what do you miss about the mid-90's internet?

[SoulAssassin]

venture capitalists with deep pockets and an overpriced stock market

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Aflac
I liked the no-ads part. No clutter, either.

Along with the lack of content. Ads pay for a lot of great content that people would miss if the ads were gone.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: timxpx
instead of forums, everyone was in chat rooms. on aol.

Usenet. It's not just for binaries.

 

[krylon]

Kali95

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: uhohs
when everyone was still on icq.

that little daisy/ flower icon gives me such nostalgia

 

[drum]

Originally posted by: flexy

Originally posted by: madworm
anyone ever played zork and online mIRC stuff?

M.U.D.

Sure...this was actually my first encounter with teh intarnet !

Telnet into a MUD...funny thing is...my account there is still active

This was before i even knew what the web ist....respective it didnt even exist yet

my roommate still muds regularly. serious

 

[SludgeFactory]

Besides ebay before it went to hell, actual usenet discussion is about the only thing I miss. There are still some diehards, but it's not like it used to be. The quality of content and trolling in certain groups was amazing. I've laughed to the point of tears more times at usenet posts than anything on the web.

But dialup sucked so bad...

 

[Lurknomore]

The 3dfx vs. tnt battles on Sharkyforums, or was it here???
Wait, wasn't that later 90's?

 

[Slew Foot]

The never ending supply of hot deals and free money.

 

[Quasmo]

Nigeria didn't have the internet yet.

 

[lyssword]

2000: Age of Empires II on zone (now doesnt support any cdrom games) with my celeron 667/ 64 mb ram

 

[91TTZ]

I used to like posting on usenet. I did it all the time before I posted on forums.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
actual usenet discussion is about the only thing I miss. There are still some diehards, but it's not like it used to be. The quality of content and trolling in certain groups was amazing. I've laughed to the point of tears more times at usenet posts than anything on the web.

I think usenet participation is still worthwhile. even now, you do get a quality of content that is superior to forums. the spam can be pretty bad tho.

 

[Kaervak]

There's quite a bit that I miss, but the most important one is the newness factor of it. I first got online back in 96 and it was so much fun Tons of hours wasted in chat rooms and screwing around with goofy sh!t. Ahh, the good old days.

 

[91TTZ]

I also liked the euphoria at events such as Comdex. I went in 1997 and 1998. It was an amazing atmosphere. I went into 3Dfx's room which was called the VooDoo lounge and chilled there for a while. In it you could play Doom on computer hardware which wasn't even released yet. They had a Pentium 400 with a Voodoo2 card in SLI mode. Slow by today's standards, but back then it was amazingly fast compared to what was available.

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: astrosfan90
Hotmail before MSN when you could still get whatever name you wanted and didn't get spammed to kingdom come.

You mean HoTMaiL? I always wonder how many people know how Hotmail got it's name.

 

[BMdoobieW]

HOT DEALS (free t-shirts, free flashlights, free overnight shipping from Outpost.com, Pay-to-Click, Pay-to-Surf), NAPSTER, and betas of AIM that were actual improvements.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: uhohs
when everyone was still on icq.

that little daisy/ flower icon gives me such nostalgia

UH-OH!

 

[EGGO]

Audiogalaxy and MIDIs.

I hated dial-up, especially when it was so loud while connecting when I tried to sneak online.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Napster on the T1 line in my college dorms.

 

[McCarthy]

I miss when people could actually figure out how to DCC on IRC. Now so many people want you to go to their favorite IM to send a file, or email because they can't be bothered to set up their router.

Definitely miss the deals, and hate Flash. Free webhosts that actually worked, didn't have popups and gave lots of space were nice. I had a half dozen different sites for various interests on 50megs.com before NBCi bought them and closed them without warning. Never did recreate them.

As Kaevak said, I miss the newness factor. Value America is right up there, but I'd have to say I miss the newness most.

 

[alkemyst]

i liked early 90's late 80's internet..aka arpa/milnet.

QSD, Lutz, Altgiers, tchh...

 

[HamburgerBoy]

No Macromedia Flash.

 

[thirdlegstump]

When knowing HTML was totally the shiznizzle

 

[KrillBee]

the original napster.