I’ve been thinking a lot about the problem of garbage AI generated content on the web. It’s a problem that erodes trust and makes everyone look bad. So how do you combat that?
Web buttons, of course!
These were popular in the early 2000s as a way of adding pieces of flair to your website, to link to friends, and to show off your W3 validated XHTML and CSS.
There’s a few archives around showing these off, including The 88×31 GIF Collection and this collection of old buttons. (edit: also Pixel Sea by Daniel aka Melon is a delightful way to explore buttons)
And given my web site is of a certain vintage I thought I’d do something up in the style.
I think it worked out really well. The little robot is very cute, and the colours were kind of inspired by the old Amiga button. And as was common at the time I exported it and closed before remembering to save my sources, so this is it now.
If you want to download and use the button on your own website, go for it. It’s all yours. Use it as you wish:
I’ve decided to upscale it here for effect, but the original version is indeed 88×31 pixels.
If you want to upscale it, you can add the css image-rendering:pixelated; to make it render pixel perfect, rather than using a more blurry modern scaling designed for photos.