 | | Modern Browsers Now Default to Internet Archive Going forward, users on modern browsers will default to the Internet Archive for website links. If you prefer TheOldNet, you can still access it via a small link next to the URLs. For those using vintage browsers, TheOldNet will continue to be the default. This change addresses issues with the Internet Archive blocking TheOldNet due to high traffic. Since most Old'aVista users are on modern browsers and TheOldNet's focus is on vintage browsing, this shift helps reduce strain on TheOldNet's servers and streamlines access for modern users. 18/12/2023 |
| | Introducing Directories! I'm excited to announce that the much-awaited Old'aVista Directories feature is now live! You can find it right on our homepage. This feature is the result of two years of on-and-off hard work. This journey has been a roller coaster, involving several rounds of scraping Yahoo Directories from 1996 to 2003 from the Internet Archive (thanks to a bunch of challenges), cleaning up and pulling data together, saying goodbye to links that no longer work, and making a bunch of tweaks to our website. Make sure to check this new feature out and let me know what you think on Discord! 15/06/2023 |
| | We're Back!! Old'aVista was down due to server issues for the last week or so but now we're back hopefully with no issues. Some pages like the Guestbook and Supporters are still down, I'm currently investigating the issue. Both the Guestbook and Supporters page are back up. 01/03/2023 |
| | Fixed cross-site scripting in the Chat The Old'aVista chat allowed malicious code to be used as the user's nickname, that problem has been fixed and now users can only use alpha-numeric characters, spaces, underscores and dashes in their nicknames. 01/03/2023 |
| | Huge Database and Search Updates This has been a long time coming and it's finally here! I have been working on a huge database update for months that will improve the search quality, here's what it involves: - I re-scraped the ALL of the sites with a better way to collect the contents of the pages, which will make those pages easier to find.
- I also removed tons of duplicate entries by formatting the URLs to remove variations with dangling "/" and "index.html".
- In the scraping process I have also finished going through the outstanding items in the queue, which made me find even more sites. So we added hundreds of thousands more pages to the index.
- On top of those sites found, I also indexed a bunch of others I found while scraping the Yahoo Directories for the future "Directories" feature, which also added a lot more sites to the index.
- Because of the above, introducing the Directories feature will be a lot easier, which is coming very soon.
- On top of all of that, now you also have the ability to select between 6 different languages in the main search.
These are pretty big changes which I'm super excited to roll out, so I really hope you enjoy them! 07/10/2022 |
| | Updates to Patreon Tiers. I have updated the Patreon tiers so the benefits are a bit more clear, I have also listed them in the contribute page. 05/10/2022 |
| | Guestbook backend changes. The guestbook now uses its own service and database. This is good because it will make the main database of the website safer as it won't have as many writes. It will also allow updating the data and adding directories without me having to worry about backing up the Guestbook! 03/10/2022 |
| | Old'aVista turns ONE! The month of August marks 1 year since Old'aVista was launched. I have to make a confession though, I don't remember the exact day, I think it was on the 10th but I can't be fully sure, because of that let's make August the Old'aVista month! 02/10/2022 |
| | Fix search with quotes Search with quotes were being encoded to html therefore no allowing searches with specific terms, that's fixed now. 26/07/2022 |
| | Backend overhaul of top searches and highlights Big overhaul of the Top Searches and the Old'aVista Highlights in the backend. They used to show the all-time most searched queries and clicked websites, now it only shows the top searches and sites from the last 14 days. 26/07/2022 |
| | Patreon supporters are now shown on the Website! If you decide to support Old'aVista and The Eric Experiment via Patreon, your name will now be shown in the Old'aVista Supporters page. Some names will also be selected to be shown on the main page for 24h every day. Keep in mind that when you become a Patron, your name can take up to 24 hours to show on the website. 06/06/2022 |
| | Introducing Old'aVista Chat Rooms! Remember HTML chat rooms that you could access from your browser in the 90's and early 2000's? Well, you can experience it again via the Old'aVista Chat! The chat is also connected to our Discord server, so interactions are easier. 26/05/2022 |
| | You have now new ways to support Old'aVista! If you like the work I'm doing here, the work being done at The Eric Experiment site and youtube channel and you want to give a little help, you can now either by using Patreon or by buying some merch! Check it out here. 25/04/2022 |
| | The Discord Link has been fixed! The discord link in the main page was broken. It has been fixed now. 25/04/2022 |
| | We're on discord! Join our Discord server to chat about Old'aVista, The Eric Experiment, Retro Computing, Retro Gaming and other tangential subjects. 18/02/2022 |
| | URLs not allowed on Guestbook anymore URLs are no longer allowed on the Guestbook as most messages with links were spam. 16/02/2022 |
| | 500 character limit added to guestbook A maximum of 500 characters has been added to the Guestbook as some people and bots were abusing the lack of limit. 22/10/2021 |
| | Huge backend migration from MySQL to PostgresSQL and hosting services We have moved to PostgresSQL and to a VPS to improve performance and search quality. 02/10/2021 |
| | Sign our new Guestbook! Remember Guestbooks? Yes, we have one now! Make sure to leave your mark on Old'aVista by signing it! 14/09/2021 |
| | Added embedded Banner and 88x31 button If you'd like to link to Old'aVista from your website, you can now do it using either a cool Banner or an 88x31 button. 28/08/2021 |
| | Implemented advanced search If you feel that you are not getting specific enough results in your search, you can now use the Advanced Search feature. It lets you specify all sorts of parameters to make your search more specific. 28/08/2021 |
| | Added a donation page If you like the work that is being done here, you can donate to Old'aVista via Buy me a Coffee! 24/08/2021 |
| | Old'aVista Launched Do you want to explore the world of Personal Pages from services like Geocities, AOL Hometown, Xoom and Angelfire? Now you can using Old'aVista! 10/08/2021 |
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