aurozMar 5, 2024
booters

I spent the last week scraping through a terabyte of GeoCities archives and collecting ALL THE #88x31 buttons! In the end, I gathered 29257 unique buttons (75k with duplicates). They are available at https://hellnet.work/8831/

Check them out!

I also have the dataset (~160MB), stats and a bit about the scraping process here: https://hellnet.work/8831/stats.html

#indieweb #smallweb #geocities #neocities

THE 88×31 ARCHIVE

Mar 4, 2024 at 7:15pmWeb
Show threadMikeMar 4, 2024
@booters you're doing the lords work. Thank ye!
Show threadMiaMar 5, 2024
@booters spectacular!
Show threadSteveg58Mar 5, 2024
@booters
Some of those need an eye protection safety warning!
Show threadErosBlog Bacchus has moved!Mar 5, 2024
@booters Watch out for girl germs!
Show threadVincent DegoveMar 5, 2024

@booters congrats! I have questions. 88x31, like in 88 px × 31 px? Why this peculiar dimension, where whey they displayed in the page, was there a UI limitation of Geocities?

Edit: answering my own question https://www.quora.com/How-did-the-odd-size-of-88x31-become-a-standard-for-a-website-button

How did the odd size of 88x31 become a standard for a website "button"?

Answer (1 of 4): I didn't actually know the answer to this, so I did a little bit of digging. As with any historical trend it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where something like this starts, but I've found something that seems like a reasonable explanation for how it spread. So searching by dat...

Quora
Show threadDan PriceMar 5, 2024
@vincevlo @booters I love how many de facto standards are born out of "someone at [largest company in this sector] decided it was the best option and everyone else followed suit"
Show threadbootersMar 5, 2024
@vincevlo It seems like the most upvoted answer is wrong or at least not completely true. 88x31 buttons were popularised by GeoCities starting 1996 but it seems like Netscape was the first to use these particular dimensions for their buttons. This is also in agreement with the oldest button in my own collection. It was last modified on 16th October 1995 and might be the earliest "known" 88x31 button
Show threadmillions  Mar 5, 2024
@booters are they searchable
Show threadbootersMar 5, 2024
@millions Unfortunately not! The only thing you could do is download the whole dataset and search it with your file explorer/grep
Show threadShutanMar 5, 2024
@booters wow, a real blast from the past!
Show threadLunar 🛸 ♾Mar 5, 2024
@booters Glorious.
Show thread熊妈Xiong'maMar 5, 2024
@booters this is... amazing!!!! Seeing those buttons, I am feeling old and rejuvenated at the same time!
Show threadstirz ✅Mar 5, 2024
@booters Oh, how much I hated this one 🙂
Show threadRetroSwimMar 5, 2024
@booters Not me seeing that Tucows button, shedding a single tear for the good old days. 🥲
Show threadJason ScottMar 5, 2024

@booters thanks for doing it. May I integrate it into my own 88x31?

http://www.textfiles.com/underconstruction/88x31

The 88x31 GIF Collection

Show threadbootersMar 5, 2024
@textfiles Of course! You can find a zipped archive here:
https://gofile.io/d/AKwE7r
Folder 88x31

2 files

Show threadJason ScottMar 5, 2024
@booters I've added them and credited you!
Show thread❄️Winter❄️Mar 5, 2024
@booters @textfiles small recommendation/request, move the link for the zips onto main page. Makes it more obvious how to grab them.
Show threadbootersMar 5, 2024
@KanekoTheKoolio @textfiles
Done!
Show threaddanMar 5, 2024
@booters This is the original bored ape yacht club but more creative and interesting. Anyone could collect as many as they wanted or make new ones to share and show off and all for free. Like little virtual badges.
@foone
Show threadTadpole Mar 5, 2024
@booters omg I still need to get started on making a neocities account
Show threadJessie Nabein Mar 5, 2024
@booters thank you thank you thank you  
Show threadJoe UchillMar 5, 2024
@booters Any idea why we decided 88x31 was the way to go?
Show threadbootersMar 5, 2024

@JoeUchill Netscape basically made it the standard by using these dimensions for their buttons. Especially the buttons of the infamous "Netscape Now!" campaign became common on many personal websites.

Here is a nice explanation on Neonaut's 88x31 site: https://neonaut.neocities.org/cyber/88x31

Show threadApisNecrosMar 5, 2024
@booters Thanks, now I have a fun new button to link to my blogroll!
Show threadbootersMar 5, 2024
@ApisNecros 💪 😎 hell yeah
Show threadAmin Hollon 🏳Mar 5, 2024

@booters

cc @joelchrono

Show threadChronoMar 5, 2024
@amin @booters I love it so much
Show threadEric CarlMar 5, 2024
@booters This is really amazing. Takes me back!
Show threadJordan EldredgeMar 5, 2024
@booters This is so good! I worked on a similar project https://skins.webamp.org and love seeing projects in this style. Great work here!
Winamp Skin Museum

Infinite scroll through 100k Winamp skins with interactive preview

Winamp Skin Museum
Show threadbootersMar 5, 2024
@captbaritone holy cow winamp is a name that I have not heard in a LONG time. Love your museum! I will make sure to include it in my link list on hellnet.work once I get around to it
Show threadJordan EldredgeMar 5, 2024
@booters I wrote a blog post about it which (given that you put together something similar) you might also appreciate: https://jordaneldredge.com/blog/winamp-skin-musuem/
Mainlining Nostalgia: Making the Winamp Skin Museum / Jordan Eldredge

Thoughts on what I think made the Winamp Skin Musuem successful.

Show threadJordan EldredgeMar 7, 2024

@booters Unsolicited suggestions (the site is already great, but just some ideas to improve it if you or someone else find them interesting):

1. More graceful image loading
2. Infinite scroll
3. Potentially reencode the images losslessly for smaller size (could be controversial)
4. Some kind of ranking algorithm (would need some kind of feedback to inform that, Mastodon bot?)
...

Show threadJordan EldredgeMar 7, 2024

@booters

5. Search. Would be interesting to see if OCR could find anything. Or maybe an LLM? Could also extract metadata like are they animated? Which sites did they come from? Alt text from the site they were extracted from?

Show threadThe DoctorMar 5, 2024
@booters There might be a few of the ones I made in there.
Show threadThat "Robbie" guyMar 5, 2024
@booters This is absolutely spectacular! What an amazing collection. And the details page is also super interesting! Thank you for sharing!!
Show threadA Cyber ExpertMar 6, 2024

Wow! WOW! Great work! That’s a far more comprehensive archive than the double digits I had in the early 00s.

@booters

Show threadDave Heinemann 🇦🇺Mar 7, 2024

@booters Great work!

I like the timeline. Did you draw it from scratch, or use a program to generate it?

Show threadbootersMar 8, 2024
@dHeinemann I fiddled around with ggplot2 for a bit and then decided it would be much quicker to do it by hand in Inkscape for a one-off type thing
Show threadEty, Ringer of Bells ^GMar 13, 2024
@booters This is archival work I can get behind!
Show threadKarpourMar 13, 2024
@booters Did anyone ever find out why it was 88x31 and not 88x32?
Show threadmiaMar 19, 2024
@booters i love this! i made an alternate frontend for this dataset which might be faster on some machines (buttons.mia.jetzt/) and your dataset was super convenient to work with! thanks for going through all this effort to create such a clean dump
Show threadGaiety (Fable)Mar 19, 2024
@booters GOKU FAN, this all delights me
Show threadJules Mar 24, 2024
@booters this is amazing! I have my own personal archive of 88x31s on https://eightyeightthirty.one/ backend, but it's more personal and user-focused
eightyeightthirtyone

Building a graph of the Internet, one button at a time

Show threadmoved to => @[email protected]Mar 24, 2024
@notnite @booters where was the geocities archive? :o

i wonder if i can find my old website again
Show threadbootersMar 26, 2024

@kura @notnite
You can find mirrors of old GeoCities pages at:
https://archive.org/web/geocities.php
https://geocities.restorativland.org/
https://www.oocities.org/#gsc.tab=0

Let me know if you have found your old website!

Internet Archive: GeoCities Special Collection 2009

Show threadMatteo Angelucci 🛠️ 💻Mar 28, 2024
@booters phenomenal, thank you for sharing!!
Show threadLiera  Jun 17, 2024
@booters Ohhhh!! Awesome this! 
Show thread Stlex Apr 8, 2025
LB: Lol there's a Friday Five button in there, that sure brings back memories.