Help I'm Lost!

Hello there, welcome to the MelonLand help page! This is a basic guide intended to help orient you and explain the main features of the site!

MelonLand is an online community and art project by Melonking, that initially grew out of the Yesterweb community in 2021. It comprises of 3,339 people who enjoy creating things on the web.

It's goal is to promote personal websites, net art and virtual worlds, as a means of building a more human, non-corporate and actively positive internet. It is part of a wider movement sometimes called the Web Revival, that spans many other sites.

This site is intended to be a digital playground, to rediscover the freshness, positivity and openness that the web had in its early years, and to learn how we can make a better web for the future.

The web in the 90s was experimental, colourful, and full of unknowns - when you think of a 90s website, you're thinking of the aesthetic product of that experimentation. MelonLand is about exploring exactly those qualities too. We try to find the best things the early web had to offer, and apply those things to the modern web, while combining them with new ideas and new perspectives on what technology can become.

MelonLand is not about reviving “the old web”, or encouraging performative nostalgia. MelonLand is about reviving the spirit of experimentation that came with the early web. We do that by exploring its aesthetics and ideas, and seeing how they can be reworked today, while avoiding the mistakes of the early web.

Everything you see before you is a by-product of play and exploration, and an attempt to answer the promise that the web could be better.

• MelonLand - the catch all name for this site and projects connect to it
• Everyone Site - a collectively coded website all members can edit, its used widely across MelonLand
• Forum - A central discussion board for members.
• Surf Club - a directory/list of member's personal websites you can visit.
• Post Office / Newsletters - a micro service for sending and subscribing to member newsletters
• Art Hub - a art sharing site based on Deviant Art for uploading 2D and 3D artworks.
• Liquid Crystal Cafe / Chat - A real time chat where you can talk to other members
• Guilds - member created groups on the forum, focused on specific subjects
• Artifacts - collectable member made web toys that can be around around the site
• Sneezey Files - image/file upload service (members see the outbox icon in the nav)
• Main Street - a multiplayer mini MMO embedded on most MelonLand pages
• Avatar Builder - a tool for creating your own avatar out of Artifacts
• Your Room - your dedicated page on the Everyone Site that functions like a tiny homepage
• Wiki - (this page) contains help documents and guides related to MelonLand
• Guides / Books - community created link/webpage collections gathering info related to a subject
• Passport Sites - non-MelonLand websites that you can login to using a MelonLand account

The forum and other parts of MelonLand default to using Swatch Beat Time (@123) for timestamps. This is an alternative time format that is the same for everyone around the world, regardless of your time zone.

We use it here because its useful to have everyone on a shared time system, and it fits the ML goal of exploring alternative technologies and ideas of web life!

Its never easy to get started in a new space, but there are always lots of rewards for pushing through and exploring a bit, here are some recommended steps, almost all pages on MelonLand feature the standard Nav bar, so you should be able to find your way back!

You dont need an account here to explore the site and find cool stuff, and its actually recommended you lurk for a while before deciding to make an account, here are some activities to try:

1. Take 5 minutes to click (surf) around the Everyone Site, you can find it via the campfire in the nav.
2. If you like art, checkout the Art Hub next, its main gallery mode gives you a random selection of member art!
3. There are lots of good discussions on the Forum, and you can read all of them without an account. You'll find categories and boards for subjects that might interest you.
4. Finally before heading off, if you'd like to keep up with news, have a look at the Newsletters on offer. Melon's Newsletter is somewhat rare, but covers official site updates!

At this point you may be inspired to create your own site, and if so the Web Craft Guide is a good place to start, if you want to make a forum account, check the Thinking of joining? info topic!

If you have just made an account (and been approved by a moderator), there are some good first steps you might want to try!

1. Firstly make sure you have read the forum Rules/Guidelines here.
2. If you are planning to post on the Forum, check the etiquette guide here.

1. Make a greeting post on the greetings thread.
2. Update your profile!
3. Explore for some guilds you might like to join.
4. Collect your swap credit welfare (and possibly adopt an artifact)
5. Post some art in the Art Hub
6. Join forum discussions, there are lots of these and they will depend on what you are into, but find an easy one and leave a reply!
7. Make an everyone site edit, the everyone site is there and it waiting for you! An easy place to start is your personal room, you can add whatever you want there and no one will get upset c:

There is lots more info linked on the wiki main page, plus you can always ask on the forum, or contact a moderator directly if needed.