When the interwebs were young

[jyms]

It's funny how I thought I got into the internet later than a lot of guys but most of this is just memories for me. I remember finaly figuring out there's a code on my Internet dialer to shut up that stipid 8600 baud modem when it dialed and thought I was some sort of guru

[MadMojoMonkey]

It's funny how I thought I got into the internet later than a lot of guys but most of this is just memories for me.

Yeah... All of this is stuff from when the internet had been around for about 5 - 10 years.

Napster was going in, '99 - '01, right? The internet had been around, at least in my neck of the woods, by '92 - '93. It was all text based and there was really not much that a non-nerd would care for. The learning curve and patience required was just too much for most.

Most of what is being discussed here is after GUI's became popular as browsers. Really, that was after the "proof of market" had been established. There were a bunch of years there where everyone kind of knew about the internet, but had no idea what it was for, and who might care. It required a high level of technical acuity and some moderately expensive hardware to use the internet. Most people didn't even own a computer at this time, so having a computer AND a modem was a lot. PLUS, there just wasn't much on the internet but a burgeoning community of high school and college age nerds who were into BBSing and MUD's... until.... EMAIL!!!!

Email and Netscape made everyone need the internet. Even then, you had to know exactly where to go to find what you wanted, because it was a couple more years before Yahoo came out as a decent search engine.

Yeah... back then the internet was cute and harmless...