The Blue Pages: The Ultimate Old Web Guide

Community-Made Projects
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Overview

The Blue Pages was a project of mine that launched in 2024, as a response mainly out from the worsening of Google’s algorithms, and frankly because I am longing to update my old site directory.

It works like Yellow Pages, but instead of businesses, it primarily focuses on much niche topics, such as the old web, alternative protocols, obscure and lost media, TV and Radio, and more.

In fact, I have written a spec sheet for everyone to use if desired as well!

I never earn a single cent for this project only, as I do intend on the Blue Pages to be totally powered by pure desire and passion for the olden days, with no intentions on selling the actual concept as a whole since I believe that everyone should be able to make their own.

Submission system

As of right now I do support 3 ways to submit a site:

  1. Via form - Where you can submit via a form directly where I could read it to the site’s sole email address. I used a third party form service to operate the forms, but I think their free plan is capable enough for my needs.
  2. Via email (thebluepages.submissions@gmail.com) - Where you can email me directly, if you prefer, since people might be concerned about the form service or if you aren’t able to access the form entirely.
  3. Via git - I use Bitbucket to host my site since GitHub doesn’t allow you to use a different subdomain unless if you pay money. I don’t usually put this on ad materials but if you want to, you can submit your site manually by creating a pull request!

Goals

The goal of this is to link websites, resources and anything in between for the old web nomad, in the world where you cannot totally rely on search engine algorithms, The Blue Pages aims to fill a void for those who want to find what cool things indie web developers had graced us with, providing learning resources to those who are interested in hand coding HTML, and sparking discussions around breaking out from the depths of traditional web.

The Blue Pages is for the people, by the people, not corporations. I truly believe that with it, we could link through the old web, like it used to, letting creativity seep in with every <p> and <img>.

I guess, my only goal with this is to be the resource for everyone who wanted to find niche resources and to let other communities create one for their own as well too! There’s the possibility of me creating a centralized protocol for fetching other blue pages, but until someone’s creating an another page, I think it’s not in my plans.

And hey, what are you waiting for, if you want me to get you listed, then join now!

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I love the concept!! The signup form seems to be broken currently though, I can’t select anything for “Category”

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Will check if it’s on my end.

Update: seems fine to my end, you can put multiple categories by design but I haven’t checked if that works properly on other browsers than Firefox or Chrome.

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Btw folks: I do accept entries for the Gemini protocol, Gopher, and the likes. In fact I’m looking for resources to add on The Blue Pages for them!

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This looks like a fantastic resource! I’m excited to see what people decide to contribute.

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Another thing I forgot to add: I’m thinking about making a printable version available for your printing pleasure. Should I do it or not?

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interesting project, added a couple of pages for you

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Welcome to the forums. Please keep us up to date on your projects.

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I would suggest overhauling the formatting for the main page. Right now the links all just say “Link” with the description of the link destination as a separate string of text. Descriptive link text is better for navigating long link lists via screenreader.

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Bit confused about that. So instead of something like “Application Link,” what should I say instead?

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“Application Link” is fine. What I was referring to is things like this:

BetaWiki Link
CHWiki Link
Learn C++ Link

Which can be made more accessible like this:

BetaWiki
CHWiki
Learn C++

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Alt text for images is also nice.

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Graphics section? I would be happy to submit. Adoptables, toyboxes of pixels, in addition to blinkies, (are stamps old enough?),scribbles, and other digital art, older templates, minicliques, etc. Idk what we’re thinking here. References to http://angelic-network.(com?), Sushi fanlisting type thing that included text links and little pixels, etc. Thanks! Am I just missing it somewhere?

EDIT:
Oh, and effects and user tuts for said things. Dancing baby, quilting bee, and other phenoms.

EDIT 2:
Especially bitmapdreams. sweet and ornate pixel graphics. est.2001

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It’s under Blinkies… if you’re referring to old web graphics. I would consider adding Arts and Crafts unless I could compile a decent list.

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That was purely aesthetics but I’ll consider it since I was already thinking of a site overhaul.

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I NEED HELP

If you seen the site down for months, I’m sad to say that it was caught in the Bitbucket unused repository purge last May, and my only backup of the repo has been crippled by my failing SSD.

If you have a copy of the original repo, then I would gladly rehost it somewhere else.

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Sorry, but I never thought to clone it myself.

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It’s fine. In the meantime I am looking into recovering the files from the SSD and check for other backups in my house.

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Good luck. I hope you can turn something up.

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The Blue Pages need a new home!

Over the past few months, The Blue Pages has been down because of the recent BitBucket purge, and due to personal shenanigans, I wasn’t able to save the site on time and now is dead for the time being.

I thought that it was fully lost as the SSD didn’t read, but with a strike of luck, the SSD isn’t broken and I have been able to recover said files to a backup on a laptop via a recent purchase of a SATA-to-USB adapter.

But I need your help. Where would be its new home? Preferably I wanted open access to the website’s source code, as the site was designed around Git for people to contribute and to fork their own versions. Since I have a GitHub Pages site and the free plan is quite limited for multiple sites, what other platforms can I host BLP while maintaining the open source nature of it? If you know one, please leave a reply.