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 Text identifies buddy icons using fixed-width letterforms, where each character occupies a uniform rhythm. The clearest sign is aligned blocks of evenly spaced words, especially when text and symbols repeat in patterns.
![Purple background with two identical pixelated text blocks reading 'natalie =]' and a white heart symbol above the left block.](/image/714d7522c1c1c4904bd5502ba0411598ab4ae3e2e1200bdbd9a70edc99a14cb2){kind=small}
![Yellow text on black background with red highlight boxes changing position across frames, displaying 'Kameron likes rubber ducks =]' in pixelated font.](/image/717d325b16544cd0ca0bc7b3b3f944cff5ee4a51bd47beba4a15f88526d6b840){kind=small}
