Robert Scucci | publishing
When I came up with Webrings, I don’t think it sounds like an old man yelling, but they are the final form of creative content discovery in the late 90s and early 2000s. In 2025, we no longer organically stumble on content as the discovery is dominated by SEO’s search engines and social platforms. When we are destined to reject ourselves, it is for our algorithm. Gone are the days of getting lost on the link page, and accidentally tripping over a comic or blog, finding something valuable, and passing it on to your friends.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but those days. Small pockets still exist, although they are increasingly niche and they are increasingly harder to embrace as we surrender to more control of the algorithm. They now seem to be primitive, but Webrings once formed the backbone of the Internet, and we would be worse off when they fade.
What is a drug?
In theory and practice, the cause is very simple. A website’s “link” page usually contains a list of websites that point to other websites in other circles. In the creative space, artists connect with their peers they admire, and they connect with more creators to form a chain. Click long enough (and, of course, when you update your bookmarks), and you’ll get back to where you started, hence the name “Webring”.
In a sense, Weblin is a primitive algorithm that needs to be explored proactively. The information is not recommended to you on endless reels; its intention is sought, sometimes leading to a gold mine of content and community.
Content collection is always the new world order
While revisiting Jay Chou Archives, I remembered my magical feeling. The creator of the comics has a link section that leads to the band he likes and the comics he has read. The receiver is maintained, however: if a site goes black or the link expires, the ring breaks.
Today, everything is a summary of algorithms. Log in to tiktok, your feed is pre-curated based on past behavior. Watch several car-based food reviews, and the platform will give you more of the same food reviews until you intervene. The human element that makes the Webrings special has disappeared, instead, to assume that they know what we want, and often right.
The Internet is better when it’s organic
I started to hear myself saying “when I was old” but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But, as I live in multiple stages of the evolution of the internet, I miss the band or artist I like, see who they follow, and then spiral into a deliberate discovery cycle. The top 8 bits of Myspace are the last large Webring, a visible connection diagram that shapes the way we explore.
We used to be a suitable country. It’s all slopes now.
