From the archivist
It started with a game that needed a few authentic AIM icons. Then I had 1,000. Then 10,000. At some point, I had a buddy icon problem.
Read how this happenedYou made it this far
You have scrolled past 1,024 buddy icons, so I have some suspicions. My blog is where the other shiny digressions end up.
Subscribe to Shedletsky.comA language of tiny pictures
A picture barely 50 pixels wide, sitting beside an AIM screen name, could announce a mood, a fandom, an inside joke, or who someone wanted to be that day.
Read the short historyRecovered from the early web
Buddy icons survive in old directories, fan sites, downloadable packs, and web archives. The archive preserves the original files, groups known copies, and records where each one was found.
How the archive worksMonospaced Font refers to fixed-width, grid-like lettering where every character occupies the same spacing footprint, common in compact text graphics. In these buddy icons, that spacing creates aligned rows, repeated words, and clear blocks that stay legible even when tiny.
![Pixelated orange cheese wedge with four holes under 'CHEESE' text in black block letters, next to 'EliteAIM [dot] COM ---By--- SMURF' text on white background.](/image/5e44a0dbab45ca3a2cf132bb188cd0bbffc19d3b62632c60acee9bbbc21467f8){kind=small}
![Yellow pixelated text on dark green background with repeated phrases and symbols, including "[[AsBuRn]]", "[[XtReMe]]", "FRITO", and "# 45 <3".](/image/6836cf4b3859e289d08001fd5d2931a00415c96c2a30684efd7ea9498cdcd19a){kind=small}
