Me too man, I remember the internet back then where everything was unique and not a cookie-cutter bootstrap boilterplate. Want a nostalgia trip? Download Opera (one of the early versions) - it'll pluck at your heart strings and make you yearn for times when you had more personal responsibility and Google wasn't there to infect everything with it's nanny browser. Hell, even Firefox the last bastion of Freedom on the web, is following Chrome.
This. More specifically, the Wild West got wild for a few years - during a massive population influx - while the entire system was unstable (which also means interesting, in most senses of the word). The metaphor leaks, but is close enough.
I agree, but it still sucks that it seems you're being sold something at every turn. Websites are no longer there, just to be there. It's always about the upsell or agenda.
That's one reason why I'm a little annoyed personal websites went mostly the way of the Dodo and you can only expect friends to check things out if you give them direct links to some trusted site from a site they use all the time, like a link to a Youtube video from Facebook, or your Medium or Tumblr entry from Twitter.
I still like designing personal websites, but it seems like a waste of time now.
