The Good Old Days

Nerin

Formality: No linking to, advising or anything else to do with p2p please. This is a nostalgia thread, not a p2p debate/advice thread.

Ah.
Sunday evening in the Wildlands.
Its raining outside, i can hear the parasaurolophus herd calling in the distance. I'm having a nice smoke and drink, relaxing in my lair here.
I was randomly surfing the net, updating my site.
And then, something reminded me of the good old days.

Yes, the good old days, or at least, when you look back, they seem good.
Im thinking of the ending 90s now.
Thinking of the first days i was on the net, and then when we got our first PC.

Yes, the first PC we got was a terrible beast. it had 64mb of ram, a 1.8 gig hard drive and it was windows 98.
It was gigantic. Dusty. But it hooked me to the net.
The net then, well, it was as slow as that pc i described. I seem to remember a 4mb file taking, hmmm, a day to download? terrible.

But it was that terrible pc and terrible net access that brought me to the here, the now, the Nerin before you.
Yes, with a copy of WinMX (an old p2p download program) loaded onto my machine, i started to venture away from randomly reading things to randomly chatting about things.
Winmx was everything i liked about those days. Now, in our case, we couldnt pirate with it, our connection was too slow, we had no room on our pc.

But winmx had another use, it had a chat feature.
And thats what i remember fondly. you see, unlike now, i didnt have firefox when i was a teenager. i didnt have a road map around the web. if i wanted a freeware program, instead of going to download.com i'd venture onto winmx and spend the day waiting for winamp or whatever it was a wanted.

And while waiting, i got to exploring the 1 application i had that connected the world out there.
There was every type of filth that google can make available on those rooms.
but there were gems as big and interesting as Boards came to be for me.

And today i'm remembering one, The Vampires Den. Yes, all that too long didnt read above you has lead to this trip down memory lane to the den.
The Den was an old, ugly room, filled with people just like us in the noc forum. We had the RPers, the chatters, the jokers nerds and goths.

And for some reason today it got me thinking. Were any of the regulars on the Noc refugees from that old haunt?
Has whatevermyusernamewas branched out in the web and set up the next generation of the den? And by the Gods has anyone seen user:DrakenOrin?!

So simply put my little Nocs, what oldschool sites did ye used to frequent, and did any of you use WinMX to post on rooms like the Vampire Den?

feylya

Telnet and IRC were the programs of the day back when I got on the internet. 40mhz 386 running Windows 95. Never tried getting the 286 online. I doubt it's 4 mhz cpu and 1k of ram could have handled much.

Aisling(",)

Im on boards since i was around 13 so this and bebo are my old school sites.

anonymous_joe

Elitist Jerks.

>_>

<_<

I may or may not have been able to spend a lot of time there once upon a time.

BaconZombie

So have you even heard of Lycos and Yahoo ?

Let alone the wonderful sound of a 9600 bps modem making an connection.

I feel very old now.....

Aisling(",) wrote: »

Im on boards since i was around 13 so this and bebo are my old school sites.

feylya

****, I remember ask Jeeves the first time around!

Aisling(",)

BOFH_139 wrote: »

So have you even heard of Lycos and Yahoo ?

Let alone the wonderful sound of a 9600 bps modem making an connection.

I feel very old now.....

im sure ya aint that old:p
decrepit elderly old coot!

Nerin

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Elitist Jerks.

>_>

<_<

I may or may not have been able to spend a lot of time there once upon a time.

hehe, you get kicked?

girl_friday

BOFH_139 wrote: »

So have you even heard of Lycos and Yahoo ?

I used to chat a lot with Lycos and Yahoo chat... Still friends with some people I chatted to then.

Doctor DooM

Area 51 on geocities chat was the shizzle.

I remember seeing certain alternative websites for the first time and devouring them, and that happy feeling of there being a whole new world out there to explore!

anonymous_joe

Nerin wrote: »

hehe, you get kicked?

I wasn't in EJ, I'd have to be a Yank for that, but in my WoW days I knew pretty much everything about rogue theorycrafting. A looooooong time ago now, thank fcuk. I used to haunt the WoW forums too obviously. They make boards look positively friendly and inspiring.

rainbow kirby

anonymous_joe wrote: »

I wasn't in EJ, I'd have to be a Yank for that, but in my WoW days I knew pretty much everything about rogue theorycrafting. A looooooong time ago now, thank fcuk. I used to haunt the WoW forums too obviously. They make boards look positively friendly and inspiring.

I used to read EJ more than I posted on it, but I was well-known enough on the WoW forums to have my sig copied by about 5 different people. I can't believe I spent so much time on such a cesspool of a forum, looking back.

My old-skool forum *is* boards, it's about 9 years since I registered my first account. I set up my first email address on Yahoo in 1998 and I've used pretty much every other free email provider along the way. I also remember the days of using Lycos and AltaVista to search for stuff. I set up my first website on Geocities when I was in my Leaving Cert year, complete with silly "Under Construction" banners. I've had my Livejournal account since about 2002 too, and my old posts from my late teens are pretty cringeworthy.

Nerin

anonymous_joe wrote: »

I wasn't in EJ, I'd have to be a Yank for that, but in my WoW days I knew pretty much everything about rogue theorycrafting. A looooooong time ago now, thank fcuk. I used to haunt the WoW forums too obviously.

They make boards look positively friendly and inspiring.

eh....

i understand the bolded bit :o

flying _squirl

BOFH_139 wrote: »

Let alone the wonderful sound of a 9600 bps modem making an connection.

*shhhhhhhhhhhhhh-ping-binggong-binggong-binggong-shhhhhhhhhhhhh*

anonymous_joe

rainbow kirby wrote: »

I used to read EJ more than I posted on it, but I was well-known enough on the WoW forums to have my sig copied by about 5 different people. I can't believe I spent so much time on such a cesspool of a forum, looking back.

My old-skool forum *is* boards, it's about 9 years since I registered my first account. I set up my first email address on Yahoo in 1998 and I've used pretty much every other free email provider along the way. I also remember the days of using Lycos and AltaVista to search for stuff. I set up my first website on Geocities when I was in my Leaving Cert year, complete with silly "Under Construction" banners. I've had my Livejournal account since about 2002 too, and my old posts from my late teens are pretty cringeworthy.

EJ was full of arrogant twunts but they knew enough for it to be worthwhile. One of the things that WoW ruined for me was that no other game has the same kind of knowledge base to use. Sadly the kind of people who put that together were by and large all dícks, but c'est la vie.

Nerin wrote: »

eh....

i understand the bolded bit :o

How shall I put it, EJ's the kind of place where someone will call you ghey for not using quantam mechanics and theoretical maths modelling to understand when to use an ability. The actual WoW forums are where someone would call you a ghey assprcklawlz for not being from Denmark. As Kirbs said, a cesspit.

Fun though. :pac:

feylya

I remember boards when it looked like this

rainbow kirby

anonymous_joe wrote: »

The actual WoW forums are where someone would call you a ghey assprcklawlz for not being from Denmark. As Kirbs said, a cesspit.

Fun though. :pac:

OMG DKDKDKDKDKDK LOLZ :pac:

Memories... of bad ASCII art, of retarded comments, of "L2P", of "nerf warlocks", of "don't transfer to Kilrogg"... *sigh*

feylya

Who remembers telnetting to see Star Wars in ascii?

rainbow kirby

feylya wrote: »

Who remembers telnetting to see Star Wars in ascii?

I have a vague recollection of something of the sort...

feylya

Actually, here's an easier question:

Who actually knows what telnet is?

Doctor DooM

feylya wrote: »

Actually, here's an easier question:

Who actually knows what telnet is?

I still use it in work.

Speaking of ascii... EBCDIC!

anonymous_joe

rainbow kirby wrote: »

OMG DKDKDKDKDKDK LOLZ :pac:

Memories... of bad ASCII art, of retarded comments, of "L2P", of "nerf warlocks", of "don't transfer to Kilrogg"... *sigh*

Yeah, memories. Or being taught basic Dutch so I could do pugs with my ex. That was not fcuking cool.

God, I'm glad I don't play. ^^

feylya

SoDoM wrote: »

I still use it in work.

Speaking of ascii... EBCDIC!

We all do Doomy. We all do.

Balls to EBCDIC!

Doctor DooM

I still have to convert the odd code page...

You know what I miss about the good old days... well, my good old days.

I hate seeing Metallica, Iron Maiden et al t shirts being worn as fashion statements. I hate the ever increasing-although I suppose inevitable- commercialisation of rock music in general.

Perhaps it is merely a fact that I am getting too old to be part of yoof culture, but it still wrankles!

feylya

Metallica and band shirts should ONLY be available for purchase at their gigs!

Crumble Froo

feylya wrote: »

****, I remember ask Jeeves the first time around!

i rememebr the standard homepage in our school being yahooligans... can't remember when i first heard of google, but it was after that. and askjeeves too... haha.

teenchat.com, on recommendation from mizz magazine. still pop in every now and then when bored out of my tree.

and bored.com. the internet was for entertainment more tahn communicating, wahen i first discovered it.

Nerin

Crumble Froo wrote: »

i rememebr the standard homepage in our school being yahooligans... can't remember when i first heard of google, but it was after that. and askjeeves too... haha.

teenchat.com, on recommendation from mizz magazine. still pop in every now and then when bored out of my tree.

and bored.com. the internet was for entertainment more tahn communicating, wahen i first discovered it.

Teenchat.com? Jesus,there were more 40 year old men on that than teenagers!

nkay1985

Ah yes, the origins of my internet life. I remember one of the first things I was shown by my friend was TheSpark.com, I believe. It was a site with all those things like 'The Death Test', 'The Personality Test', that kind of stuff.

I think this might be its modern incarnation. Alta Vista and AskJeeves were the only search engines around. God I can't even remember all the other stuff we used to do.

Fast forwarding a small bit to my first experience of chat rooms was some form of an Eircom one or something like that. Hotmail was my first email address.

The first site where I set up residence was TheJammyBlaa.com which was a site for discussion and stuff based in Waterford City, set up by my friend. I still think of that as being fairly recent but it's about 7 years ago now. :eek:

Since then I've been all around the net but Boards has been my internet home for a year now and I can see it being an enduring one.

Aisling(",)

theese pages make very little or no sense to me

anonymous_joe

Aisling(",) wrote: »

theese pages make very little or no sense to me

That's cos we're all oooooooooold. Ish. :pac:

rainbow kirby

Aisling(",) wrote: »

theese pages make very little or no sense to me

That would be because you're still a nipper

Shiminay

My first experiences of internets were in college 12 years ago. Really slow, but so awesome. Then I got a computer at home (P133 + 16 MB RAM + 1GB HDD + 1MB onboard SVGA card) and started to play Quake online. Which brought me here, before there was a here and now I work here 12 years later

I remember my old GeoCities page and I remember myself and Trojan starting one up for the college and being told "the authorities" were watching it :eek:

I also remember the stress my phone line usage was causing my mother financially, but she now knows it's all paid off

feylya

I miss the days of making a null parellel cable so we could play multiplayer Doom 2 at home. Show a kid a soldering iron these days and they'd say it's some form of hair styling product!

anonymous_joe

feylya wrote: »

I miss the days of making a null parellel cable so we could play multiplayer Doom 2 at home. Show a kid a soldering iron these days and they'd say it's some form of hair styling product!

Last time I used a soldering iron I melted some very expensive things. Never again.

rainbow kirby

Soldering is fun, my grandfather taught me to use a soldering iron when I was 10. Haven't used one since a physics class in my first year in college though.

Gary ITR

SoDoM wrote: »

I still have to convert the odd code page...

You know what I miss about the good old days... well, my good old days.

I hate seeing Metallica, Iron Maiden et al t shirts being worn as fashion statements. I hate the ever increasing-although I suppose inevitable- commercialisation of rock music in general.

Perhaps it is merely a fact that I am getting too old to be part of yoof culture, but it still wrankles!

I remember having a bottle cracked over my head for wearing a Metallica t-shirt when I was 16... Now every little fecker is going around wearing them

Thomas828

My first encounter with the internet was in a cyber-cafe in Whiteley's mall in London in January 1997. They charged FIVE POUNDS an hour! Today most cafes charge 50p an hour.

Doctor DooM

Onkle wrote: »

I remember having a bottle cracked over my head for wearing a Metallica t-shirt when I was 16... Now every little fecker is going around wearing them

Yeah. we all had stories like that. Funny, it actually did mean something to put on a shirt like that in the day.

Handsome Bob

I used to be part of a really interactive wrestling forum called FHW/eNewszone way back in the day (probably around 02/03).

Back before flaming posters was taboo, this place used to have a sub-forum called the Warzone where we could call out any posters we had beefs with.

Good times were had, I miss that forum. :pac:

The End Of Days

I remember Persian kitty [NSFW] and Doom back in the day. Surfing the internet in 1995 was very different to what it is today.

I hark back to it as much as I do my mum having no shoes in the 70's

The End Of Days

Doctor DooM wrote: »

I still have to convert the odd code page...

You know what I miss about the good old days... well, my good old days.

I hate seeing Metallica, Iron Maiden et al t shirts being worn as fashion statements. I hate the ever increasing-although I suppose inevitable- commercialisation of rock music in general.

Perhaps it is merely a fact that I am getting too old to be part of yoof culture, but it still wrankles!

Too true. What age are you bro?

Doctor DooM

The End Of Days wrote: »

I remember Persian kitty [NSFW] and Doom back in the day. Surfing the internet in 1995 was very different to what it is today.

I hark back to it as much as I do my mum having no shoes in the 70's

Everyone who has met the DooM remembers him

The End Of Days wrote: »

Too true. What age are you bro?

The DooM is sadly approaching his 30th birthday, when he will expect tribute from his loyal subjects.

Handsome Bob

Doctor DooM wrote: »

The DooM is sadly approaching his 30th birthday, when he will expect tribute from his loyal subjects.

I ain't paying for the shipping fee to Latveria.

anonymous_joe

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Everyone who has met the DooM remembers him

You're the one with the long hair who does stand up right?

Radiatorsun

Man! I tought I was nerd, u guys are toaly geeked out

nkay1985

Radiatorsun wrote: »

Man! I tought I was nerd, u guys are toaly geeked out

Oh don't worry, you're a nerd too.

Handsome Bob

Radiatorsun wrote: »

Man! I tought I was nerd, u guys are toaly geeked out

You sure do have good spelling for a nerd. :pac:

Radiatorsun

Don be slaggin me spheech impedamenn

Doctor DooM

Radiatorsun wrote: »

Don be slaggin me spheech impedamenn

While of course no one would, please note using txt spk is frowned upon here on boards.

Carry on discussing how kids are so lucky these days.

Nevyn

Telnetting from DCU into TCD and on to usenet using the Vax network and then 3 years later.


Netscape Navigator 1.1

http://web.archive.org/web/19990117021828/http://www.theglobe.com/

cyberwolf77

http://www.sydlexia.com/

Nuff said.