So you must have started your internet journey somewhere. In the early days of the internet, there were "bulletin boards" and some early forum-type places. What community did you first join? What surprised you? What early netiquette did you learn? Was it moderated or unmoderated?
For me, my first forum-type experience was a board that was on a company server for a videogame cheat code device. I think it was "codebreakers.com" It was the board for the company that made the old "Game Shark." I was very surprised that there were dozens of people on there who did not work for the company. The company mainly used the board to get free hacks for games and to take the temperature of the gaiming populace for marketing purposes. We used the boards for exactly what Forumgarden does, though. Talking about life. I learned some interesting internet rules:
1. The longer you had been around, the more respect you generally had. That didn't necessarily make sense, but if you were new, they called you a "Noobie" (N()()b) and gave you hell.
2. Insulting people was taken as an art form. Since you couldn't use bad language, you had to be very creative in your insults which were called "flames" and you could get in a flame war with people.
3. Not everyone was nice. I was seriously surprised. Some people were just plain mean all the time. Apparently, the anonymity made it possible to be that way.
4. The "moderators" or "Mods" were the Gods of the board. You daren't offend them. Everyone was constantly vying to become one, although I wasn't sure how former mods could ever have lost their position.
5. You had to have a cool 'avatar" or you'd get no respect. Followed by a cool username. Only n()()bs used their own names.
6. Post count was what counted. That's how people new you'd been around a long time. So you needed to post a lot and often.
That all had to be around 1996 or so. So what do you remember?
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
The first Bulletin Board I joined was in the days of dial up and was hosted on someone's PC that he left running 24/7 to allow access.
You'd dial in and batch download all of the outstanding messages then reply to them off line - replies were uploaded next time you dialled in before the next batch of messages came down.
The board also hosted shareware and you could pick up some nifty software that way.
That would have been the early eighties starting with a 1200 baud modem so abbreviations and emoticons were common and varied with much competition to see who could come up with the most original - so to with taglines where you'd collect those you liked and the software would randomly attach one to the end of each message you uploaded.
Happy days
You'd dial in and batch download all of the outstanding messages then reply to them off line - replies were uploaded next time you dialled in before the next batch of messages came down.
The board also hosted shareware and you could pick up some nifty software that way.
That would have been the early eighties starting with a 1200 baud modem so abbreviations and emoticons were common and varied with much competition to see who could come up with the most original - so to with taglines where you'd collect those you liked and the software would randomly attach one to the end of each message you uploaded.
Happy days
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
I started out working through the college libraries where I serviced the computer systems. There were several bulletin boards that we got on and in spare time would get into all sorts of discussions.
Then around the end of the 80's some boards started turning to open services. GE started leasing out their spare bandwidth, and a lot of discussion groups migrated there. One of the "celebrities" I remember was Jerry Pournelle.
Then got started on the newsgroups of the day. Yes, flaming, as it was called was quite common.
The doom of the newsgroups was Spam. The Signal to noise ration became so high the newsgroups became nearly unusable, except for the spambots.
Haven't been around there for years.
Forums like this have evolved from the old bulletin board software, and the newsgroup concept.
Then around the end of the 80's some boards started turning to open services. GE started leasing out their spare bandwidth, and a lot of discussion groups migrated there. One of the "celebrities" I remember was Jerry Pournelle.
Then got started on the newsgroups of the day. Yes, flaming, as it was called was quite common.
The doom of the newsgroups was Spam. The Signal to noise ration became so high the newsgroups became nearly unusable, except for the spambots.
Haven't been around there for years.
Forums like this have evolved from the old bulletin board software, and the newsgroup concept.
The home of the soul is the Open Road.
- DH Lawrence
- DH Lawrence
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
I recall being in George's Glasgow workshop the week he imported the first batch of USR high-speed modems into the UK and watching the initial trials. They ran 0.001MB/s inbound and I remember watching the data flash past at an unreadable page every two seconds thinking nobody would be able to stand the pace. We were awestruck.
The boards were generally Wildcat, crippled unless you paid the $200 or so registration fee. Error correction was X, Y or ZModem under Kermit, there was no routing protocol, everything was point to point, my preferred message handler when I upgraded to a PC was SLMR under DOS.
One step up from that, eventually, was CiX using Ameol under Windows, still with 0.0002MB/s dialup - the point of writing it that way is that my current Internet connection takes a second to bring in what would then have taken over a day to download. That's why we didn't have any graphics. That's why nobody tried to invent HTML until the nineties. All this "and then there were pictures and it all took off overnight" is as much hardware dependent as it was Tim Berners-Lee, great man though he is.
And Fido, don't forget Fido. That allowed Wildcat sysops to push mail out onto a national backbone which in turn placed them onto a world backbone, without a hint of Internet about it. Threads existed, they could easily have posters from Sweden or San Francisco, they used non-Internet protocols. CiX gave an alternative gateway to the Internet proper, that's where I got my second email address. I had my first from BT dialing in from a BBC B around 1985 and I can't even remember what their service was called, all I remember is that it cost a fortune. Never again, BT, not in this lifetime nor the next.
The boards were generally Wildcat, crippled unless you paid the $200 or so registration fee. Error correction was X, Y or ZModem under Kermit, there was no routing protocol, everything was point to point, my preferred message handler when I upgraded to a PC was SLMR under DOS.
One step up from that, eventually, was CiX using Ameol under Windows, still with 0.0002MB/s dialup - the point of writing it that way is that my current Internet connection takes a second to bring in what would then have taken over a day to download. That's why we didn't have any graphics. That's why nobody tried to invent HTML until the nineties. All this "and then there were pictures and it all took off overnight" is as much hardware dependent as it was Tim Berners-Lee, great man though he is.
And Fido, don't forget Fido. That allowed Wildcat sysops to push mail out onto a national backbone which in turn placed them onto a world backbone, without a hint of Internet about it. Threads existed, they could easily have posters from Sweden or San Francisco, they used non-Internet protocols. CiX gave an alternative gateway to the Internet proper, that's where I got my second email address. I had my first from BT dialing in from a BBC B around 1985 and I can't even remember what their service was called, all I remember is that it cost a fortune. Never again, BT, not in this lifetime nor the next.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
LarsMac;1394347 wrote: The doom of the newsgroups was Spam. The Signal to noise ration became so high the newsgroups became nearly unusable, except for the spambots.
That dog of a lawyer running his Green Card scheme. That was the first spam I ever saw. I think Kibo annoyed more people more intensely but Kibo wasn't a spammer, he was Kibo. The toerag Armenian Genocide bot was the worst.
That dog of a lawyer running his Green Card scheme. That was the first spam I ever saw. I think Kibo annoyed more people more intensely but Kibo wasn't a spammer, he was Kibo. The toerag Armenian Genocide bot was the worst.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
I was late to the party, I got a computer about 2000 and somehow discovered MSN chat rooms. It was like the old time party line on the phone, you'd have dozens of people all talking at once. The women usually had glittery soft porn avatars and called themselves something like "SexyCherie" and advertised themselves as being young, hot and horny. It was kind of entertaining.
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
Saint_;1394325 wrote: So you must have started your internet journey somewhere. In the early days of the internet, there were "bulletin boards" and some early forum-type places. What community did you first join? What surprised you? What early netiquette did you learn? Was it moderated or unmoderated?
For me, my first forum-type experience was a board that was on a company server for a videogame cheat code device. I think it was "codebreakers.com" It was the board for the company that made the old "Game Shark." I was very surprised that there were dozens of people on there who did not work for the company. The company mainly used the board to get free hacks for games and to take the temperature of the gaiming populace for marketing purposes. We used the boards for exactly what Forumgarden does, though. Talking about life. I learned some interesting internet rules:
1. The longer you had been around, the more respect you generally had. That didn't necessarily make sense, but if you were new, they called you a "Noobie" (N()()b) and gave you hell.
2. Insulting people was taken as an art form. Since you couldn't use bad language, you had to be very creative in your insults which were called "flames" and you could get in a flame war with people.
3. Not everyone was nice. I was seriously surprised. Some people were just plain mean all the time. Apparently, the anonymity made it possible to be that way.
4. The "moderators" or "Mods" were the Gods of the board. You daren't offend them. Everyone was constantly vying to become one, although I wasn't sure how former mods could ever have lost their position.
5. You had to have a cool 'avatar" or you'd get no respect. Followed by a cool username. Only n()()bs used their own names.
6. Post count was what counted. That's how people new you'd been around a long time. So you needed to post a lot and often.
That all had to be around 1996 or so. So what do you remember?
Although I was accessing client data in our insurance office on the computer in the mid 70's, it was not until the mid 80"s that I discovered Compuserve and Spry Mosaic to access the internet. I was intrigued then as I am now, with the wealth of information (good and bad) that is available. Early on, chat groups would chastise those who posted in caps as SHOUTING.
There was very little toleration of errant newbies. I can barely remember any of the command prompts that had to be used to access. We've come a long way baby and there is more to come I'm sure.
For me, my first forum-type experience was a board that was on a company server for a videogame cheat code device. I think it was "codebreakers.com" It was the board for the company that made the old "Game Shark." I was very surprised that there were dozens of people on there who did not work for the company. The company mainly used the board to get free hacks for games and to take the temperature of the gaiming populace for marketing purposes. We used the boards for exactly what Forumgarden does, though. Talking about life. I learned some interesting internet rules:
1. The longer you had been around, the more respect you generally had. That didn't necessarily make sense, but if you were new, they called you a "Noobie" (N()()b) and gave you hell.
2. Insulting people was taken as an art form. Since you couldn't use bad language, you had to be very creative in your insults which were called "flames" and you could get in a flame war with people.
3. Not everyone was nice. I was seriously surprised. Some people were just plain mean all the time. Apparently, the anonymity made it possible to be that way.
4. The "moderators" or "Mods" were the Gods of the board. You daren't offend them. Everyone was constantly vying to become one, although I wasn't sure how former mods could ever have lost their position.
5. You had to have a cool 'avatar" or you'd get no respect. Followed by a cool username. Only n()()bs used their own names.
6. Post count was what counted. That's how people new you'd been around a long time. So you needed to post a lot and often.
That all had to be around 1996 or so. So what do you remember?
Although I was accessing client data in our insurance office on the computer in the mid 70's, it was not until the mid 80"s that I discovered Compuserve and Spry Mosaic to access the internet. I was intrigued then as I am now, with the wealth of information (good and bad) that is available. Early on, chat groups would chastise those who posted in caps as SHOUTING.
There was very little toleration of errant newbies. I can barely remember any of the command prompts that had to be used to access. We've come a long way baby and there is more to come I'm sure.
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
1993, Mosaic's first release, not that I saw it until May 1994. That's the first time I saw HTTP and HTML too, though Wikipedia says they were being developed under those names from 1991. Firefox is a direct descendant of Mosaic.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
spot;1394351 wrote: That dog of a lawyer running his Green Card scheme. That was the first spam I ever saw. I think Kibo annoyed more people more intensely but Kibo wasn't a spammer, he was Kibo. The toerag Armenian Genocide bot was the worst.
Yep. I remember the day that first green card message hit the boards.
As ill an omen as a dead canary in the mine shaft.
Yep. I remember the day that first green card message hit the boards.
As ill an omen as a dead canary in the mine shaft.
The home of the soul is the Open Road.
- DH Lawrence
- DH Lawrence
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
I made a couple thousand dollars within a 5 day work week off of $30 playing texas holdem.
I'd honestly made more after that as well but then decided that my time was more valuable than the 6 hours or so I found myself playing daily. My breaking point was playing for 6 hours being roughly 700% in profit only to lose it all against a pair of 2's after the flop(Turn: 2 River: 2 "what do ya know quad 2's" :yh_sick )
I'd honestly made more after that as well but then decided that my time was more valuable than the 6 hours or so I found myself playing daily. My breaking point was playing for 6 hours being roughly 700% in profit only to lose it all against a pair of 2's after the flop(Turn: 2 River: 2 "what do ya know quad 2's" :yh_sick )
Where and When Did You Begin Your Internet Journey?
SnoozeAgain;1394352 wrote: The women usually had glittery soft porn avatars and called themselves something like "SexyCherie" and advertised themselves as being young, hot and horny.Do parents honestly still name their children "Cherie"? I'd think "Candy" is more popular, at least it's to the point...