Asklemmy

The thing I remember most about the early internet was staking out your own weird little corners. There wasn't much of any "everything" site yet, so you'd find the things that appealed to you and settle there.

A lot of my early tastes in indie and experimental music were formed by the Music message board on GameFAQs. I was already going there for the walkthroughs and found my way to some of the under-populated, miscellaneous boards.

You experienced meeting people with names (even if just pseudonyms) and ideas that weren't just blended into an algorithmic slurry.

It's why I like Lemmy, I can feel a bit of that here. Still, I have a hard time surrendering things like Twitter and moved instantly to Bluesky where I continue the trend ...

I remember a time when you could 't even watch videos online! The best we had where GIFs if they wheren't too big to fit over our 33k somewhat modem connection with dial-in!

I'm sort of on the edge of this. I grew up going to older forums, but those were still moderated and I can't really remember a time without google. Honestly I don't even remember how I found the sites that I used. I guess some were just forums for games I played, but less sure about other places.

My first exposure to the internet was at a time that I like to call the "early modern internet" (early 2000's). I do have some nostalgia for that time, but I think times were also simply different.

For instance, there's just less content on the internet at the time, and whatever content there was was harder to find. The positive is that the internet felt more genuine. Nowadays, I think people have gotten into the habit of self-censoring, presumably at the gentle pressuring of big tech companies, and that has led to even indie content creators producing what feels like safe, corporate content.

My personal belief is that culture is shaped by logistical challenges. The challenges of the early modern internet are not the same as the challenges now. We don't need to return to a 2000's-era internet, and I don't think that's even possible. But at least we can reintroduce genuineness by resisting corporate influence where we can. Presumably that's why we're on Lemmy

I feel like video rolling onto the scene was the beginning of the end. I don't like video as a medium, so that's an easy place for me to draw the line. Before Youtube&co link zines and blogs would link to other readable stuff. Sometimes it had pictures, but it was complex and thought out (usually). Over time, as monetization become more of a thing, Youtube became more of a thing, along with influencers and unskipable ads. And here we are.

Possibly one of the few survivors of that period: http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

No mods I'm the 2000-2010s? What are you on about?

Other than that, the old net was populated with personal sites maintained by hobbyists and fellow nerds. GeoCities was the place to hang and share. It was open and it was free. I miss it terribly. I miss the feeling of progression instead of recession. I miss looking at mediocre art and knowing somebody poured a piece of their soul there, or reading an article and knowing its mildly informative contents were stitched together by someone who at least gave half a shit.

Oh, the things we have become.

I've been an Internet user since 1995. Gather round the fire, kids, and let me tell you stories about a place called Stile Project, old tales about Fatty Big-Eye and his friend Bruce, and how everyone used the f slur like it was their first name!

When the internet was fun! I relive it using the archive and keeping old pics around. It was undeniably better before walled gardens and social media shit.

What does dark humour have in common with food & clean drinking water?

No, I'm not old enough for that, and anyone else younger than me certainly never will be. I only ever hear of the good old days from posts like these, but from what I gather, at least some of that magic can be found here, which is why I'll never leave this place. "Conventional" social media never appealed to me at all, with all of the "trends" and "influencers" and whatnot. Reddit was what had caught my affection, until the APIpocalypse, which sent me right here. Whatever it was in the past that I didn't get to experience then, I feel like I'm experiencing it now, in one way or another.

I remember pre Eternal September, yes.

My father loved technology so the moment we could get internet we did. Which was right after our doctor friend got internet lmfao. Loved you, mosaic, at his house.

I use to go to some site called A Girls World which was for girls. No idea how safe it was. I edited recipes for the site! Fun times.

Ahh the times when internet cost one kidney per minute.

I think youtube changed internet a lot. It required whole new mindset to be able to spend time there. "things" were ready quite early but we needed to wait next generation to actually create some content to watch.

Grainy vids and bad audio, I’d rather have that authentic effort than the highly polished regurgitated bulsheet narrated with a YouTube voice we see now.

Yeah I remember especially in the early 2010s of YouTube there were videos of mexican cartel beheadings being shown daily like it was a normal thing in YouTube, was really odd.

!oldweb@lemmy.ml might be of interest - not hugely busy, but has some links to old internet stuff.

Can't go wrong with some 2010's YouTube Poop. My favorite is Seu Madruga Will Go On.

I remember when you could do anything at Zombo.com. Good news, everyone - you still can!

Ooh! I love "Four Yorkshiremen Sketch" threads!

NomadNet on Reticulum has an old internet vibe. Anonymity and markdown "web pages".

Here, I'll give you some balm for the wounds of time:

http://www.eviloverlord.com/

Use it wisely.

Yes and no. I had a friend who was an extremely talented info sec person who left several forums and irc because they were sick of hearing slurs related to their identity. Maybe people would have not made these slurs, had they known. It's more telling who we were, when it wasn't known.