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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

http://www.eviloverlord.com/

Use it wisely.

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

Ooh! I love “Four Yorkshiremen Sketch” threads!

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.

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.

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.