Here are things that caught our attention as we pulled this project together! These petpages are a journey back in time, before TNT discovered fonts beyond Times New Roman, before web design principles were a thing, back when flamboyant tiled backgrounds and glitter images ruled the internet. Most of the default petpages feature coding and content that has literally been untouched since Adam pushed them live in 2000. This, my friends, is digital folklore.
Our favourite petpage title images, judged by strongest Web 1.0 aesthetics and how many superfluous pixels we could find
the fact that this delightful amateur creation is still live in 2020 fills me with glee
"unbothered. moisturized. happy."
"in my lane. focused. flourishing."
look at this encarta 1999 lookin MFer
You only wish you could achieve this level of refined design. Say hullo to the beautiful disaster that is the Meerca default. Everything is A Choice and we love it:
Say what you will, but that repeating background with rainbow gradient? That Pepto Bismol textbox? Iconic.
Please delight in this pioneering piece of graphic design, courtesy of the Mynci default:
WRT the longstanding debate as to whether ixi are supposed to be a deer or a goat, we draw your attention to this image on the ixi default petpage:
And then to its filename:
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We too are shocked and disappointed and still think they're goats.
Time for a quiz: what sound do Xweetoks make in the battledome?
Some retro webcore aesthetics for your nostalgic enjoyment:
the wine bottles on my counter watching me bring home a new bottle
u jammin to Chromatica
usul best girl
Strong odds this was written by wine-drunk Donna at 1am
Enjoyed the passionate anti-carrot manifesto on the Cybunny default, along with that clumsy orange font, illegible over the heart background.
Prize for darkest content: Jetsam
Also enjoyed this mildly threatening line from the Korbat page:
Same tho
Let us take a moment to appreciate these classic dividers.
Delightfully dated Uni divider:
Top shelf Meerca divider:
A lovely specimen from the Aisha petpage:
'Cause I-I-I'm in the stars toniiight
So I'ma light it up like dynamiteeee -BTS
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Saving the best for last: Lupe divider
All tongue-in-cheek commentary aside, these capture a moment in time, of animation trends, design choices, and gaudy visuals that have largely (some would argue, rightly) been erased from the internet by sleek interfaces, usability theory, and incredible tools that allow amateurs to create professional(ish) looking outputs in a few clicks. These default pages are the amateur web in a nutshell; maximalist, tawdry, a piece of neopets.com that will one day disappear onsite, if not with the advancement of the current beta, then by some other mechanism. But for now, we preserve their sometimes-questionable beauty and their peculiarities and hope you enjoy this tiny piece of Web history.