Wanted to ask you about this article, how do you remember the early days of the internet (I was sadly too young at that time). Do you wish it back? And do you think it can ever be like that again? I would be very interested

  • I remember:

    • CompuServe chat rooms
    • Playing Neverwinter Nights, the “original MMO” some say, on CompuServe
    • Telnetting into my library to check out books and have them mailed to me instead of walking across town to the library.
    • Usenet and FTP
    • mIRC
    • Randomly typing words or phrases and following them with .com to explore the web.
    • Penny-Arcade
    • Something Awful
    • New grounds
    • stickdeath.com
    • Rotten.com
    • Ogrish
    • all the shock images like Goatse, Tubgirl, and Lemon Party
    • Fark
    • Digg
    • Reddit

    Heck, I even remember how I found out about the internet in the first place. I was reading the encyclopedia (I was following knowledge rabbit holes even before Wikipedia!) and got to the entry about it. Absolutely blew my little mind and I started begging my dad to show it to me since we had a computer.

      • FYI: it was a MUD. The number of connections it allowed at once was the big selling factor, I think. To this day, it’s the only MUD I ever played with a subscription fee. On top of the ISP and dial-up phone charges. 😵‍💫

        These days, I sometimes hop onto Materia Magicka. It’s a more modern MUD, but it’s been around since I was in high school and it’s pretty fun.

    • @can@sh.itjust.works
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      fedilink
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      1 year ago

      Randomly typing words or phrases and following them with .com to explore the web.

      They had to make an announcement at my elementary to stop this since it became a trend to try your first name .com and someone’s ended up being porn.