just stumbled upon an incredible piece of MUD/MOO history from the mid-90s web that disappeared in the 2000s and is now all but forgotten. it is a testament to the interactive and creative possibilities real people imagined in the 90s, before greed and pessimism spread through the world wide web.

MOOSE Crossing: A MUD for Kids was a mud/moo designed by Amy Bruckman at MIT as her doctoral dissertation project in 1996

"MOOSE Crossing is a MUD designed to get kids 9-13 excited about reading,
writing, and computer programming. It includes a new programming language
(MOOSE) and client interface (MacMOOSE) designed to make it easier for kids to
learn to program.

Kids have made things like pigs you can hug, light bulbs that tell light
bulb jokes, and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow that ask you a
riddle! They're doing creative writing and computer programming in their
spare time for fun, and meeting other kids from around the world."

(from a rec.games.tiny.mud announcement https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/rec.games.mud.tiny/c/MhnTf0G3C_0/m/BKWIngCp440J)

while a moo wasn't anything new at all in 96, what i find incredible is that her team also built a custom graphical mud programming WYSIWYG client, for Mac and Windows. the clients - MacMOOSE.sea.hqx and WinMoose.exe appear to be lost to time (edit: macmoose has been found! https://mastodon.tomodori.net/@vga256/115988260112466194), but i found this screenshot buried in the wbm. you can see how an object is broken down into verbs and properties.

i have about a million questions about how the client-server system worked because this is adorable and user friendly. but for now, i'm excited to just think out loud about what the world wide web could be made into today, if developers got more interested in user-driven interactivity

this is the original site for MOOSE Crossing:
https://web.archive.org/web/19981202051515/http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Amy.Bruckman/moose-crossing/

Amy's dissertation in html:
https://ic.media.mit.edu/Publications/Thesis/asbPHD/HTML/

#mud #moo #retroComputing #macintosh #vintageApple #worldWideWeb #indieWeb #smallWeb #history #digipres

Alt...

A screenshot of the MacMOOSE mud client. It shows two windows. The foreground window is an object editor that allows you to select a game object, and then browse through lists of verbs and properties that can be applied to that object. In the background window, Moose Crossing appears to be running in a telnet client. It reads: Magic Shoppe You are standing in a damp cave chamber. There are shelves of scrolls and books all containing magic spells. There are also many walking staffs leaning against a corner on the other side of the room. Hermit (brave) and Thea are here.

It's finally done! #ocular can now automatically post images to your mastodon account - huzzah!

https://nchrs.xyz/ocular.html

Host your own tiny static image feed, join the webring and share images #smallweb style!

Boosts appreciated.

Alt...

An set of intersecting lines making up a semi-abstract OCULAR

As I cull RSS feeds from my reader due to their content becoming nothing but "what I did with AI lately", it's starting to be a very lonely feed.

Could anyone recommend some programming/hardware hacking/tech blog smallweb feeds to follow that are not using AI?

#smallweb

Edit: You people are amazing! There are so many sites linked below that it will take me quite a while to get through all of them. And I will get through all of them and reply to everyone.
No one can rightully say the (small) web is dead. It is not and you all and many many more are proof of that.

———

Ok, people, give me your blogs.
Your personal hobby blogs. Your e-zines. Your websites. Heck, even your wikis. (I am interested in those but have not yet wrapped my head around them.)
I am most interested in the hobby sites, made my non-professional web devs. The ones you code away at in your spare time. Preferably static, but share anyway if it's not. And if you're a pro and have a personal hobby site, share away too! The more the merrier.

Even if I already know your site, share anyway because there might be people who do not have come across it yet.

3, 2, 1, go!

To start, here's mine: https://theresmiling.eu

#personalWebsite #personalBlog #blog #blogging #personalWeb #smallWeb #indieWeb

#BurgeonLab #WeekNotes 019 is out!
2026: Week 11/52 (Mar 9 – 15)

https://burgeonlab.com/weeknotes/2026/w11/

This is post 17 of #100DaysToOffload
Progress: https://burgeonlab.com/tags/100daystooffload/

#blogging #blogs #smallweb #indieweb #weeknote #personalBlog #weeklynote #cryptpad #nintendoswitch #vps #nodejs #f1fantasy #lewisHamilton

#smallweb #indieweb #shell

#ocular #lua #rss #smallweb #indieweb

#cyberspace #smallweb

#smallweb #pixelart

also for testing purposes it generates an index pages with total size of all photos in bytes. loving it!

https://romanzolotarev.com/.ssg.imgs.html

#dithering #smallweb #posixshell #imagemagick

I'm so unbelievably addicted to the #Indieweb / #smallweb.

To feed my addiction, I have found yet another search machine that finds non-commercial sites. Send help! https://marginalia-search.com/explore

All your personal sites are SO COOL. Drop yours below, please! twitch twitch

I had the privilege of penning an article for the latest issue of Good Internet Magazine!

It is all about the process of making and experiencing art and how friction and inefficiency needn’t be dirty procurances to avoid and evade.

https://goodinternetmagazine.com/rebelling-against-efficiency/

If you enjoy this article, you might consider picking up the physical print copy of the magazine, which you can buy on the site. A proper palpable paper printing of passionate prose for your pleasant perusal.

#IndieWeb #SmallWeb #PersonalWebsites #GoodInternetMagazine

> "Many personal website owners
deliberately choose inefficient methods
for updating their sites. They write
HTML by hand, upload files directly
via FTP, or maintain static sites that
require manual intervention for even
simple changes. These choices would
be considered backwards in a
professional context, but they serve
important psychological and creative
functions"

by @vale, in the current #GoodInternet issue.

me and my #hugo #ssg site deployed via #ftp feel very seen

#smallWeb #indieWeb