I'm really confused what this could be referring to.

Because the folks who've been around the longest and remember the early days of the Internet are currently in utter dismay over how their fun international sandbox has become a Black Mirror-esque horror show, while everyone else seems to just shrug and obediently upload their face scans so they can watch AI videos of uncanny-valley cats playing cruel pranks on facsimiles of political figures in-between unskippable ads for applying to be an ICE agent under promises that it'll be like COD but in your own backyard with living, breathing brown people.

The early Internet had a few simple rules:

• Never feed a troll
• Never trust anything written online
• Never tell anyone your real name or address
• There are no girls online (i.e. people are not who they claim to be)
• Online is not IRL

And most people knew these rules. The proliferation of the Internet has brought a lot of people who don't understand these rules in to the fold and it has made the Internet a worse place. "Normies" seemingly think the Internet world works like your normal social interactions - it does not. The anonymity of the Internet brings out the worst in people. We really need to bring back the rules of the early Internet for the safety of everyone.

Feel free to comment more rules if you remember any.

As much as I miss the early Internet though, I genuinely do wish I'd had more protection from the seedier sites. I am not better off for having seen the gore and shock sites.

You also never clicked an advert or used your real name.

I feel the opposite. I’m “C-64 dial up BBS” years old. I’m far, far more concerned with the internet today. It’s become destructive on so many levels. The corporatocracy takeover, the enstupidification, AI, troll farms, bots, outright lies, echo chambers willfully and ignorantly forming realities outside of objective truth…

The modern internet is an awful conflagration that everyone is trying to manipulate and control while throwing more fuel on it in an attempt to profit from it.

Goatse is nothing compared the dumpster fire that’s happening.

I’m not fine with it at all.

If you aren't horrified by what's happening to Iran right now then you're an empathy deficient and that comes with a separate set of problems.

I'm 40, and absolutely remember the old internet. But the news traumatizes me so consistently lately I find myself crying every day.

“…the AOL days…”

That funny feeling when AOL users consider themselves the experienced, wisened ones.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Saddam Hussein's hanging. BME pain olympics. A midget in a ET suit having sex with a giant spider. Meatspin. All these things will be lost, like tears in the rain.

Time to fry.

me at 11, hanging out in public chat rooms with Neonazis, pedos, and scientologists debating the Hubble deep field without knowing what any of those things are but just happy to be included.

Old internet:

• Lots of fun places to visit
• "So, first I visit thisite, then click that other link, then click the 3rd link on the right from the bottom up"
• Oh fuck, no, don't go in THERE
• Hey, another toolbar for my IE toolbar collection!
• Wait, what was that site again?
• Ugh, why won't this image load?
• No mom, I'm not keeping the phone line busy!
• One login for this forum, another for that forum, another for that other forum...
• Wow, email sure is neat! Instant messaging with anyone in the world!
• weird noises when the mouse hovers certain elements
• BOOBIES!

Current internet:

• tiktok, instagram, google, facebook, amazon
• ANIMATED BOOBIES!

The only thing that continually surprises me about the internet is how young y'all are.

I find it interesting because the BME Pain Olympics was mostly done with plasticine and the like for shock value

I create performance art with my dick which isn't gore (I'm not going to hurt my dick!) and I'm often accused of using AI

People are simultaneously skeptical and also ridiculously credulous, depending on what they want to believe

Today's internet is way worse than the old internet.

I was watching my own foot surgery the other day (local anesthetic) and even the surgeon's assistant had to cringe a bit at a certain spot while I was happily watching. She said most patients have to look away during these procedures but after growing up with unrestricted access to the internet and an at times unhealthy amount of curiosity I've seen it all. Should I have watched those isis beheading videos? Probably not. The production value was insane though.

I've been around since 94. It was never this bad. 

Man, I’ve been on the “internet” since before it had pictures or videos or sound . When each “website” was a different phone number, and if more than a few people were visiting it, you had to wait and call back later. Just to read in green (or amber) text on a black screen, someone’s comments on some old post, and weeks & weeks of comment threads.

It was amazing.

Am I upset about the state of the internet today? Not really. It’s evolving, getting worse in some ways, better in others. I’m still interested to see what it grows into. I have my own hopes as to what it will become, but I’m sure I’ll be surprised at the direction it takes.

i remember going to ogrish.com and rotten.com and thinking "wow the internet is fucking great," and trolling people on AIM chat before anyone called it "trolling." then i grew up

My Goatse sense is tingling

A/S/L ?