Slow Media, Webrings, and Button Walls

I've been ruminating about the future of the internet, and with this post, I am joining groups of people who are rebuilding ‘old-school’ web connections. Below, I share some branches into neat and very quirky audio and internet communities.

Slow Media at the speed of the internet.

Like the Slow Food movement, I am making an effort to mindfully invest in Slow Media and be more intentional about the content I consume with the help of an RSS feed reader (like a type of custom newspaper as opposed to a purely algorithmic feed). And with this post, I invite you to come along with me (or even start your own webpage).

I grew up alongside the late ’90s - 2010s explosion of the internet with Myspace and Xanga pages, Geocities, Freewebs, eBaum’sWorld and spent many nights exploring loads of unique personal hobby websites that were created just for the sake of being with flashy banners and... jumping forward to today, the web feels increasingly dominated by Web 2.0 algorithms, AI personas, and ad-driven infotainment aggregators. And while decentralized microblogging networks like Mastodon and Bluesky are cool, they often feel like drinking content from a firehose.

Platforms have unleashed fully AI-generated personas [1] and are flooding feeds with junkfood-content; their networks are like Skinner boxes designed to capture and hold users' attention and keep people always scrolling. For vastly different reasons, "AI reporters" are actively being used in Venezuela [2] and China [3].

::shakes fist at sky::

In a digitized world where algorithms increasingly dictate what we see and engage with, webrings and similar resurgent internet spaces are a breath of fresh air.

Living beneath the surface of the mainstream web.

I have rediscovered Webrings and Button Walls, and handfuls of internet communities thriving away from the neon light cast by mainstream social media. Button Walls are mini-directories that use standardized 88x31 pixel images or GIFs to display links to a website's "internet neighbors." From one wall, you can discover another site with its own directory, and so on; these custom-curated directories link together countless hobby, esoteric, unique, or just plain weird personal websites. Webrings and Button Walls thrived before search engines became all-powerful, and people are still building them today.

I created a button for this website and blog as a way to claim a piece of the internet for human connection. The process was verystraightforward; I used MS Paint to manually create twenty 88x31 px frames and then FFmpeg to turn these frames into a gif.

<a href="http://ambientartstyles.com/AmbientArtstyles/">
    <img src="https://ambientartstyles.com/content/images/2025/01/AmbientArtstylesAudioGungFu_ButtonGif_1.gif" width="88" height="31" alt="AmbientArtstyles">
</a>

If you run a website with a button wall, send me a message so that I can add your button to mine.

Communities

My updated webring and a longer list of internet, Audio, and Game Development communities, and Discord servers can be found here.

Below are a few links with screenshots for some cool places and communities that are active today in 2025.

• DimDen's Hotel, though made in 2022, has the exact vibe I refer to above when mentioning quirky, unique websites. This page even has an animated cat that chases your cursor!

• llllllll, a really cool internet synthesizer, DIY, and electronics forum community.

• Battle of the Bits, a very old music-making community with frequent competitions. They have largely moved to Discord but their website still hosts high-quality, informative archives about synthesizers and some of the roots of synth culture. I have found Botb's unique perspective insightful.