Blue Pages Specification

Version 1.0, drafted 31 Jan 2024
Authored by Alexis Jhon Gaspar

About the specification

This specification highlights the use of Blue Pages as a platform for niche creators who likes to have information catalogued outside of search engines.

The Blue Pages as a concept is mainly for web use but can be also adapted for books, similar to the existing White and Yellow Books.

In this specification sheet, the author/s would describe the function of the concept, guidelines, real life examples, and more.

Naming

The Blue Pages is named after Yellow Pages, a telephone directory of local businesses, as supposed to a normal telephone directory, which is called White Pages.

The Blue Pages takes a nod from this naming scheme as blue is a complementary to yellow in the color wheel, and The Blue Pages serves as the Yellow Pages for web-based communities, where people could find websites or services that could benefit the community overall.

Function

The concept functions as a more accurate version of the Yellow Pages adapted to the world wide web.

As larger screens became accessible to many during the last decade, adapting a web version of an actual Yellow Book is feasible, as the added screen real estate would mean additional information to fit.

But for mobile phones, the site would default to a single column layout as more and more sites are being designed for them.

The main difference between the specification and search engines is that the Blue Pages only serves as a directory, and is aimed for niche audiences. In contrast, search engines are designed with speed and relevance in mind.

Another difference is that the Blue Pages can have an option of manually added submissions, while search engines relies heavily on web crawlers, and algorithms to find websites.

Additionally, unlike search engines, the Blue Pages doesn’t heavily rely on algorithms and search engine optimization. All links are listed categorically, alphabetically in a typical Blue Page.

The other function of the Blue Page specification is to give site administrators finer control on what advertisements should show on their own Blue Pages. Advertisements are designed to be relevant, and also independently owned and created by people, without a middle man such as Google. This also gives users relevant content without involving their privacy.

Lastly, the Blue Pages is designed to be extended. People can add more to them, add features such as descriptions, inline images and more to the concept.

Goals

The goal of this specification is that everyone could make their own Blue Pages (or Blue Books if preferred) tuned for other communities or audiences.

This eases communities to find resources or websites that are related to it, such as old web communities or a fandom for a quirky RPG, as the Blue Pages serves as their little own information resource.

Of course, this only serves as a list of websites as in-depth content should be put into other services such as wikifarms, as the Blue Pages only serves as a map only, but a map that only serves a small community.

The reference platform for this is the AGR’s Blue Pages, made by Alexis, mainly to replace the not-so-oftenly updated Site Directory as well as to mainly serve a slightly larger community, the old web, retro computing, and media fandoms than the limited scope of my proposed standard. The aim of this was mainly, to be the Internet’s Old Web Directory, as Google is slowly making their pioneer product worse in tech circles.

Implementation

The concept can be easily implemented. The layout code (sans the frames) is licensed under GNU General Public License version 3, mainly for implementing it on the web.

Implementing a book version, for whatever reason (offline usage, niche merchandise, or plain wasting perfectly good bond paper), is as easy as implementing the layout into your favorite desktop publishing program (like Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher). While a reference platform for book versions aren’t available at this moment, when it does, it will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International .

The reference platform for the web, AGR’s Blue Pages is available under BitBucket.

Guidelines

You are free to add your own guidelines, such as for advertising. But if you’re a site admin of a Blue Pages site, you must follow these guidelines. If you are an user and found something illegal from a Blue Pages site, please contact the authorities. Please do take note that not all of the guidelines are strictly enforced. We are strictly enforcing rules number 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10.

1. Must have the blue background color. While you are free to choose what shade of blue you can use, make sure the shade had good contrast with the text color, while making sure that it’s not an eye strain.
2. Should mimic the layout of a yellow page when the viewport is above 480px, as it is advisable to use a single column layout in smaller resolutions.
3. Making blue books for illegal activities (drug trading, sex trafficking, pedophilia, dark web, leaked sensitive information, etc.) is strictly prohibited for legal reasons. Those in the legal gray area under a host country’s jurisdiction are excepted, but with certain restrictions, although minimal.
4. The Blue Pages as a concept are not for sale or purchase, while it is an open concept and large companies can contribute (with some restrictions to preserve the spirit of the original concept), no one, even Google themselves could buy or fully own the concept as I wanted the concept to be freely accessible, independent and adaptable.
5. Preserve the true spirit of the Blue Pages. Make it fun, not bland. The spirit of The Blue Pages should be similar to those sites in the early days of the world wide web, so no, we do not accept using Corporate Memphis. That’s too boring. Be loud, and creative.
6. For NSFW content, mark it clearly as is. Put it on it’s own category or using an alternative color scheme to denote it.
7. Don’t use The Blue Pages as a place of useless conflict, as it only serves as a directory.
8. If you found copyrighted content that is not used under fair use, take action. If you are the site administrator, put up a complaints email if possible.
9. Using AI is limited. As we aren’t certain with the ethics of artificial intelligence, like AI art, listing sites that uses AI as a backend or a selling point is very limited. We don’t allow:
   1. AI art websites, as these might conflict with copyright systems.
   2. Deepfake websites as it imposes some ethical implications with personal identity.
   3. AI generated websites that only serves as SEO with no other purpose.
10. And finally, support diversity. Don’t discriminate against a minority by not putting websites made by those minorities. This ain’t Jim Crow anymore.

Reach

The aim of the Blue Pages is to reach out to everyone, and connect sites together, like a chain. The Blue Pages concept is to connect people with sites with minimal intrusiveness and also in a way that mimics the physical world.

The spec is aiming that the specification is compatible with all browser layout engines, as well too, to enable access to everyone.

This draft only lays out the foundations of the concept, where it might change over time, with it’s aim being reaching out to old web communities and all communities as well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this draft describes a new standard of the old web, as we see the gradual process of the web losing its spirit, and becoming a corporate utility.

The web should preserve it’s creativity, to spark up new ideas, and to drive innovation.

While some see this as reinventing the search engine, the Blue Pages aims to be a step in a different direction. The direction of where algorithms doesn’t reflect our sense of value.

And the Blue Pages is like that, it’s a simple Yellow Pages inspired directory, and it’s designed for the people, not for corporations.