I’ve never been as excited by a social media website as much as I am by this solo dev’s ‘cyber-vibe text-only’ site that is ‘how the internet was supposed to be’
I got rid of pretty much all my social media years ago, and I’ve been a happier, freer man ever since. But I’d be lying if there wasn’t part of me that still desires that dopamine fix of scrolling through a site for easily ingestible content from familiar faces or display names. That’s been ingrained into my brain ever since the heyday of online forums. So I’m more than a little interested in cyberspace.online, a social media site that is “how the internet was supposed to be” (via Hackaday).
The most immediately striking thing about it is its aesthetic, which is pulled straight from my childhood dreams of what hacking would probably be like: green terminals and lots of ‘@’ usernames. You can theme it with any colours and border sizing you like, but it comes with some pre-mades, including C64, VT320, and green Matrix options. Personally, while I don’t know if I could stand it long-term, I like the VT320 one because it reminds me of Hacker: Evolution.
I’m not exaggerating when I say all this is exactly what I’ve always wanted out of social media. It’s just like being back on early-2000s forums, but with a cooler aesthetic, more features all on one platform, and some useful modern functionality such as the hashtag-esque Topics system, plus other little features such as being able to save/bookmark posts and navigate the entire site with keyboard commands.
This last point is worth highlighting because it brings out a compelling case for creating a cyberdeck. I’ve always been tempted to make one, but I’ve never found a compelling enough use case, personally. This could certainly add one.
In fact, it looks like a CyberDeck might be exactly what the creator, Reddit user euklides, had in mind, as they say on the CyberDeck sub that they’re ‘making a cyber-vibe text-only social network like it’s 1987.’ I’m going to have to make a cyberdeck, aren’t I?
Plus, I suppose there’s the benefit that you might get to pass yourself off as some 1337 h4ck3r (sorry, I had to, for retro’s sake) if you’re living with some very technologically unsavvy people.
