I absolutely know what you are looking for. I was longing for those days myself a couple months ago and went searching. What I found is pretty cool. There is a whole independent offgrid internet of it’s own where all the sites are minimal and self hosted just like the old days. It is an updated more modern version of the old “Gopher” protocol.
It is called Gemini space and uses a very secure encrypted peer to peer protocol called Gemini that is very cool and I am getting deeply involved. It is the Bomb. You can have blogs, image galleries, file sharing, Old school BBS boards, streaming music sites, etc. and about anything you want to create. It is not part of the HTTP-WWW protocol. It has it’s own custom URL address system.
It is fairly new, but it is designed to be retro with small simple sites just like the old days. There are several client (browser) options, and several self server options if you want to create your own. The best client is called “lagrange” and comes with the Gemini protocol preinstalled in it. Install Lagrange and you are in the network. I haven’t created a server “Capsule” as they call it yet. Working that direction now.
Here is an example of their URL address system.
gemini://geminiprotocol.net/
Lagrange:
https://github.com/skyjake/lagrange
And for Ubuntu/Mint Linux users it is in the repository just a click away.
Is there any security advantage to Gemini?
So I am far from being the only one.
That is good to hear. I am shielded from most net ads with brave and ghostery. I seem to be the only person who eschews the apps and goes to web sites only.
however the sheer inane ness of the net platforms is disheartening.
This might be the answer...albeit I am not technically able.