A Web 1.0 pastiche invites a certain kind of fib. “Hand-coded in Notepad.” “You are visitor number 004,217.” The early builds had several, and they were removed over the course of a week.
What went
- “Hand-coded.” The site is generated by a build and served by an edge function. The line was replaced with a plain description of how it is built.
- Invented counts. The visitor counter shows the real KV value, even when it is small.
- The “Made with Notepad” badge. Retired. The 88×31 badge that remains is for the web ring, which is real.
- Five placeholder projects. Replaced by the owner’s actual projects on 2026-09-24, and the Helldivers 2 bot was marked discontinued when that project paused.
The rule
The themes can imitate any era they like in look and voice. The content under them has to be true. A 1999 GeoCities page about a 2026 person is fine; a 2026 page claiming a 1999 visitor count is not.
Accessibility, same week
The same pass checked every theme against a short list: 4.5:1 text contrast, a reduced-motion mode that stops the GIFs and the neon pulse, and no sideways scroll at 375 pixels wide. The Eighties and GeoCities themes needed the most work, since both lean on motion and saturated colour.