Klaatu,

I found this podcast to be very relatable to me. I miss the vast quantities of those independent websites such as Geocities that you mentioned. I almost forgot how poor coded they were.  I&rsquo;d sometimes see text overwritten with graphics on top or other text.  It&rsquo;s hard for me to complain on that issue, as my own personal website might not be written much better, but it&rsquo;s mine and I&rsquo;m learning as I go along.

Those small sites though, far less common than days gone by had a vibe that is far from the mostly corporate based sites today. It was nice when you&rsquo;d see a description of what people were doing from their point of view.  A recipe from a grandmother, a hike along a favorite trail, a little known but much loved music group, games, stories, poems.  Many graced with gifs such as dancing flames on a torch, dancing animals, or fantasy castles and dragons perhaps copied from elsewhere. Many had background music from midi files with their electronic tones.

As you stated about &lsquo;modern&rsquo; sites tending to talk and not listening a lot.  I totally agree.  A problem that I encounter is when doing a web search looking for information the sites often are not a good match with my search terms any more.  Few of the sites offer quality information, most instead being geared for sales (hear them talk).  It&rsquo;s like entering a library to find that it is not a library, but a department store.

Something I&rsquo;ve recently noticed is that if I look for a particular website (let&rsquo;s say comparing Linux Distros), I can go to several websites and a few of the sites will have identical descriptions &ndash; word for word.  It&rsquo;s a shame to visit site after site to find information not similar, but identical.

Well, thank you for the podcast, Klaatu.  And thanks to HPR

hammerron