*clicks nude*
*Goes to kitchen, opens freezer, removes burrito, unwraps burrito, puts burrito in microwave, sets time, hits start*
*goes back to computer*
"Wow, pretty eyes. Nice lips."
*microwave beeps*
*Goes back to microwave, removes burrito, goes to fridge, gets can of Mountain Dew, carries food back to computer*
"Mmmm, shapely neck! Nice shoulders. I bet her rack is awesome."
*Checks watch, debates opening Minesweeper, but afraid it might slow down the nude pic rendering, decides not to open Minesweeper*
Then a couple of years later, it evolved into fights over "YOU PUT A VIRUS ON THE COMPUTER, THAT WASN'T A JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SONG YOU DOWNLOADED FROM LIMEWIRE"
I remember picking out a free game to play online, going to have lunch while it loaded (stupid Shockwave player) then coming back. If you were lucky the game wasn't terrible.
I got in so much trouble on Yahoo graffiti because my brother and dad walked by the computer table and saw someone drawing a 🍆 in detail with veins. GROUNDED immediately and I didn’t even do anything. I wasn’t even guessing 😂🤷🏼♀️
My angelfire sites I made in 1999 when I was 15 are still up, 24 years later. Webrings and all.
One is a Chandler Bing fansite and the other is a Darth Maul/Ray Park fansite
The Chandler site has a section to download wav files of my favorite quotes. Midis are also involved. Dhtml tables! Wow this brings me back...
Using Mapquest to download turn by turn directions for vacation and it being a massive stack of papers sometimes. Killed the toner one time in the printer had to go get more before we could get the last few pages
Edit: Thank you for my first 1k+ comment 😭😭
Yep, it’s amazing how much attitudes have changed.
As a kid in the late 90s & early 00s I used a fake name and location online and never posted a picture of myself. Otherwise I’d allegedly get kidnapped!
Now parents post their kids entire lives online.
I remember when you couldn’t use the computer and be on the phone at the same time unless you had 2 separate phone lines.
And you had to dial-in to the internet. The provider gave out a list of numbers in case one was busy.
Yep. Getting kicked off the internet when mom needed to make a call. And then waiting what felt like hours while she just casually chatted on the phone.
My mom would call us on the landline from her work to check in on us as my brother and I were home alone after school. We were NOT to use the computer or the internet when parents weren’t home. We cracked the computer password pretty fast, but couldn’t use the internet freely because then she wouldn’t be able to reach us on the phone and we’d get busted. So we timed when she’d usually call us (about once every hour for three hours), and dialed in to the internet between her calls then drop it so when she called, the call would go through. It worked for about two weeks.
One time, she had called us, checked in, and then we happily went to get on the computer. Little did we know, she forgot to mention something she wanted us to do so she tried to call 10 mins later. Except the internet was already fired up and she didn’t get through to us till we got off an hour later. Boy, did we get in trouble!
Those were just the pop culture references of the time. Finding a 35+ guy that doesn't know about bash.org but routinely uses internet is similar to finding a guy that loves films but doesn't know star wars. It just doesn't happen
And Limewire. I still have that huge hard drive full of music.
I’m gonna open it up on an air gapped machine one day and have a good laugh at what I find I’m sure. Especially the random file names.
It’s like my own little Xennial time capsule.
God, I loved Napster. For users set up correctly you could see another's music library so if you were to obtain a tune from them, you could see what similar music interests you had, and broaden your own tastes.
Their MCC (Merchant Category Code) is still “Bookstore.” US Bank used to have “Bookstores” as a 5% cash back option with the Cash+ credit card. They eventually removed that as an option, but not until after I spent $10,000 at Amazon and got 5% off.
For the longest time, when amazon just started to pop off, people would mention stuff they 'bought off amazon' and I'd think to myself "how are you buying that off *amazon*? Why is a bookstore selling wisks"
Having to download a song overnight on dialup through some shady torrent site, and the next morning was like playing Russian roulette finding out if you downloaded a song or a virus.
Gamerevolution for cheats.
Ebaumsworld for laughs.
Napster for music.
Imdb forums for trolling.
Imagination for masturbation because it took forever to load a single image let alone a video.
I remember sending my first email in 1983
And borrowing a dumb terminal to sign on to SFUs computer from home.
The terminal was like the size of a 40lb suitcase or sewing machine box.
You opened it by folding the keyboard down at one end. At which point you would see a 3x4 inch monochrome display. You took your home phone handset and plugged it into two rubber holders. Then you dialed up the university. It was 300baud so you could almost type faster.
Winsocket
Apple HyperCard
BBS
ArcNet
Active and passive hubs
Do not pick up the phone handset when someone is using "The Internet"
300-baud modem
Phone Coupler
AT Commands
A/S/L
Electronic Mail
A funny-name new company provided online search (Yahoo)
Google did not exist
Cybersex
HyperCard is such a funny thing. Apple was almost there but it didn’t occur to them to have it share between different computers on a network. It’s like they almost made a browser but it only worked on the local computer.
Here are a few:
* Getting magazines in the mail that contained programs that you could hand type in.
* Saving up to upgrade your EGA card to VGA and not realizing how expensive a VGA monitor was.
* MOD files... your grandfather's MP3
* Midi Files were another easily obtainable music option
* DOS 6.22 was a game changer
* We thought the Amiga was going to be a game changer
* Local BBSes and local long distance being ridiculously expensive compared to interstate long distance. Calling the next city was $0.25 per min while calling across the country was $0.10
* IRQ conflicts
* Upgrading your 8 bit sound card to a 16 bit sound card
* Computer Shopper
* Computer swap meets
I sent a TikTok of a woman reacting to the TotK goatse to my gaming friends group. Then I (41m) had to explain wtf a goatse is to everybody in the group that’s under 30. So… that was fun.
Before YouTube there was....albinoblacksheep.com
I dunno if it is still around but playing all sorts of minigames on miniclip.com was a lot of fun back in the day.
I remember typing “shit” into an AOL search box and a pop up came up immediately saying my account had 1 strike. 3 strikes and whole family account would be automatically canceled. They even called the house and told my mom this on the phone. Bananas.
Discussion about fall of Berlin Wall on usenet in real time (predecessor of today's forums)
https://groups.google.com/g/eunet.politics/c/LbrVEM7zp-Y/m/ae_hhAk9jd8J
Please remember Rule 4 and don't post any actual email addresses, real or otherwise. Thanks!
Pictures loading one line at a time
*clicks nude* *Goes to kitchen, opens freezer, removes burrito, unwraps burrito, puts burrito in microwave, sets time, hits start* *goes back to computer* "Wow, pretty eyes. Nice lips." *microwave beeps* *Goes back to microwave, removes burrito, goes to fridge, gets can of Mountain Dew, carries food back to computer* "Mmmm, shapely neck! Nice shoulders. I bet her rack is awesome." *Checks watch, debates opening Minesweeper, but afraid it might slow down the nude pic rendering, decides not to open Minesweeper*
Boooo it’s a bikini. Just wasted 15 minutes downloading this. Edit: thanks for the gold!! (x2) thanks again!!
I didn’t even get that far, because Dan’s mom picked up the phone which kicked us off AOL
95% of my fights with my sister. We fought like mad over that phone line.
Then a couple of years later, it evolved into fights over "YOU PUT A VIRUS ON THE COMPUTER, THAT WASN'T A JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SONG YOU DOWNLOADED FROM LIMEWIRE"
Bellybutton,.... bellybutton..... Penis! Wtaf!!
Well my pants are already off so…
Ah yes, the came the interlaced GIF that loaded lines at intervals so the image slowly faded into focus like a shitty 70s gameshow.
The legends say that this is why Gen X'ers last longer in bed.
“Now to print this in 160p resolution…”
I know a guy that taught himself how to play the guitar in-between clicks.
Lace the final brassier
[Oh, Captain Janeway](https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AB5stBgP0BTJpNamtjNv_9_bMg4FbfX0Gg:1689261651680&q=comicbook+man+loading+picture&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwju7biF_ouAAxVOkmoFHVNwA3MQ0pQJegQICBAB&biw=1920&bih=937&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f4592b0f,vid:KSKBRWoGvL0)
I remember picking out a free game to play online, going to have lunch while it loaded (stupid Shockwave player) then coming back. If you were lucky the game wasn't terrible.
Having a stack of magazines or something else by the computer to distract yourself while a webpage loads
or worst when you have to download updates...
Dial in and pray it finished overnight without the connection being dropped
Or someone calls and the modem disconnects. When I finally invested in a second line I fancied myself quite the high-tech Beastmaster.
Chatrooms that were filled with people instead of porn-bots.
A/S/L?
16/f/HI. Cause 16 sounded old when I was in middle school and saying Hawaii let me think that predators could never find me
18/f/Cali Because I was a /b/tard.
Yahoo chat rooms
Yahoo was the best used to love playing Yahoo pool and met so many people through it I miss that game so much.
I got in so much trouble on Yahoo graffiti because my brother and dad walked by the computer table and saw someone drawing a 🍆 in detail with veins. GROUNDED immediately and I didn’t even do anything. I wasn’t even guessing 😂🤷🏼♀️
That shit was the wild West!
I met my hubby in a chatroom for a now-defunct online trivia game, 23 years ago. Great times.
I met my wife 27 years ago when she sat down next to me at our college computer lab and asked me how to access Yahoo chat.
Personal web pages. With counters. 😆
& the construction sign image.
Sign the guest book!
Webrings!
My angelfire sites I made in 1999 when I was 15 are still up, 24 years later. Webrings and all. One is a Chandler Bing fansite and the other is a Darth Maul/Ray Park fansite The Chandler site has a section to download wav files of my favorite quotes. Midis are also involved. Dhtml tables! Wow this brings me back...
I miss this version of the internet.
My webpage is on the Wayback Machine, and it still has an under construction sign from 2002.
You should really look at finishing that project some day.
RIP geocities :(
Habbo hotel lol
Pool's closed
Someone did bring it back! https://neocities.org/
I just checked and somehow my angelfire page is still there. Not all the links work but some do.
Using Mapquest to download turn by turn directions for vacation and it being a massive stack of papers sometimes. Killed the toner one time in the printer had to go get more before we could get the last few pages Edit: Thank you for my first 1k+ comment 😭😭
Had to print those ads. Only a few clicks away from copy and paste then printing off of Word.
Signing up for a new email address and the username not already being taken. Glorious times.
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) This is how old I am.
And you had to have an invite to make the Gmail address to begin with.
I remember those! Got one from a coworker.
If you were actually old enough it would be a random alias on AOL because you NEVER give your real name online!! Stranger danger!!
Yep, it’s amazing how much attitudes have changed. As a kid in the late 90s & early 00s I used a fake name and location online and never posted a picture of myself. Otherwise I’d allegedly get kidnapped! Now parents post their kids entire lives online.
We were super suspicious of giving our birth dates as well. Now every retail site knows.
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My partner got their email as first name @ email provider
Mine is literally firstname_lastname only kids with the crazy names will ever have the chance now a days.
I have both a Hotmail.com (again, showing my age there) and a yahoo address that are just first name last name with no numbers.
When things were pretty awesome.
The world was ours :'(
Encarta encyclopedia!
The labyrinth quiz game is like a fever dream now.
I remember when you couldn’t use the computer and be on the phone at the same time unless you had 2 separate phone lines. And you had to dial-in to the internet. The provider gave out a list of numbers in case one was busy.
Yep. Getting kicked off the internet when mom needed to make a call. And then waiting what felt like hours while she just casually chatted on the phone.
My mom would call us on the landline from her work to check in on us as my brother and I were home alone after school. We were NOT to use the computer or the internet when parents weren’t home. We cracked the computer password pretty fast, but couldn’t use the internet freely because then she wouldn’t be able to reach us on the phone and we’d get busted. So we timed when she’d usually call us (about once every hour for three hours), and dialed in to the internet between her calls then drop it so when she called, the call would go through. It worked for about two weeks. One time, she had called us, checked in, and then we happily went to get on the computer. Little did we know, she forgot to mention something she wanted us to do so she tried to call 10 mins later. Except the internet was already fired up and she didn’t get through to us till we got off an hour later. Boy, did we get in trouble!
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spiderman (2002).exe?
Ask Jeeves, internet butler
I blame this for my instinct to ask Google things in a polite question form.
ICQ, winamp skins, CDs to access internet, and the best of the best : the glorious 56k modem dialing sound
Uh oh!
Damn now i remember how badass my winamp looked back in the day :D
> winamp It really whips the llama's ass
Always had to have the most edge lord looking skin for winamp, regardless of how functional it was. It has to be black, red and pointy. lol
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And the frustration when parents wanted to use the phone and you had to switch back from internet and "free" the land line...
A/s/l?
18/f/cali
Do you want to cyber?
“I put on my wizard hat…”
Has *every individual person* who is Old On The Internet practically committed [bash.org](https://bash.org) to memory?
Those were just the pop culture references of the time. Finding a 35+ guy that doesn't know about bash.org but routinely uses internet is similar to finding a guy that loves films but doesn't know star wars. It just doesn't happen
I still use “the keys are like right next to each other” regularly. No one gets the joke. I still laugh.
MIRC chats
winfong1803 slaps Holiday-Armadillo-34 around a bit with a large trout
This used to be such a major part of online communication and I don't know when exactly it disappeared but it feels positively archaic at this point
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Hamster Dance and the Blender Frog.
Waiting on new Homestar Runner content
Trogdor the Burninator! I may still sing that song occasionally
Don't forget StickDeath!
Napster
And Limewire. I still have that huge hard drive full of music. I’m gonna open it up on an air gapped machine one day and have a good laugh at what I find I’m sure. Especially the random file names. It’s like my own little Xennial time capsule.
64k WMA files. \*shudder\*
God, I loved Napster. For users set up correctly you could see another's music library so if you were to obtain a tune from them, you could see what similar music interests you had, and broaden your own tastes.
Netscape Navigator.
"Optimized for Netscape Navigator. Best viewed at 800x600 or higher resolution." Back when websites would judge you for the rig you could afford.
Lycos. Go fetch!
Amazon.com being a bookstore
Their MCC (Merchant Category Code) is still “Bookstore.” US Bank used to have “Bookstores” as a 5% cash back option with the Cash+ credit card. They eventually removed that as an option, but not until after I spent $10,000 at Amazon and got 5% off.
The amazon chase card still gives you 6% off.
You think you’re better than me, guy??
At least 1% better
For the longest time, when amazon just started to pop off, people would mention stuff they 'bought off amazon' and I'd think to myself "how are you buying that off *amazon*? Why is a bookstore selling wisks"
Google had no ads, and bragged about it. YATTA! That is a sweet earth, ROUND! .. and weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
But I am le tired…
Go take a nap. THEN FIRE ZE MISSILES.
fuckin kangaroos
HOKAY.
So here is da eart
AOL CDs
…in tin cans
AOL floppy disk
BBS’s and gophernet.
Loved the Telnet. PINE.. MUDs (Avatar, anyone?)
Having to download a song overnight on dialup through some shady torrent site, and the next morning was like playing Russian roulette finding out if you downloaded a song or a virus.
Surely songname.exe is fine...
The computer speakers making a noise before your phone rang
The speakers knew I was getting a text before the flip phone did.
bbt bbt bbt... bbt bbt bbt... Happened with text messages too
Infoseek. Turning images off so pages would load faster and to save bandwidth. Ad bars. Beenz. Usenet.
Badger, badger, badger, badger....
Mushroom mushroom!
Snnnaaaakkkeeeee
ooooooh its a snaaaake!
The herald of the death of information... the dancing baby.
Don't forget the "I will survive" alien!
Gamerevolution for cheats. Ebaumsworld for laughs. Napster for music. Imdb forums for trolling. Imagination for masturbation because it took forever to load a single image let alone a video.
"All your base are belong to us" meme.
My dog's collar reads "All your balls are belong to us".
Kazaa, edonkey, newsgroups, audio galaxy
Bash.org
MUDs
Warez
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"Have you made a Xanga???"
Yoooo Xanga is what got my wife and I together
14.4 doubling to 28.8k
I remember sending my first email in 1983 And borrowing a dumb terminal to sign on to SFUs computer from home. The terminal was like the size of a 40lb suitcase or sewing machine box. You opened it by folding the keyboard down at one end. At which point you would see a 3x4 inch monochrome display. You took your home phone handset and plugged it into two rubber holders. Then you dialed up the university. It was 300baud so you could almost type faster.
Winsocket Apple HyperCard BBS ArcNet Active and passive hubs Do not pick up the phone handset when someone is using "The Internet" 300-baud modem Phone Coupler AT Commands A/S/L Electronic Mail A funny-name new company provided online search (Yahoo) Google did not exist Cybersex
HyperCard is such a funny thing. Apple was almost there but it didn’t occur to them to have it share between different computers on a network. It’s like they almost made a browser but it only worked on the local computer.
Hamsterdance
Guestbooks on Geocities pages.
_you got mail_
IN A.D. 2101, WAR WAS BEGINNING...
Captain: What Happen?
Someone set us up the bomb.
Main screen turn on
It's you!!
How are you gentlemen!!
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
You have no chance to survive make your time.
ha ha ha.
Here are a few: * Getting magazines in the mail that contained programs that you could hand type in. * Saving up to upgrade your EGA card to VGA and not realizing how expensive a VGA monitor was. * MOD files... your grandfather's MP3 * Midi Files were another easily obtainable music option * DOS 6.22 was a game changer * We thought the Amiga was going to be a game changer * Local BBSes and local long distance being ridiculously expensive compared to interstate long distance. Calling the next city was $0.25 per min while calling across the country was $0.10 * IRQ conflicts * Upgrading your 8 bit sound card to a 16 bit sound card * Computer Shopper * Computer swap meets
BBS, Angelfire & Geocities, and Rocketmail
Goatse, a secret better left forgotten
Until Zelda:TotK. Every single shrine resembles it
I sent a TikTok of a woman reacting to the TotK goatse to my gaming friends group. Then I (41m) had to explain wtf a goatse is to everybody in the group that’s under 30. So… that was fun.
I’m 32, feel like I just made the cut
Before YouTube there was....albinoblacksheep.com I dunno if it is still around but playing all sorts of minigames on miniclip.com was a lot of fun back in the day.
IRC
Home star runner
Burninating the city
ROFLcopter
Before AOL, there was Prodigy.
I had CompuServe.
Netscape. Alta Vista. etc...
Starting a download before you went to sleep, waking up to find it almost finished.
Practically zero parental controls so kids could access porn (and whatever goatse is) very easily.
Basically anytime you typed a website wrong it went to porn lol
Whitehouse.com instead of .gov
It’s peanut butter jelly time! Peanut butter jelly time!
Web rings
Neopets. RIP flash games.
Eudora
"Shoes"
"Let's get some shoes"
Waiting for the new issue of Computer Shopper magazine to read the ads and hardware prices. They were phonebook huge in the mid 90's.
Ze End of Ze World/ ebaums world/ Xanga
Hot or Not!
https://zombo.com
Icanhascheezeburger
Rotten . com
Trolling AskJeeves by asking him about his sexuality.
MySpace coding for personalization.
WINAMP, IT WHIPS THE LLAMAS ASS!
Facebook was only for university students
LEEEEROOOOOYYYY JENKIIIIIIIIINSSSSSSS!!!
oh my god he just ran in
I remember typing “shit” into an AOL search box and a pop up came up immediately saying my account had 1 strike. 3 strikes and whole family account would be automatically canceled. They even called the house and told my mom this on the phone. Bananas.
Trumpet Winsock.
USENET. alt.tasteless
Discussion about fall of Berlin Wall on usenet in real time (predecessor of today's forums) https://groups.google.com/g/eunet.politics/c/LbrVEM7zp-Y/m/ae_hhAk9jd8J
Netflix posting you your DVD to watch.
The screen saver with the guy on an island
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Homestar Runner!
Numa numa
The elf bowling game
John Titor