@maya visiting people's handmade websites feels a bit the same to me (though there isn't such a culture of paying others to build them, it's got a pretty strong diy ethos)

@d6 reminiscent of https://vbuckenham.com/blog/how-to-find-things-online/ which i love, one reason being that it gently and neutrally introduces the idea that cool and fun things one may like that people have done on the internet were done seeking status

@d6 still mulling this over... furry art commission culture and the rise of digitally produced art are super entangled (deviantart back in the day, etc.). and having this art commission market be *global* has let something very niche exist at pro scale. but now synthetic production threatens the perception of value for digital-only media. i can't imagine a *fully* offline subculture achieving anything parallel but one wonders what the role is for physical media in combating that. stamps. zines