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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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[-] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 33 points 1 month ago

in the 80s 'online' was often very local . you learned not to say things you wouldnt say to that persons face because there was every chance you would run into them at some local gathering of users.

[-] etherphon@midwest.social 11 points 1 month ago

Indeed and this very thing happened to me as I was a teenager talking shit to a user on our local MajorBBS system, which was a popular multi line BBS system that had chat, games, forums, fidonet, etc. and he showed up to the next meetup at the park (he did warn me he was going to be there, to kick my ass). Everything turned out fine but lesson learned.

[-] Triumph@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago

Sounds quite similar to CB radio.

[-] tal@olio.cafe 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm pretty sure that I still don't know everything I need to know about online discourse.

[-] 0ops@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago

I am a monkey with a typewriter

[-] TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 month ago

on the internet? it's an on-going process, there is no "everything"

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

I started in a/s/l? chat rooms, but as social media has evolved, so has the discourse. I think I had to relearn every time I changed platforms.

[-] LuxSpark@lemmy.cafe 9 points 1 month ago
[-] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago
[-] zip 4 points 1 month ago
[-] motor_spirit@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

that's my maiden name

[-] blackbrook@mander.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

I'm pretty sure American sign language looks different than that.

[-] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

By being terminally online since the previous century.

[-] transscribe7891@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago
[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago
[-] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago
[-] fossilesque@mander.xyz 7 points 1 month ago
[-] punkwalrus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Started with online BBS's in the 1980s where you could get kicked off for being a dick (and your phone number banned) but Larry Wall's "rn" for Usenet used to say before every post:

This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars to send everywhere. Please be sure you know what you are doing.

[-] StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 month ago

Usenet and IRC, back in the late 90s. Damn I'm getting old.

[-] Nemo@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 month ago

It wasn't just one place. It wasn't even all online.

[-] loaf@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago
[-] gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

AOL 2.1 because I was on Mac at the time. Good ol' #macwarez!

[-] loaf@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Oh the warez rooms were amazing! That’s how I finally got to play C&C: Red Alert lol

[-] gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Haha damn! I remember seeing that on the daily mailers. I was busy getting the Adobe stuff like Photoshop and Illustrator, also QuarkXpress for page layout because fuck MS Word. Good times!

[-] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

&totse and IRC mostly

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 5 points 1 month ago

I'm still learning, despite being around it for over 2 decades at this point.

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

This year marks three for me. Also still learning.

I'd quote Abe Simpson about being "with it" until they change what "it" is, but that doesn't quite apply online. You're always going to be a couple of steps behind with something as niche things crawl out of the darkness, ever mutating as they turn mainstream.

And to think, when I started on the Internet, I was already technically an adult, but I didn't act like one, that's for sure. Some lessons were hard learned.

Some of it is immortalised if you know where to look. I've changed my pseudonym a handful of times as a result.

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I was in my mid-twenties and my second marriage by the time I really got into internet forums, and they were mostly bicycle related ones. God only know how I'd have turned out if I'd been a teenager or Reddit or the like had been around. I think the closest thing at the time was slashdot, which I looked at briefly and noped the fuck outa there. Bikeforums.net is still alive and kicking, apparently.

I think the most important lesson I learned early on is that you're not going to change anyone's mind.

[-] Zorsith 5 points 1 month ago

MMOs and forums.

[-] Yeahigotskills2@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

The NME (popular British music paper) had a website with a chat room/board that I was active on in the late 90s. I was about 17.

They also gave you free webmail with a @nme.com address, so you felt like a music journalist. Unfortunately, they shut it all down out of the blue in the 00s, with little warning, so I lost my primary email address. Would love to recover all those messages, but they are gone forever.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Over thirty years ago, on TALK.

[-] kometes@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Alt.flame. iykyk

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The starwars.com forum long before the Disney purchase killed it, then Digg until the v4 update, then Reddit until the APIpocalypse.

So many communities I've seen wrecked by corporate greed. The Fediverse gives me hope for people being able to interact online without having to worry about the enshittification.

[-] oce@jlai.lu 4 points 1 month ago

On MMOs, trying not to sound like a kid, even though I was a kid, so I could join groups of cool people and guilds. Learned a lot of American lingo on Reddit.

[-] Klear@quokk.au 3 points 1 month ago
[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

Oh man, I am not the primary demographic of lemmy am I?

[-] skooma_king@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago

I was going to say AIM (AOL), but really it was Yahoo! Games. Specifically Towers with a little bit of Pool mixed in.

[-] sockman@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Team Fortress 2 custom servers

[-] oneser@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Napster chatrooms

[-] huquad@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Thank god I was able to learn on the early days of the internet

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

Making as many mistakes, missteps, misunderstandings, misconceptions and misses as possible.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 month ago

Discussing online.

[-] funkajunk@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Nexopia and NinjaVideo forums.

Yes, I am Unc and chopped.

4chan taught me that, in a highly uncivilised world, the best thing to do is be kind and keep your dignity. It'll either calm people's spirits or infuriate others, and I enjoy both, lol. Also, words don't have to hurt, especially those from online strangers!

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 2 points 1 month ago

As many others have said IRC and usenet in the 90's

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Hmmm, I think my gateway drug to interacting with actual Internet strangers vs talking online with people I knew IRL, was probably via StarCraft over dial-up in 1998. RuneScape shortly after for developing actual relationships with people, then WoW owned my soul from its vanilla release through the cata expansion.

Several WoW guilds had their own websites/forums, which eventually got me into forums for other topics, then Reddit, then here.

[-] greenbelt@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
48 points (100.0% liked)

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