Favourite "Old Internet" stuff - Let's reminisce about the Wild West days

[David Byrne]

One of the things I miss the most about the halcyon years of the internet is the culture of near-complete anonymity. In obscure forums (and not-so-obscure social media sites), I spent my nights talking to a variety of online friends who, to this day, I still have no idea what their names might've been or what they looked like, despite having such fond memories of them. Conversely, no one knew these things about me. Your identity wasn't asked for or expected of you, all that mattered was that you contributed something to the conversation.

Flash forward to now-- just from first-hand experience, I've seen Facebook require government ID to access your account. Instagram asks it's users to self-report race in surveys. The age of anonymity has ended not with a bang or even a whisper, but with a new audience of users who capitalize on identifying factors and protest when these factors are not required by the websites they use. I agree that the powers that be running these websites are corrupt, but they're also unfortunately just giving this new wave of internet users what they ask for.

I remember from the late '00s to early '10s, when I first dove into forum culture, it was a genuinely exciting experience, and I think the anonymity was really what made it. It made me happy to finish my daily obligations, boot up the computer, and see what my friends from all around the world were up to, even if all I recognized them by was a username and an icon of whichever online craze was the flavor of the day.

KF aside, I don't believe this culture exists anymore, and logging into modern social media is a chore.

 

[Weed Eater]

Flash games on the Cartoon Network website.

I miss that the most these days, kids can't go on their own "kid sites" anymore and click open a random game anymore. It's all apps now, naturally you either have to pay for them, or they're filled with microtransactions.

 

[Colon capital V]

Not really a "grieving" post, but one where I appreciate that Craigslist still looks like it never left the late 90s/early 2000s look over all these years. I'm glad that the site never tried to fag it all up and down with so much javascript or shitty animations that it eats up half of my RAM. It's a simple site about selling your shit, no need to make it any more flashy than it needs to be.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

One of the things I miss the most about the halcyon years of the internet is the culture of near-complete anonymity. In obscure forums (and not-so-obscure social media sites), I spent my nights talking to a variety of online friends who, to this day, I still have no idea what their names might've been or what they looked like, despite having such fond memories of them. Conversely, no one knew these things about me. Your identity wasn't asked for or expected of you, all that mattered was that you contributed something to the conversation.

I live in a small country so me and fellow trolls from proto-socialmedia met up either in groups or one on one from time to time, I used to know their names but I've forgotten most of them. What was interesting was that I never knew what to expect and I was often surprised by who these posters turned out to be and how wholesome it always felt. A surprising amount of women as well, I say it was surprising because most of the time I only found that out when meeting [funny username]. Credit to those ladies and their funny shitposting skills, they were indistinguishable from funny men. These days we have funny looking women that are indistinguishable from men...

 

[Coelacanth]

I live in a small country so me and fellow trolls from proto-socialmedia met up either in groups or one on one from time to time, I used to know their names but I've forgotten most of them. What was interesting was that I never knew what to expect and I was often surprised by who these posters turned out to be and how wholesome it always felt. A surprising amount of women as well, I say it was surprising because most of the time I only found that out when meeting [funny username]. Credit to those ladies and their funny shitposting skills, they were indistinguishable from funny men. These days we have funny looking women that are indistinguishable from men...

That's the thing that confuses me - there were tons of us ladies on the web way back in the day and most of us didn't give a damn if others thought we were guys. Nobody cared as long as the content and shitposting we produced was good. I often ask myself when did gender becomes such a huge goddamn issue on the net? because it honestly feels like someone flipped a switch and the landscape changed overnight.

 

[DoorPost101]

More than anything i miss how decentralized it was. I miss when you didn't have to get your information, social interaction and entertainment just out of those 5 websites that monopolized the internet and all look the same and have the same gay rules. It's not really just a matter of how neat it is to see people take the time to create fansites, personal blogs and forums dedicated to oscure subjects for the sake of it, but i also liked how there was no set in stone ruleset on how they worked, if you didn't like the way a site was you could always go to another one that would discuss the same topics but in a way you were more cool with and a community big enough where you didn't feel like you were screaming at the void.
It's been said already but i'll take a niche forum with cringy power angry moderators over any of this automated unrevokable ban bullshit when you can get your account shut down for good in an instant over nothing.
While complaining about social media and how badly it sanitized the internet as a whole is low hanging fruit i'm particularly Mad at The Internet that Reddit right now could be a mainstream throwback to that early 2000's period if they allowed more freedom to each subreddit and changed a few things here and there, but as it stands, it feels like the worst parts of early internet forums combined with the worst parts of social media dopamine based design.

This is perfectly said.

I miss the internet before The Algorithm. Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, you had to click links, do some searching, hear from friends, or in some way actually seek out what you were interested in. Nowadays it's all fed to you, curated by previous clicks, SEO stuff, machines reading how long you pause to watch an embedded video so they can put more of the same in your feed, etc.

I can appreciate the convenience of lazy scrolling but sometimes I can't help but wonder how much more homogenized the internet can get when we have the all-great, all-knowing Algorithm choosing for us.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

I occasionally find myself thinking of these times and I miss the internet like you wouldn't believe. Often I remember this particular forum about teenage things I came across when I was 9-10yo. It was pretty much an online space for teenagers to discuss everything and it was full of "older" people too, who would always give great advice. I recall sharing my first super-duper serious crush I had on a girl from my school and there was this older(at least that's what a 20-ish yo girl seemed to me when I was 11 or 12) who helped me get my little emotions straightened out. I also vividly remember a user with nickname SWASTIKA and Hitler pfp who told me how to better socialize and make friends in the new school.
I was on that forum for years up until it shut down. Sometimes I really wish there was a way I could thank these people now, almost 18 years later, for how helpful, understanding and kind they were to a random confused kiddo.
There were no trannies trying to suck me in a cult. No degenerates trying to meddle my youthful psyche. No middle-aged pedos inviting me over. Just a bunch of good people.
Kids nowadays have it rough on the internet. The best they can get is discord and reddit and everybody knows the types of men lurking, "helping" there.

My country had a few local communities that were lit in the early to mid 00s before facebook and twitter swalloed the whole internet up, and it crazy how easy it was to meet people and find your niche.

Any weekend you could go in one of the rooms of the most popular chat site and talk to a dozen new people and have new messenger friends and if you met someone you really liked then it wasn't strange to ask for a phone number to talk and to meet them in person shortly after. I remember chatting with someone all night and then going out to lunch at the mall with them the very next day, a lot of long term irl friendships and romantic relationships for people my generation started that way.

I remember teenagers would just post their info on music forums. "i like these bands, call me up or add me to msn messenger"

There was a tv show that would play music videos and you could send an sms to the station and the message would appear on the botton of the screen. I actually met people like that when i was like 13-14. A Sum 41 video would be playing and you would read "i am Valeria and i am 14 and i to skate and my favorite band is Korn and, my number/msn messenger is XXX" and would shockingly turn out to be a real 14 year old girl. Kids doxxing themselves on national television, imagine that!

 

[glass_houses]

This is perfectly said.

I miss the internet before The Algorithm. Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, you had to click links, do some searching, hear from friends, or in some way actually seek out what you were interested in. Nowadays it's all fed to you, curated by previous clicks, SEO stuff, machines reading how long you pause to watch an embedded video so they can put more of the same in your feed, etc.

I can appreciate the convenience of lazy scrolling but sometimes I can't help but wonder how much more homogenized the internet can get when we have the all-great, all-knowing Algorithm choosing for us.

There's actually a great yt video on that. It's even more frightening than you think.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

Klay World and The Lazer Collection videos were old favorites of mine.

 

[little meow meow]

early to mid-2000’s anime aesthetic for sure. i used to frequent a site called msndollies that used to have anime avatars you could download and i’d download every naruto and bleach one to use on msn messenger. i miss those so, so much.

 

[glass_houses]

early to mid-2000’s anime aesthetic for sure. i used to frequent a site called msndollies that used to have anime avatars you could download and i’d download every naruto and bleach one to use on msn messenger. i miss those so, so much.
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I have a massive cache of LiveJournal icons. I was a member of so many icon communities. They're utterly useless now, but I can't bring myself to delete them.

 

[mindlessobserver]

I legit started crying when I realized these glorious retards were still around.

Www.utopiaforums.com

This website is a protest splinter of the old discussion forums of the web 1.0 game, Utopia. After the game got bought out by tranny Jannies, they nuked the forums which up until that point had a very lively politics subdivision. Only left wing talking points were allowed going foreword, and as consequence a user named Turtlecrawler cloned the original discussion forum set up, built his own server and launched it.

This was way back in the early 2,000s. He was a sort of proto form of @Null. The glorious autist is still hosting his protest discussion forum, though now it's dwindled to a dozen old fags holding a candle against the encroaching darkness.

 

[little meow meow]

if you could, i would actually cry tears of joy if you’re able to upload them somewhere for me to look through.

 

[little meow meow]

I have a massive cache of LiveJournal icons. I was a member of so many icon communities. They're utterly useless now, but I can't bring myself to delete them.

apparently i can’t delete my above post, gomen for retardation!! but to repeat myself,

if you could, i would actually cry tears of joy if you’re able to upload them somewhere for me to look through.

 

[Cpt. Stud Beefpile]

Remember when turn-based strategy games were the peak of Internet gaming, especially if you had a potato of a Pentium and a GPU that could barely do 3D screensavers?

Old buddy of mine just found out that his favorite one from middle school days is still active, with a small but insanely dedicated fanbase. The main dev even came back after years of abandonment.

drop-shock.com

 

[Colon capital V]

Remember when YouTube let you fully customize how your channel looks when people came to visit?

I heard these were a bitch to set up, but this truly was a great way to show the kind of personality a channel had when any potential viewers came to visit. Now this, along with many other social sites, all got streamlined to just having a dinky little banner at the top of your channel when viewers came to visit. I get that this was probably easier for the channel owner/less likely to break whenever the site updated but still, way to kill the fun Jewgle.

 

[Klaptrap]

Flash games on the Cartoon Network website.

It was that Codename: Kids Next Door game for me.

 

[ロボ﹏§¤r﹏h¶rœ]

I went on AO3 last night to see what I could see.

Lo, it was all tranny and 'feminised' shit as far as the eye could perceive.

I miss those innocent days when the worst thing there was Omegaverse.

Who even reads this shit? I doubt a tranny would want to read about another tranny - they want to read about 'the real thing' instead.
But there is a positive side! It helps to filter all shit writers and makes them preoccupied with writing stuff you'll never read.

Those AMVs from the early days of YouTube

www.animemusicvideos.org predated Youtube. The site is still around.

This is an AMV that was originally made in 1999, remade in 2004, and then HD upscale remasted using machine learning 2 years ago:

Another one, a remaster of a great old AMV:

Picard Song

picard.ytmnd.com

Didn't know that it still exists. Also Moonman originated from this site.

So this is where the music for one of the AMV Hell skits came from! BitChute is great for salvaging content removed by Youtube BTW:
AMV Hells in all their glory

 

[Coelacanth]

There's actually a great yt video on that. It's even more frightening than you think.

That was fascinating. Looked up Pokemon out of curiosity. First page was 1,100,000,000 results, 15th page was just under 500.

 

[Elysian]

Does anybody remember Piczo? It was kinda like the unholy love child of MySpace and Geocities, you could make a whole website and it was the mid 2000s so a lot of them had that kind of emo/scene aesthetic to them. I lied about my age to make an account when I was like 8 years old. My site had a whole page dedicated to fun glitter graphics that I found on the internet and another one filled with embeddable virtual pet flash games from Bunnyhero Labs where I could name a virtual creature and visitors to the site could feed/play with it. The homepage had a photo of my family taken at Disneyland Paris in 2004.


https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bxnw/piczo-internets-most-influential-but-forgotten-social-network
https://archive.ph/9hNeb