What do you miss the most about "the internet of old"?

[Fray Guillermo]

The purity of social networks and when search engines weren't filled with SEO garbage

 

[diet_orange]

I feel like the one place that's mostly remained unchanged on the internet is Deviantart. Place has been virtually the same since I was a teen and while I don't appreciate the open use of AI generated artwork (and the monetization of it), it's still where I feel the most at home creatively

 

[JackNoir413]

i miss that people had fun
normalfags made it too serious and while you can still find fun places like this one, it bothers me whenever i come across social media posts failing to understand nothing on the internet is real and every opinion posted ever is ironic.

 

[Burzuru]

the internet was a place not some extension of normal life that you have access to in your pocket at all times. we need to get rid of smartphones and social media.

 

[Skellerick]

how everything was more organic and decentralized, most of the stuff was made by real people. until the end of the 2000s the feeling was that every corner of the internet was unique with its own environment, style and vibe, everything seemed fresher and more exciting. nowadays most people just doom scroll between apps made by corporations like they were trapped.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Actually... I absolutely hate how much of our souls we had to sell in order to accommodate for the "mobile-friendly" stuff.

HTML customization, most widgets, random profiles modified to the very core, Flash animations and portals... All of that was gone the second "mobile themes" became the default, front-facing sides of many websites, and it sucks so much.

 

[Skellerick]

Actually... I absolutely hate how much of our souls we had to sell in order to accommodate for the "mobile-friendly" stuff.

HTML customization, most widgets, random profiles modified to the very core, Flash animations and portals... All of that was gone the second "mobile themes" became the default, front-facing sides of many websites, and it sucks so much.

Absolutely!! I miss portals, they were so unique, the entire design was planned to represent what they were made for. The feeling was almost like opening a pop-up book

 

[elbanano]

Miss when websites were designed for computers and not for phones, I hate visiting a website only for a single word to cover the whole fucking screen

I miss not needing to use the internet to do lots of things, such as opening a bank account

Now something I fear will become old internet: Anonymity. Worst part is that I have seen many people thinking that getting rid of anonymity is a good thing because "that will make shit less toxic"... sure... maybe its removal will make forums reborn? idk, but things will get worse, that's for sure

 

[job32]

Things will get worse. Age verification is coming in Australia as a starter. Supposedly to stop under 16's from viewing inappropriate content. Problem is everyone will have to prove they aren't under 16. They play the caring aspect to trap everyone. If they push this kind of shit in your country, just boycott the internet entirely. If the numbers are big enough, they will have to backtrack, at least.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

The alternatives to youtube and how its topical to each website what kind of videos and content you got .

Even when Gametrailers deserved to go under , it had still alot of awesome content and seeing new trailers of games were always a treat for me.

 

[diet_orange]

The alternatives to youtube and how its topical to each website what kind of videos and content you got .

Even when Gametrailers deserved to go under , it had still alot of awesome content and seeing new trailers of games were always a treat for me.

I still remember how most Youtube creators (especially under the "That Guy With The Glasses" umbrella) chose to go with Blip because there was a far better payout back then. So many lost videos too from Blip going bottom up, especially most of The Cinema Snob (who I love). Thankfully a good bit of his has been saved (mostly by the Russians) though it's in absolutely terrible quality

 

[elbanano]

The alternatives to youtube and how its topical to each website what kind of videos and content you got .

Even when Gametrailers deserved to go under , it had still alot of awesome content and seeing new trailers of games were always a treat for me.

I remember when youtube and all video websites had any tv show lmao, remember alternating between youtube, tu.tv and dailymotion to watch animes like Inuyasha

 

[diet_orange]

I remember when youtube and all video websites had any tv show lmao, remember alternating between youtube, tu.tv and dailymotion to watch animes like Inuyasha

I probably watched more Kamen Rider subs on youtube than I ever did through Torrents. A lot of Gamecenter CX was on Youtube as well, fully subtitled. Then 4chan decided to wish Arino a happy birthday live and they kind of caught on to the fact that foreign parties were watching the show beyond the "Retro Game Master" DVD

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I remember when youtube and all video websites had any tv show lmao, remember alternating between youtube, tu.tv and dailymotion to watch animes like Inuyasha

I think I watched through Digimon solely through YouTube.

Although, having "Part 3/5" of any episode being missing because that had triggered a random copyright strike wasn't fun at all.

 

[ZEGA ZONIC]

The free online multiplayer of the PS3.

 

[DjQuick2008]

The free online multiplayer of the PS3.

yes i used to have a headset mic and banter my friends 8 miles away it was fun. had a fella from scotland added too at one stage he was good banter.

Post automatically merged: Aug 6, 2025

I used to print out CAWs for WWF attitude no idea what the site was but it had everything from creating WCW guys to superheroes. 55 pages i printed in the 1 session lol

Post automatically merged: Aug 6, 2025

before the war on music

 

[shadowcat]

Myspace, the apex of social media was when it was comprised of mostly nerds, scene kids and theater kids. It's been downhill since. Also, there were a lot better manga reader sites, and anime/manga communities weren't the cesspool they are now.

Also the division of offline and online as a whole, the dial-up noises were like a portal you went through to get into the online world, and there was still a clear separation of online and offline. Smartphones and then every device since having internet connectivity decimated that divide, leaving both online and offline culture worse off for it.

 

[elbanano]

Myspace, the apex of social media was when it was comprised of mostly nerds, scene kids and theater kids. It's been downhill since.

Agree, thats why I love this site despite not being the most active, I think it is fair to say that everyone active here is a nerd lmao,

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I miss reading the "history" parts of many sites in which owners let you see the kind of struggles they had to face in order to get stuff done and where the ideas came from. It was a little peek behind the curtain, but it made you appreciate the work in front of you all the more.

Also: Some were pretty damn funny, like when the owner of VampireFreaks spent three paragraphs talking about how hard it had been to optimize the site to withstand having a million members, how many tricks and shortcuts he had to pull off and attempt...

... Just to immediately follow that up with him bragging about letting users run wild with uploading their own videos onto the server LOL.

 

[pingugaming]

megavideo lmao
i watched so many low quality anime rips on that site

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

megavideo lmao
i watched so many low quality anime rips on that site

I remember watching movies in there through links posted on Taringa! XD

 

[job32]

You could just rock up, type in what you're looking for, get lots of options to choose from, barely had to login to any of them to post. You also didn't have to worry about this cloudflare monstrosity that sometimes makes logging into a site impossible.
There is no charm in the internet today. The thing holding people is addiction, habit, needyness, porn and the lack of other ways to do business or pay bills. It's a horror show compared to what it started out as.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I personally miss people's untamed creativity when it came to creating, customizing and presenting their profiles.

Amusingly, we have this here now XD

 

[Mr. SyS]

Just pure fun without fear of cancellation, governments breathing down your neck, or everything being centralized and bastardized by megacorps. Now everything is serious business.

 

[MegaDrive1987]

Some sites still retain that classic layout that I've mentioned before...

https://nesworld.com/index.php