Design Gems — curated sources
Design Gems — curated sources
Section titled “Design Gems — curated sources”Shelves for finding handmade personal websites — Nekoweb-like hosts, directories, webrings, and revival lists. Not SaaS design-system blogs; not random UI galleries alone.
Use: Designy picks morning gems from these (and peers discovered via them). Button archives are secondary craft references.
Verified: URLs checked live 2026-09-26 (Asia/Shanghai) unless noted.
Related: README · Nekoweb and plain HTML · 88x31 · Y2K
Hosts / platforms
Section titled “Hosts / platforms”Places that host (and let you browse) personal handcoded sites.
| Name | URL | What you browse |
|---|---|---|
| Nekoweb | https://nekoweb.org/ · Explore | Free static personal hosting; explore by follows / last-updated / tags — anime shrines, guestbooks, plain-HTML craft |
| Neocities | https://neocities.org/ · Browse · tag: y2k · tag: nightcore · tag: frutigeraero | Large social gallery of free personal sites; tag browse is the discovery surface |
Directories & featured lists
Section titled “Directories & featured lists”Human-sorted catalogs of personal / handcoded sites (Yahoo-directory energy).
| Name | URL | What you browse |
|---|---|---|
| Flyer | https://flyer.nekoweb.org/ | Tag-searchable directory of handcoded personal sites (no builders / empty templates) |
| Nekoweb Districts | https://districts.nekoweb.org/ | Topic “districts” for Nekoweb sites, often with submitted 88×31 buttons |
| NekoDirectory | https://nekodir.nekoweb.org/ | Web-clique directory with tagging — neighborhoods of themed personal sites |
| Indieseek | https://indieseek.xyz/ | Human-curated indie / personal-web directory (HTTP 202 on check; still answering) |
| Early Web Links | https://earlyweblinks.com/ | Curated directory of weird, personal, pre-corporate-feeling sites by topic |
| BUKMARK.CLUB | https://bukmark.club/ | Directory of sites that keep curated bookmark / link collections (link-farm of link-farms) |
| Sadgrl cyberspace directory | https://goblin-heart.net/sadgrl/cyberspace/directory.html · sadgrl.online · archive tools · 88×31 maker | Classic small-web resource index + live cyber-goth personal site; GitHub Pages holds layout builder / cheatsheet / button maker from archived iterations |
Webrings & neighborhoods
Section titled “Webrings & neighborhoods”Circular / mutual-link discovery — click next, land on another handmade homepage.
| Name | URL | What you browse |
|---|---|---|
| Aero & Y2K Webring | https://frutigeraeroarchive.org/aero_webring | ~145-member ring for Frutiger Aero, Web 1.0 / GeoCities, Cyber Y2K, OS-chrome aesthetics |
| Retroweb Ring | https://indieseek.xyz/webring/ · member list | Ring for static old-style homepages, personal blogs, and directories that list them |
| Indie Web DB — Webrings | https://petrapixel.neocities.org/indiewebdb/webrings | Meta-list of 300+ webrings (sort / search; gray = closed) |
| IndieWeb Webring | https://xn—sr8hvo.ws/directory | Active IndieWeb member directory with prev/next ring navigation |
| Hotline Webring | https://hotlinewebring.club/ | Small personal-site webring with a punchy “call the hotline” framing |
Y2K / revival shelves
Section titled “Y2K / revival shelves”Communities and meta-shelves that celebrate the web revival / personal homepage culture.
| Name | URL | What you browse |
|---|---|---|
| MelonLand | https://melonland.net/ · Forum · Wiki | Web-revival arts community — homepages as art, Surf Club webring, craft guides |
| Yesterweb | https://yesterweb.org/ | Web-revival community hub (zines, essays, old-web ethos) |
| theindex.fyi | https://theindex.fyi/ | Meta-index of indie/small-web directories, rings, search tools, and clubs |
| Brisray webring list | https://brisray.com/web/webring-list.htm | Long-running human-maintained mega-list of webrings |
| 32-Bit Cafe Discourse | https://discourse.32bit.cafe/ | Indie / small-web community forum — Webweaving, Graphic Design, Community-Made Projects, Links Around the Web (discovery adjacent to webrings) |
| WidgetStar | https://widget.st/ · Explore | Neocities/Nekoweb widget marketplace (Kicya) — guestbook-era official widgets + community AdBank / Button Links / moon toys; lavender-star Y2K chrome |
Contemporary galleries
Section titled “Contemporary galleries”Curated galleries of contemporary sites and UI. Noa added these on 2026-10-05: Awwwards first, then six galleries from Manish Kumar’s list. They rotate alongside the handmade shelves, not instead of them. Pick for layout, type, motion, or chrome that could inform the braid; skip generic SaaS marketing pages.
| Name | URL | What you browse |
|---|---|---|
| Awwwards | https://www.awwwards.com/ · Sites of the Day · Nominees | Daily awarded and nominated sites — contemporary web craft, not a personal-homepage directory |
| Recent | https://recent.design/ | Fresh real-site design inspiration feed |
| Siteinspire | https://www.siteinspire.com/ | Long-running curated website showcase, filterable by style and type, updated daily |
| Collect UI | https://collectui.com/ | Daily UI shots, portfolios, and inspiration sorted by component |
| Land-book | https://land-book.com/ | Hand-picked website gallery for creatives, updated daily |
| DesignSPO | https://designspo.com/ | SaaS product and landing design with AI search; mostly SaaS, so use sparingly |
| posts.design | https://posts.design/ | Social post designs that companies actually ship; a graphics reference, not sites |
Archives (secondary)
Section titled “Archives (secondary)”Historical shelves and button walls — craft reference more than live “find a homepage today.”
| Name | URL | What you browse |
|---|---|---|
| 88×31 GIF Collection (Dabamos) | https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/ | ~4,500 classic 88×31 buttons (Netscape / GeoCities / friendship chips) |
| NeoNaut 88×31 | https://neonaut.neocities.org/cyber/88x31 | Essay + categorized modern/Neocities button collections |
| OoCities | https://www.oocities.org/ | GeoCities mirror / rescue archive — old neighborhood personal pages |
| 88x31.datakra.sh | https://88x31.datakra.sh/ | Interactive 88×31 button generator (v2: frames, canvas/pixel tools, autosave, export) — makers craft tool, not browse-only wall |
| Identity buttons (fluffmoth) | https://idbuttons.neocities.org/ · latest · maker | Free tiny identity / pronoun / aesthetic pill badges (~3.6k+); cousin of 88×31 friendship chips, not the classic 88×31 size |
Skip (on purpose)
Section titled “Skip (on purpose)”- SaaS design-system blogs, Dribbble / Mobbin-style UI galleries alone (the Contemporary galleries shelf is the exception, since Noa added it on purpose)
- Pure product-marketing “inspiration” sites with no handmade personal-web inventory
- Empty builder templates posing as personal sites
Counts (this pass)
Section titled “Counts (this pass)”| Category | Entries |
|---|---|
| Hosts / platforms | 2 |
| Directories & featured | 7 |
| Webrings & neighborhoods | 5 |
| Y2K / revival shelves | 6 |
| Contemporary galleries | 7 |
| Archives (secondary) | 5 |
| Total | 32 |