If you surf the modern “small web” to any extent you’ve encountered 88x31 buttons - a staple of late 90s and early 2000’s websites1 undergoing a bit of a revival. The Neocities community especially seems to have truly embraced them. 88x31 buttons have a long history on the web, straddling the worlds of advertising and the personal web. Much like IRL jacket pins and buttons - they’re small, colorful, collectible, easy to make and trade, and at a glance can confer just enough information to characterize the website displaying them.
Our boy @yequari gets a link out in this one.
This is a really good article, and it’s interesting reading a more complete history of the format. I still maintain that we should take the same energy and excitement people have towards their 88x31s and direct it into a larger image format!