I like the ideas shared in this article. The diy webring has me intrigued.
I think we are drawn to the aesthetics of the early web because it feels authentic and human, like a chair made by hand or a band playing only for the love of it. And if our modern lives are defined by the omnipresence of the internet, then idolizing Geocities pages could be seen as a way of connecting to our roots. So building a website from scratch, with hard-coded gif animations and a web-ring, is now part of the back-to-the-land tradition.
https://coolguy.website/basic-html-competency-is-the-new-punk-folk-explosion/