2000s Dream Vault

HOMEPAGE

Welcome to my website!

About this project:

Keeping the dream alive

Welcome to my website. As you can see it's still a work in progress. Check back soon for an actual functioning site ;)

This is going to be a space for my fellow 90s & 2000s kids, who grew up with the early internet and miss it. The idea behind the name 2000s Dream Vault is that this site is a space for me to share the journey I've been on, which is going back to physical media, moving entirely away from streaming services and digital media. All in the style of a flashy 2000s website. I wanted to create a website that I would enjoy browsing, in the same way websites used to feel personal and like you've really arrived somewhere.

One day, this site will be hosted on its own domain. But I'm still in the early days of learning how to write HTML and CSS code, so until then, I'll be hosting here on neocities :)

This website encompasses a few personal projects I have been working on this year. As someone born in the 1990's, I was lucky enough to experience the rise of the internet, a time that, in my opinion, was truly the golden era of the internet. Cyberspace. I wanted to create a place where my passion for physical media and offline-based media consumption can be shared. We live in a world of algorithms, advertising and sleek web design, the goal of this website is to create a space that reminds us all of what the web used to be like; Unique pages for people to express and share their hobbies. I want it to be a place where myself and my friends can go to experience the old-web in the present day (2024 as I am writing this).

The World Wide Wild West Web

The internet used to feel like a place where you intentionally go. You logged on, and when you logged off you were back to reality. When you ran out of credit on your mobile phone, all you had left was to log on when you got home, sign into MSN, and hope your friends were online too. It was a space to meet people, have fun, explore. It felt vast and limitless and exciting, the Wild West. Now it feels hollow, cluttered, lifeless. Once the internet became something that people could monetise, it all changed. The internet is everywhere now, floating in the air, we carry it with us everywhere at all times. Everything is accessible, instantly, via our smartphones. Unlimited data plans mean we have constant access to the internet and each other.

I feel grateful I got to grow up before this time. During my childhood, you'd need to pick up the landline to get in touch with someone. Then came texting, having credit, and social medias like MSN, MySpace, Bebo. I remember getting Facebook some time in 2007/2008, but I didn't really use it. I only signed up because a classmate sent me an email invite. I don't know at what point it all changed, I was still using MSN Messenger while I was in college, so until around 2011. I think 2012 is when I got my first Smartphone, that's when I stopped using MSN Messenger probably.

Physical Media & Ownership

I have several projects/lifestyle changes that I've become very passionate about - and they all have one thing in common; physical media. The importance of physical media has been a huge topic of discussion recently. Events like the Sony store removing access to films that people bought digitally, and assumed they had ownership of but now suddenly had no access to. Digital licensing is everywhere now; music, film and TV, gaming. All over the entertainment industries. Physical media had become something seemingly unnecessary. Why would I need to buy a physical CD when I can buy an album on iTunes, or stream it on Spotify? Why would I need to buy a film on DVD when I can watch it on Netflix? Why should I have to have all this physical stuff take up space in my home? There are a couple of major problems with paying for a licence to view/listen/play:

About 5 years ago, I made the mistake of selling all my physical media. My favourite boxsets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, The Office. My steenbok editions of the Alien trilogy. I did it at the time because I didn't think I needed it anymore. Throughout my university years of 2012-2015 I had developed a huge collection of physical media that I was so proud of, and then I sold it all for cash at a CeX because I didn't think I needed it anymore. I was so shortsighted, but like many people I was caught up in the convenience of the streaming frenzy.

Luckily, I kept all my childhood CDs and PlayStation 2 games.

I recently started a new job, which means I can afford to start building my collection again. In order to future proof, and to make it more convenient, I have been digitising any media I have purchased. CeX sell DVDs for £1, and some boxsets are as little as £10. I have a large hard drive, and I digitise all the discs to rip the video files, and I put them onto the hard drive which gets plugged into my TV. I will go into more detail about this on a dedicated page of this site, but that is where my journey began.

Now, with this website, it was like a lightbulb moment. I was working a nightshift and decided to start learning HTML coding. The idea came to me out of the blue. So I took a free online course to learn the basics on that same nightshift, and immediately I was able to start writing the code.

It's something that will be treated somewhat as a journal, where I will share my collections, and create a space where anyone and everyone who is a nostalgic millennial lie me, can enjoy a piece of the internet we loved as kids.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying creating it <3



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