4life
trollcats

👤 aayala
stage6