Do you want "fun" or do you want "the internet as it was in 1997"? Because those are two different things.
If you want "fun", that's largely a product of the people/culture of the people on the internet at the time (High IQ Boomer and Gen X techno-libertarians); and sadly a lot of those people lost their minds (and their sense of humor) in 2016. The minority who didn't migrated to places like this and the chans.
If you want "the internet as it was in 1997", then wayback machine is probably your bet. Make sure you limit your internet connection speed to 28.8 kbps (we didn't really get 56K modems until later, and some ISPs may not have supported 33.6 kbps even though the modems/standards existed).
Lucky bastard. I was happy enough getting DSL when my friends still had dialup, since we could now use the phone and internet at the same time. (though sometimes noise on our line would cause problems)
My first experience with fast internet was in the freshman dorm at college in the early 00s. I needed to download OpenOffice (90MB) and was dreading it, then to my surprise it downloaded in like 30 seconds.
The V.90 (56k) standard came out in 1998. Depending on what ISP you used they may or may not have had V.90 compatible equipment until later.
Before that there were two competing proprietary 56k standards (K56flex and X2) that existed, but if you bought one of the modems you had to make sure your ISP supported the modem you had to get the full benefit. I have a vague recollection that there was some reluctance among ISPs to pick a standard.
If by "fun" you mean hunting through random old forum posts trying to figure out what that weird noise your car is making comes from, you can still do that today. Just buy a 15+ year old car and you'll have all the "fun" you could ever want.
The Hypnospace Outlaw game does a pretty good job of recapturing some of the feel of 1990's Internet. For a real-life experience, you can check out the Gemini protocol and associated "smolweb".
It honestly wasn't that great. You're looking through rose coloured glasses.
It had just as many people trying to rip you off/fuck you over except it was some guy in a basement and a geocities website instead of a global megacorporation with their polished UI.
So naturally you'd spend all night trying to solve a small problem that you could just look up now.
It was better because it was new and you had nothing to compare it too. But I guarantee if you went back to early 2000's web you'd tear your hair out.
Eliminate mobile browsing and 90% of retards on the Internet will disappear. Make Internet connections require the use of a 3 page manual and you'll pretty much get rid of the rest.
Your last point was what I was getting at, if we put the Internet back to day 1, do you think the currently retards in charge could build anything? They have no clue, simply working off the backs of predecessors while we could easily build up again and put in some proper gatekeeping.
Make Internet connections require the use of a 3 page manual and you'll pretty much get rid of the rest.
That's basically the ham radio approach. The license is easy to get if you have any technical proficiency, but it's a barrier to any idiot just hopping on the air on a whim. And the hams take their gatekeeping pretty seriously (arguably too seriously as when they "foxhunt" pirates on non-ham bands, but that's a separate issue), and at the end of the day if they fail the government can step in to issue fines.
it was a mix of culture back then the net was the playground of the nerd the geek and general outcasts sure it wasnt perfect there was shippers being obnoxious back then too a lot of other modren problems were there too just some was dressed up in diffrent clothing you had stans of ninty and sega shitting up threads with console war stuff now we got celb a vs celb b stans at it... at least the console wars was kinda funny. what happened was the net had its floodgates opened with the mobile browser this shifted the culture of the net drasticly normal folks with no real intrest with getting a pc or internet subscription could now could browse the net they then supplanted the culture with sheer numbers leaving nerds and such relegated to the back seat of what was their own space but it gets better now that corperations noticed theirs a big market they decided to capitolize on it making the net shittyer as time goes on due to their agressive and privacy eroding effects on the net distorting it you can tell who they are catering to as the net more and more resembles a shitty fucking mobile app.
The original web was basically walking into a porn shop and trying to have a conversation about Castlevania.
Yeah. I miss it too man. 😢
I mean, have you SEEN the state of /v/?
Pictures of poop and all
The original web was more compartmentalised. Most discussions happened on Usenet
Do you want "fun" or do you want "the internet as it was in 1997"? Because those are two different things.
If you want "fun", that's largely a product of the people/culture of the people on the internet at the time (High IQ Boomer and Gen X techno-libertarians); and sadly a lot of those people lost their minds (and their sense of humor) in 2016. The minority who didn't migrated to places like this and the chans.
If you want "the internet as it was in 1997", then wayback machine is probably your bet. Make sure you limit your internet connection speed to 28.8 kbps (we didn't really get 56K modems until later, and some ISPs may not have supported 33.6 kbps even though the modems/standards existed).
I had ISDN in 1997. IIRC was 128kbps
Lucky bastard. I was happy enough getting DSL when my friends still had dialup, since we could now use the phone and internet at the same time. (though sometimes noise on our line would cause problems)
Yeah I still had to put a line noise canceller on each phone plug as well
My first experience with fast internet was in the freshman dorm at college in the early 00s. I needed to download OpenOffice (90MB) and was dreading it, then to my surprise it downloaded in like 30 seconds.
I remember when it took about 2 minutes to download an mp3
I know that I had a 56k modem by 1998.
The V.90 (56k) standard came out in 1998. Depending on what ISP you used they may or may not have had V.90 compatible equipment until later.
Before that there were two competing proprietary 56k standards (K56flex and X2) that existed, but if you bought one of the modems you had to make sure your ISP supported the modem you had to get the full benefit. I have a vague recollection that there was some reluctance among ISPs to pick a standard.
Ebaumsworld, sort by oldest first
That and the pork and beans music video by Weezer are probably as close as you're going to get
The Weezer reference really sent me down a rabbit hole.
At first, I thought you were referring to the video included with Windows 95.
Too bad Newgrounds is full of gays now
Is that a side effect of being hosted in canada? Remember: TDS can kill.
Aren't their headquarters in Massachusetts?
If by "fun" you mean hunting through random old forum posts trying to figure out what that weird noise your car is making comes from, you can still do that today. Just buy a 15+ year old car and you'll have all the "fun" you could ever want.
PM'd you the fix ;)
My favorite part is the image that they posted can't be viewed anymore because the hosting service disappeared.
That and the boomer tier quote signatures on every post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyTPAN7uvoU
The Hypnospace Outlaw game does a pretty good job of recapturing some of the feel of 1990's Internet. For a real-life experience, you can check out the Gemini protocol and associated "smolweb".
It honestly wasn't that great. You're looking through rose coloured glasses.
It had just as many people trying to rip you off/fuck you over except it was some guy in a basement and a geocities website instead of a global megacorporation with their polished UI. So naturally you'd spend all night trying to solve a small problem that you could just look up now.
It was better because it was new and you had nothing to compare it too. But I guarantee if you went back to early 2000's web you'd tear your hair out.
An emp, reset the Internet to factory settings, only way to correct it back to those times again.
It's why I pray to Ra or any sun god for that solar flare already!
Eliminate mobile browsing and 90% of retards on the Internet will disappear. Make Internet connections require the use of a 3 page manual and you'll pretty much get rid of the rest.
Your last point was what I was getting at, if we put the Internet back to day 1, do you think the currently retards in charge could build anything? They have no clue, simply working off the backs of predecessors while we could easily build up again and put in some proper gatekeeping.
That's basically the ham radio approach. The license is easy to get if you have any technical proficiency, but it's a barrier to any idiot just hopping on the air on a whim. And the hams take their gatekeeping pretty seriously (arguably too seriously as when they "foxhunt" pirates on non-ham bands, but that's a separate issue), and at the end of the day if they fail the government can step in to issue fines.
Play Hypnospace Outlaw.
it was a mix of culture back then the net was the playground of the nerd the geek and general outcasts sure it wasnt perfect there was shippers being obnoxious back then too a lot of other modren problems were there too just some was dressed up in diffrent clothing you had stans of ninty and sega shitting up threads with console war stuff now we got celb a vs celb b stans at it... at least the console wars was kinda funny. what happened was the net had its floodgates opened with the mobile browser this shifted the culture of the net drasticly normal folks with no real intrest with getting a pc or internet subscription could now could browse the net they then supplanted the culture with sheer numbers leaving nerds and such relegated to the back seat of what was their own space but it gets better now that corperations noticed theirs a big market they decided to capitolize on it making the net shittyer as time goes on due to their agressive and privacy eroding effects on the net distorting it you can tell who they are catering to as the net more and more resembles a shitty fucking mobile app.
in part yes but the other factor is corprate intrest.