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textfiles.com

Everything people typed at each other on bulletin board systems before the web existed, preserved as plain text and left open.

Opens in a new tab. We do not control this site and it may have changed since we catalogued it.

How to get the most from it

textfiles.com sits in Old Net Art under Retro, filed as rabbit hole.

  • Open it when the evening is free. It has no natural stopping point.
  • It works on a phone or a desktop, so open it on whatever is nearest.
  • It works with the sound off, so it is fine on a train or in a quiet office.
  • No account needed — you can start without signing up.
  • Go in expecting something nostalgic and brainy.

About this category: Personal pages, hand-written HTML, Winamp skins and net art from an era when nobody had decided what a website was supposed to look like.

Good for

  • A long evening with nothing planned
  • A trip back to the older internet
  • Giving your brain a workout
  • A quiet break at your desk
  • Killing time on your phone
  • Trying it with zero commitment

textfiles.com: quick answers

Is textfiles.com free?

Yes. textfiles.com is free to use and needs no account.

Do I need an account to use textfiles.com?

No. You can use textfiles.com without signing up for anything.

Does textfiles.com work on a phone?

Yes. textfiles.com works on phones as well as desktop browsers.

Is textfiles.com safe for work?

Yes, we file it as safe for work. It also works muted.

How long does textfiles.com take?

We file it as "Rabbit hole": Clear your evening. We warned you.

More in Old Net Art

All 12 in Old Net Art
  • The original page describing the World Wide Web project, restored by CERN at its first address. Plain text and a few links.

  • One of the first things the internet ever collectively lost its mind over, and it is still rows of dancing rodents and one loop.

    • <1 min
    • Sound on
  • Winamp itself, reimplemented faithfully enough that the equaliser works. It really whips the llama's behind, in a browser tab.

    • <1 min
    • Sound on
    • Desktop
  • Roughly a hundred thousand Winamp skins, all loadable in the browser. An enormous accidental record of amateur graphic design.

    • 1 hr+
    • Desktop

Same mood: nostalgic

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