Ronnie's directory

A personal directory of sites and resources, loosely organized.

search, surf, explore

Ytoo! is a portal site that allows you to search via multiple indie web/retro web search engines. Containing links to most of the popular sites like SpaceHey, Neocities, virtual pet sites, forums, and more, it is by far my most used in this category, and I have it set as my custom startpage/homepage. Also contains funny fake ads.
Marginalia Search is my current go-to search engine. It prioritizes none commercial content and has specific filters to focus the results, such as small web, forums, academia, etc. I still default to duckduckgo for things I need direct information for, but I try this first. Has a very fun 'explore sites' option.
SmolNet Portal is an extremely cool portal for access to alternative internet protocols ala gopher and gemini. Not a comprehensive directory of different internet protocols but provides an easy in-browser way to dip your toes into a different web.
Hypertext TV is a different, slower way to discover new sites. It presents itself as an older TV with different channels such as Art, Personal, Music, and Archives. Different websites are displayed on these channels within hypertext tv, and they are on a set schedule. For example, a site will be 'on' channel 'Art' until 9pm, at which point it will switch to a different site.

MelonLand Forum is a super fun and colorful community that definitely takes quite a bit of inspo based on the old web. Very art/web focused with a lot of interesting projects created by various members. A very positive and encouraging corner of the web!
32-Bit Cafe is my favorite forum, as it was my first real discovery of the indie web and has a fantastic resource list for webmastery/webweaving. Very web development focused, although still has a ton of creativity and cool projects. (they also host an RSS feed which is very convenient.)
pouet.net is half forum/half demoscene hub. Contains a ton of cool productions to watch, and even a helpful directory of parties. Still exploring as I learn more about the demoscene.
Horror Forum (need to explore more)
SpaceHey is not a forum, and is instead an alternative social media, ala myspace! Pretty active, although for the uninitiated you will have to dig. Plenty of people who post cool stuff, or at least have cool profiles. People have posted a lot of different things so the blogs are really a treasure trove of graphics, html/css help, and resources. Currently where my blog resides.

HTML for People is a site with essentially a step-by-step guide to making your own website.
W3Schools is my current go-to for html/css help. Extensive and explains everything very clearly.
codeSpace is a live code editor for spacehey.
Interneting Is Hard another step-by-step site for beginners.

Internet Archive is a great project to archive the web. Has everything from books to movies to software, also has the wayback machine and openlibrary, and probably other projects I haven't noticed.

MyRetroTVs is a land of retro television, with different channels and everything! Is split up into the 50's to the 2000's and even down to the specific year, along with channel filtering for categories like soaps, music, sports, and more.
ASCII Theater is a free text-based, terminal-based, movie streaming site. I am not kidding, and it is glorious. It shows a different movie every night, and when you paste the link given into your terminal, bam. The movie in glorious ASCII nature. WITH SUBTITLES :D no audio however, but fascinating to see how certain movies actually still convey a lot even through such a limited stream.
Meow.Camera is a site that shows you various livestreams of cat feeders in Japan. You can even pay to feed the kitties, although when I was watching I saw people filling up the feeders and adding food by hand so I doubt they go hungry too often.
PBS is maybe the perfect example of a forgotten gem, a non-commercialized media company with all sorts of shows and documentaries free to view at any time. If you haven't checked out PBS since you were a kid (like me) I super recommend checking it out.
YTCH TV is similar in premise to both hypertext tv and myretrotvs in that it offers a variety of channels. But instead of websites or tv shows, it shows youtube videos. I do have an adblocker so I'm unsure if there are ads. I highly recommend channel surfing through it if you ever get bored!