blogroll

only trust your links ⸻ corporations will never help you

Pages like this one are how website operators used to promote other websites they like before Google and the SEO industry ruined the World Wide Web. They’re still worth doing even if you care about SEO; just make sure Google isn’t allowed to crawl your links page using a robots.txt directive or meta element.

Blogs

You can subscribe to these sites if you know how to use web feeds.

...and Philosophy (feed)
Apparently “Final Fantasy and Philosophy” wasn’t a one-off; there’s an entire Blackwell Philosophy and Pulp Culture series you can browse next time you’re constipated.
3 Quarks Daily (feed)
a long-running blog covering science, arts, philosophy, politics, and literature from around the Web, interspersed with original work
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry (feed)
History, particularly ancient military history, popular culture, and cats
Aeon Magazine (feed)
general interest virtual magazine with a lot of anthropology
AksDev (feed)
some Finnish game developer that I’m stalking because I agree with their opinions on web advertising and a certain groupthink incubator
Angry Metal Guy (feed)
One of my go-to blogs for finding new heavy metal albums.
Ask a Manager (feed)
Workplace advice and outrageous stories of egregiously bad management.
Atheist Revolution (feed)
a long running blog by an atheist determined to oppose Christian extremism in the US
Autistic as Fxxk (feed)
I was diagnosed after this website’s manifesto was written, but I agree wholeheartedly with it. If that bothers you, you’re welcome.
BISH (feed)
an online guide to sexuality and romance with an emphasis on safety and consent
Bicompact Space (feed)
programming language theory, human-computer interaction, computing education, type theory, formal verification, proof theory, and property testing? sounds like plenty of challenging reads here...
Bradley Taunt (feed)
I learned a bit about minimalist web design and shell scripting from him.
Brr (feed)
Life in Antarctica. Looks cold.
Butt Smithy (NSFW) (feed)
Home to “Alfie”, a fantasy comic by InCase following the amorous misadventures of a young halfling woman dissatisfied with life in her home village.
Cheapskate’s Guide to Computers and the Internet (feed)
Lots of resources for low-budget computing, personal websites, small web forums, and getting away from corporate parasocial media from a libertarian perspective
Collinsport Historical Society (feed)
I chanced upon this fanblog for the gothic soap opera DARK SHADOWS because they had a review of Albert Bouchard’s RE IMAGINOS album.
Colossal (feed)
a long-running virtual magazine covering contempary art
Computable Multiverse (feed)
I’ve got this guy bookmarked because of a certain comic involving various blog setups that I find amusing even though it makes me feel seen.
Corey Robin (feed)
political science professor and author of The Reactionary Mind; I didn’t know he had a blog, but there’s lots of meaty posts here
Culture: An Owner’s Manual (feed)
A blog covering pop culture and its hidden mechanics might be interesting.
Daryl Sun (feed)
a Filipina gamer and otaku with a cute website
David Revoy (feed)
author of Pepper & Carrot
Devastatia (NSFW) (feed)
She’s “Dark Mistress” who used do a lot of experimentation with JavaScript and PHP who has since scaled back her online involvement and now just posts her fiction.
Elizabeth Tai (feed)
a technical writer from Malaysia trying to get back into writing fiction
Emacs for MacOS X (feed)
This is my preferred way to get a current GNU Emacs on macOS. It’s never not worked for me.
Fabien Sanglard (feed)
tech and old/obscure video games
Frills (feed)
a Welsh web developer who does more with CSS Grid and Flexbox than I can be bothered to do. I keep using her HTML named colors page.
Going Medieval (feed)
Dr. Eleanor Janega’s blog on medieval history and sexuality. Often profane, usually funny.
Granta (feed)
originally an Oxford student literary magazine, now a quarterly journal and publisher of emerging authors
Heavens to Mergatroyd (feed)
a personal blog operated by N. G. McClernan; I had enjoyed her takedowns of Atlas Shrugged and Peter Thiel
Helioza (feed)
sf by Ray N. Franklin as well as water conservation, palindromes, and RoSH, WEEE, and REACH compliance information
Hugo Landau (feed)
mostly tech, and at a deeper level than I generally care to delve, with occasional social and legal commentary
Idle Words (feed)
blog posts and short essays by Pinboard proprietor Maciej Cegłowski
Indieseek (feed)
a human-edited IndieWeb directory
InvisibleUp (feed)
a dumping ground for the random thoughts of a friendly neighborhood internet ghost
James D. Morgan’s Commonplace Book (feed)
I’m impressed by Jim’s determination to do everything by hand, including his RSS feed.
Jason Kottke (feed)
One of the longest-running blogs on the Web so there must be something interesting here.
Jim Nielsen (feed)
I’ve been following him to learn more about web design and web development.
Judas Priest (feed)
180 proof British Steel for over 50 years, still fronted by gay icon Rob Halford; their music saved my life as a young teenager.
Just Use Email (feed)
a website advocating the use of plain old email for everything we currently do with tools like Slack, Discord, Zoom, etc.
Kamikaze (feed)
Kamikaze is a cyberpunk webcomic and animated series set in a future Dust Bowl America where food is more precious than gold. I haven’t caught up on the archive yet but I like the premise.
Kev Quirk (feed)
I’m acquainted with him from Fosstodon and agree with stuff he’s said about the Open Web and parasocial media.
Klang Magazine (feed)
a bilingual (english/spanish) independent sound publication. I particularly liked Max Alper’s article about lifers, dayjobbers, and the independently wealthy
Koshka’s Kingdom (feed)
Definitely a love letter to 1990s web design. Not fond of his use of chanspeak, but it’s his website and I share his antipathy toward what corporations have done to the internet.
LJ Cohen (feed)
Author of DERELICT and ITHAKA RISING, potter, and a fan of my work; we met on Google+ back in the day.
Legends of Localization (feed)
a website that takes a detailed look at video game translation and how games change during the translation process
Liminal Fiction (feed)
an inclusive speculative fiction directory promoting books by indie sf, fantasy, and horror authors
Manuel Moreale (feed)
Manu runs a nice, clean website and his homepage is always his most recent post.
Marcolo Rinesi (feed)
short fiction and technology
Marginalia (feed)
Viktor Lofgren’s personal website; I used to read his posts over Gemini protocol
Mark L. Irons (feed)
He froze his site in 2009 and died soon after, but his website lives on, and his Patterns for Personal Websites is an interesting read even if not all of his prescriptions still make sense.
Maya Land (feed)
I love her design sense even though I don’t have the patience to try to replicate it. It’s reminiscent of late 20th century web without excessive nostalgia.
MegaTokyo (feed)
I used to read this webcomic back in the day; I can’t believe it’s still going
Melon Land Forum (feed)
an old-school web forum run by Melon King
Michael Harley’s blog (feed)
a SharePoint developer venturing into the IndieWeb
Midnight Radio (EL Comics) (feed)
This is what operating a personal website feels like to me. I don’t remember when I first read this comic by Ehud Lavski and Yael Nathan, but I keep finding it. So, here it is.
Minutes to Midnight (feed)
The man plays a mean bass and has put out at least one good album. He had also done some pioneering work in video game sound design, and had the good sense to get out of web development; that makes him smarter than me.
Mojeek (feed)
an alternative search engine that claims to use its own crawler, maintain its own index, and respect users’ privacy but still sells advertising; make of it what you will
Mr Petovan projects page (feed)
one of Friendica’s core developers and advocates, and generally a good guy
Nautilus (feed)
a general interest science magazine that also explores intersections between science, philosophy, culture, and art
Nerd Listings (feed)
a small, zealously curated directory of sites run by serious nerds
People and Blogs (feed)
Manuel Moreale runs this weekly newsletter featuring bloggers around the world.
Phil Gyford’s website (feed)
Web developer, occasional actor, and operator of ooh.directory.
Pinkerite (feed)
a blog exposing racist, right-wing authoritarian, pseudointellectual wankers like Stephen Pinker, Richard Hanania, Bari Weiss, and the rest of the Pseudointellectual Dark Web
Plausibly Deniable (feed)
the personal website of Michael Suileabhain-Wilson, who writes about “people, and policies, and possibilities. Also food.”
Pop22 (feed)
a queer, autistic immigrant who works in tech, exiled from Singapore to San Francisco
Public Voit (feed)
creator of LazyBlorg, a tool for blogging with GNU Emacs and org mode; also big on PIM (personal information management)
Rough Type (feed)
I had read Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows”, but I mainly refer to his post on Digital Sharecropping. The operator has since abandoned the Web in favor of Substack for reasons of his own. I hope he hasn’t gone Nazi.
Sally Wiener Grotta (feed)
a local author I met at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention. Her novel “The Winter Boy” was solid.
Satan (feed)
One of many New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands overshadowed by Iron Maiden, but enjoying a revival in the past decade.
Schneier on Security (feed)
the long-running personal blog of public-interest technologist Bruce Schneier
Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations (feed)
reviews of vintage science fiction (1945-1985) by Joachim Boaz
Silvia Maggi (feed)
I follow her to learn more about accessible web design (because I can always do better).
Starstruck (feed)
Originally an off-Broadway play by Elaine Lee first performed in 1980, Starstruck is a classic indie sf comic that I first saw advertised in Omni Magazine back in the 1980s.
Stephen Ramsay (feed)
an academic specializing in the digital humanities; I had hoped he’d be more prolific in his blogging
Taylor Troesh (feed)
A West Coast techie who does a lot of consulting and operates potato.cheap, a manifesto for the ‘cheap web’.
The Fallacy Files (feed)
a website and blog by Gary N. Curtis dedicated to understanding logical fallacies
The Honest Courtesan (feed)
this site delivers exactly what its tagline promises: frank commentary from a semi-retired call girl. Maggie McNeill comes by her libertarianism honestly, which is more than can be said for a lot of white guys complaining that the government oppresses them.
The Paris Review (feed)
The USA’s preeminent literary journal since 1953, according to their press kit. Apparently the entire archive is online for subscribers.
The Point (feed)
a journal of contemporary literature and philosophy examining modern life
The Protomen (feed)
A Nashville band that does 1980s revival rock operas based on the NES Mega Man games. What’s not to like?
The Quietus (feed)
a UK arts/culture/music website that I discovered thanks to a 2013 article by Joseph Stannard celebrating the Blue Öyster Cult’s IMAGINOS album
The Rock Cocks (NSFW) (feed)
This a long-running webcomic about a heavy metal band that wants you to literally rock out with your cock out. Not just porn; it’s got a decent storyline going for it as well.
The Sword (feed)
I didn’t really get “stoner” metal until I fired up their 2010 album Warp Riders.
This Is An Actual Website (feed)
I built this as a less NSFW and non-Oedipal alternative to motherfuckingwebsite.com and friends
This Is Cool (feed)
a British website for visual art in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Tommi Space (feed)
an enthusiast from Italy with a vivid design sense
Twisted Dandelion Productions (feed)
Another author and a fan of mine; we had also met on Google+ back in the day.
Unlovely Frankenstein (feed)
parody/homage prints and more: sex, monsters, and rock ’n roll
XKCD (feed)
a stick figure comic that’s all but required reading for techies
Ye Old Blogroll (feed)
Another directory similar to Ooh! Directory, a human-curated list of “fine personal & independent blogs that are updated regularly”
datagubbe (feed)
Apparently ‘datagubbe’ is a Swedish word meaning ‘old computer fogey’. I might be one myself, but I’m not Swedish.
flower.codes (feed)
a programmer with a stylish, minimalistic website
frantic.im (feed)
yet another techie working in startups, but I liked his “JavaScript Gom Jabbar” post
godteeth (feed)
they were kind enough to point out a typo in my webring partial that had caused breakage for them
kradeelav (NSFW) (feed)
They do leather comics, often featuring their favorite characters from Hellsing and Fire Emblem. I liked their zine, The Box of Doom.
ooh! directory: recent added blogs (feed)
recent additions to ohh! directory
ooh! directory (feed)
a collection of over 1,800 blogs covering a huge variety of topics operated by Phil Gyford.
ryuslash (feed)
Another Emacs fan, and a Disgaea fan too given the Prinny graphic on his homepage
so1o (feed)
He’s an otaku from Hong Kong. He’s a better web developer than he thinks, his Englsh is better than my Cantonese, and I like his design.
Álvaro Ramírez (feed)
I follow his feed for posts about GNU Emacs.
Interconnected (feed)
a blog operated by Matt Webb, who set up the BBC’s first podcast
Molly White (feed)
An independent journalist and critic of all kinds of techie bullshit from AI to Web3. Since she has me on her blogroll, it’s time I got around to adding her to mine.
olano.dev (feed)
Facundo Olano is a software engineer from Buenos Aires, Argentina who builds his website with Emacs and Org Mode.
matduggan.com (feed)
Mathew Duggan claims to be “an old-fashioned YAML farmer”. The fact that he moved to Denmark from Chicago suggests that he is probably smarter than I am.

Websites

I distinguish between these and blogs by the lack of a RSS/Atom feed.

32bit Cafe
A collective of Personal Web/Small Web/Smol Web/Slow Web/Web Revival fans/advocates. I hang out on the forum and occasionally help with CSS problems.
Aid Access
a committed team of doctors, activists, and advocates for abortion rights founded by Dr. Rebecca Gomperts
Asclaria
a network of websites operated by Lysianthus; the design is pretty and reminiscent of late 1990s web without being garish or hard to use
BNR Metal Pages
I think this is one of the first websites I ever visited way back in the late 1990s. It’s a vestige of the Old Web: playing it loud since 1995.
Black Sabbath
The OGs of heavy metal. Their last album 13 saw them go out with a bang.
Blue Öyster Cult
One of the founding fathers of American heavy metal, still touring 50 years later, and their 2020 album THE SYMBOL REMAINS fucking slaps.
Brian Koberlein
An astrophysicist and author with a huge archive. Unfortunately, there’s no feed; just a newsletter.
Colossus: The Forbin Project
a 1970 Universal Pictures adaptation of the novel by D. F. Jones that, despite its Cold War setting, has attained new relevance with the recent prominence of large language models like GPT-3.
Curlie
a human-curated web directory founded in 2017 as a successor to DMOZ
DMOZ
a now-archived human-curated web directory
Daily Science Fiction
Original science fiction & fantasy emailed to you every weekday? Cool, but I wish they had a RSS feed, too.
Douglas Crockford
author of my favorite fantasy novel: “JavaScript: the Good Parts” (this is a joke; I don’t think JavaScript has any good parts)
Early 1900s Music Preservation
a Texas non-profit dedicated to preserving and sharing music recordings from 1900 to 1945 that streams recordings via Radio Dismuke
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Their 1978 show at Nassau Coliseum was the first rock concert I ever attended, if one counts shows attended in utero.
LinkLane
This hand-curated web directory’s been running for almost 20 years. Color me impressed.
MUINET
I missed out on BBSes in the late 1980s and early 1990s; this is a revival running on a UNIX machine and accessible over SSH. It has lots of old-school text mode games.
Marginalia Search
a small DIY search engine operated by Viktor Lofgren
Melon Land
another site like Yesterweb celebrating homepages, virtual worlds, the world wide web, etc operated by Melon King
Moonshot Listings
not sure what to say about this one; it’s here mainly so I don’t forget about it
Museum of Alexandra
I was acquainted with Xandra on the old Yesterweb chatroom, and she’s one of the people running 32bit Cafe.
Nightfall City
a cyberpunk-themed web directory by m15o, operator of midnight.pub
Omni Magazine Archive
scans of most issues of Omni magazine from 1978 and 1995, published by Bob Guccione and Kathy Keeton: science fact, science fiction, fantasy, and parapsychology — lots of interesting material interspersed with woo
Pepper & Carrot
a libre and open-source webcomic about a young witch and her orange tabby cat
Piano Scales
an online scales source and guide for musicians learning piano; I’ve been using this as a supplement to in-person lessons
Plan C Pills
If you need to stop an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy with Mifepristone and Misoprostol, this website can help you.
Planned Parenthood
I support this organization because I was an unplanned child. No child should be unplanned or unwanted.
SDF Public Access UNIX System
Operating since 1987, it might be the original pubnix. I have a paid account here but I forgot my password and haven’t gotten around to having it reset.
Shakespeare’s Monologues
This is handy resource if you’re an actor or looking to quote the Bard in your own writing.
Smooth Sailing Listings
an automated website directory operated by Lysianthus
Thank You Scientist
One of my favorite 21st century prog rock bands, even though they haven’t released a new full-length album since Terraformer in 2019. Reminiscent of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, with a bit of ska for flavor.
The Midnight Pub
a little internet pub, a small forum with chill people; also available via Gemini protocol
The Notable Ultima
a web shrine to Richard Garriott’s Ultima RPGs maintained by the Underworld Dragon
The Sisters of Mercy
I’m not a goth; I don’t have the figure for it, but that’s OK because this isn’t a goth band. It’s just rock ‘n roll.
The Tale of Genji
a site dedicated to the famous novel by a Heian court lady known as Murasaki Shikibu, as well as the places mentioned therein
Tilde Town
A smaller, newer, cozier pubnix. It might be like SDF but I don’t have an account here. I just think it’s cool that this exists.
Vibrations of Doom
An old underground metal zine and online radio station. They’ve got a metric fuckton of obscure, out-of-print metal albums in RealAudio and RealMedia format, and their zine features interviews with the likes of Cirith Ungol.
Websets By Lynn
Lots of stuff for building a Geocities-style website. I used her 88x31 button maker to create this website’s current button.
list-me
a directory of what looks like mostly anime fandom websites
sadgirl
She’s the founder of Yesterweb, now on hiatus; I had contributed to her zine.
spookshow.net
Serving the N scale community since 1999
tyoma
Somebody I had met via Yesterweb. I like the cute little USB tail graphic.
About Feeds
an info page operated by Matt Webb for people who aren’t familiar with RSS.

Watch This Space

I will periodically add new bookmarks to this page, so keep an eye on it.

In the meantime, remember this: Only trust your bookmarks! Big Tech will never help you.