I remember my dial-up days with AOL. I could hardly contain my excitement as I browsed Quest for Glory webrings and read about Dark Forces easter eggs. I was also coming of age around that time, but I won't get into that here. Of course, regardless of what I was doing, I'd inevitably get kicked off with a resounding, "Goodbye!" I miss being a kid, but I don't miss dial-up.

Oh yes, I also remember receiving all those AOL discs in the mail! They sucked as frisbees.

They may have sucked as frisbees, but they worked very well as coasters.

And everything didn't need to be in HD to look good. Smaller file sizes, everything magically worked.

I recalled the early internet as the "Last Frontier"
I kind of felt like a Pioneer, but I knew when
the "Suits" became involved and commercialized
the Internet would have all the rules and regs of
real life.

I recall a few old (gray area) sites:

--Home of the Underdogs
--Linda's Adventure page
--Audio Galaxy

Game sites were just people's thoughts about a game.

I miss hunting the various stores for games, real boxed games
with all the goodies inside.

People seemed to be more friendly and helpful on the
old BBS boards. There may have been trolls, but I think there
weren't as many as today.

Hell, I'm old enough to recall early TV---little black boxes with screens the size of a postcard and lots of "snow". Our neighbors had one that came with its own magnifying glass attached, two inch thick glass which weighed a ton---all to see a twelve inch grainy image! Great shows at first, then the Supremes decided TV was a "commercial" medium (around 1958, I think) and ruined it. I still watch old kids shows like Crusader Rabbit on Youtube. Internet was originally free if you allowed adverts all over the place, but it got worse. Still want Net Neutrality back, sigh.

I remember when the term 'troll' wasn't even a common thing to use. I think it became popular around the same time smartphones began popping up. I do agree that the internet felt a lot more like a place with a bunch of nice people. Online communities have changed a lot.

I miss old youtube with everybody just uploading whatever the hell they wanted.
No ads, no youtube celebrity drama, just people doing dumb stuff and posting flash animations.
Nobody stealing content as much because there was no money to be had.

TV was also better in some ways, news was news, cartoons were better. Maybe that's just nostalgia on my part.

It was also not used nefariously, myspace was where you'd jazz up your page and post pictures.

Everyday.

That's because someone was in charge of the BBS as it was sitting in their bedroom or living room and the networks were coming from somewhere else where they had someone in charge.

If you didn't deal with trolls, you were cut off.

Do i miss them? Some. I miss the QuakeTF community. There was camaraderie and trash talking but good sport. I remember Geocities and Angelfire. Home of the Underdogs, too. I remember HOTU advertising GOG on their taken down games.

I have almost 20 years on the Internet. There was plenty of ISPs to choose from. Competition abounded. Today, 1 or 2 in my area. Cable internet 10 years ago was blazing fast. Today the Internet's clogged up by unoptimized junk with third world net speeds. I had Adelphia, which was bought out soon after. Now there is Ma Cable and Ma Bell. They're crying it's too expensive to upgrade infrastructure while their CEOs pockets bonus pay and state/federal funds.

I feel sorry for the kids of today. They have it easy and hard. All the google answers on one hand. On the other hand, the online social pressure/environment is toxic, imo.

The American internet cartels needs to be broken up. I just want to punch FCC Head Shit Pie in the face.

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I miss not seeing this message when I just want to download a single file.

Sorry but we still see that.

Not as much as before though

....and gud dang it, I didn't have to walk five miles thru the ice and lava butt ass nakeed.....