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

[HarmonieGirl]

I miss when forums were everywhere and every place had a forum. Nowadays, more places have Discord instead, which I'm just not a fan of. I don't really like the chat format, I feel overwhelmed by it and always feel like I'm interrupting if I want to post in it.

Thankfully, there still do exist forums like this one here.

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Animated ads (and no I don't mean the YT ones)

 

[zombie100379]

filestube , btjunkie , limewire - i believe i missed most of the "good times" as i didn't get online till late 2008

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

The "this is my super niche, personal site and it has a real chance to succeed" era — many of my favorites started out as such, too.

 

[Naltic]

The "this is my super niche, personal site and it has a real chance to succeed" era — many of my favorites started out as such, too.

Interesting, you say that because I personally feel like niches or communities around a specific niche have started dying out. Of course, they may still exist, but a lot of what started as being niche has started becoming very, very popular. A perfect example of this is anime. Back before COVID, it wasn't really popular, but then it became the norm and wasn't seen as something weird and the like. It sucks that that had to happen, but that's just how society works, I guess.

 

[zombie100379]

btjunkie used to have amazing collections of rare comics

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Interesting, you say that because I personally feel like niches or communities around a specific niche have started dying out. Of course, they may still exist, but a lot of what started as being niche has started becoming very, very popular. A perfect example of this is anime. Back before COVID, it wasn't really popular, but then it became the norm and wasn't seen as something weird and the like. It sucks that that had to happen, but that's just how society works, I guess.

I get it.

Not sure if this is the most appropriate example, but whatever: there used to be an Invader Zim fan forum that was kinda, sorta able to sustain itself because it had found many fans of those 27 TV episodes, and that userbase lasted a surprisingly long time (and I'm talking years)... But then, the comic and the movie released and everybody flocked to a centralized sites (like the WIKIA) instead of injecting them with new life. It's kind of BS.

Two of my personal, life-long projects suffered from the same: one got a BBC series after literally decades of stagnation, the other one got a videogame -- neither moved our numbers.

 

[SeventhSon]

Behold! The website that time forgot!

Space Jam

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I already answered this thread but that answer is two years old… so FUCK IT, I’ll update my answer.

Without jumping the gun by ignoring things like slow downloads (not fun) or expensive data consuming sites (even more unfun), and in an attempt to avoid the elephant in the room that is the modern YouTube landscape….

I would say that I kinda miss when the internet used to be part of the “full package”, so to speak. Where it supplemented your offline life, and not completely take over it.

I recently got into toy-collecting as a hobby thanks to @Jayonnaise6105 exposing me to Onegai My Melody, a show so whimsical it made me wanna start collecting merch and decorate my room.

Of course, the natural course of action in 2026 is to use Amazon/eBay, right? So to protest, I got everything entirely offline. Here’s a few highlights of my collection.

Some plushies.

A few amiibos, including a Kazuya amiibo I’m very proud of.

He is the cutest character, after all.

This silly looking buroto uno I got as a happy meal toy.

Dark magician girl figgyz I found by chance

And a ton of other stuff from other toy stores nearby.

I have a monthly browsing routine/rotation I do at least once or twice every 1-2 months.
I miss out on stuff occasionally but it is what it is.
The feeling of whimsy and joy from getting it first hand is unmatched.

So to summarize, I still make an active effort to interact with my offline life.
I want things to be a marriage of the two.

This is the reason I’m such a huge fan of Internet cafes in gta iv.

They help recapture that old whimsy, when internet was more of a luxury rather than a daily commodity that fades into the background.

I’ve been replaying gta iv (again) to prep for vice city nextgen edition, been having a ton of fun reminiscing on old times hehehe.

 

[Aldia Aldia]

Anyone remember Shrines? Websites dedicated to old games that hosted every detail they could harvest of a single title? Bonus points if the game never got a proper release so all you had was a fan translation in mid project that still had updates.

I feel like those got replaced by fan wikis.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I recently got into toy-collecting as a hobby thanks to @Jayonnaise6105 exposing me to Onegai My Melody, a show so whimsical it made me wanna start collecting merch and decorate my room.

Jayo's good at that XD The only reason I didn't was because I'm broke as fuck XD

Awesome collection, Yu!

 

[Naltic]

I get it.

Not sure if this is the most appropriate example, but whatever: there used to be an Invader Zim fan forum that was kinda, sorta able to sustain itself because it had found many fans of those 27 TV episodes, and that userbase lasted a surprisingly long time (and I'm talking years)... But then, the comic and the movie released and everybody flocked to a centralized sites (like the WIKIA) instead of injecting them with new life. It's kind of BS.

Two of my personal, life-long projects suffered from the same: one got a BBC series after literally decades of stagnation, the other one got a videogame -- neither moved our numbers.

I mean, yeah, I get you. Every time something gets "revived", I am very hesitant to be optimistic about it, because more often than not, it either falls flat on its face or makes the community worse. Sadly, this is what happens, but I mean, what can one do? It's all about just living with it, I guess.

I can't really give a perfect example of this. Still, the only examples I can give are anime and or games in general, before (and I mean like a decade or so ago) if you said you liked gaming or anime you would have been seen as the nerd and or the weird guy in the group or school or what have you, but now it's the opposite, if you aren't/haven't seen anime then you are the weird one because almost everyone has at some point watched it or is watching it (talking more new gen youth here rather than old gen).

Post automatically merged: Apr 11, 2026

Of course, the natural course of action in 2026 is to use Amazon/eBay, right? So to protest, I got everything entirely offline.

Ironically, buying things online now is way more expensive, what with shipping and whatnot. Genuinely not worth it unless you want a specific niche thing that you can't get otherwise. It's just worth more to, y'know, go outside and explore? Things becoming digital is nice and all, but there has to be a balance, I feel, because the outside is as good as the inside, if not better by some accounts.

 

[Cerberus9]

I missed when performative outrage wasn't constantly rewarded.

 

[elbanano]

I miss when forums were everywhere and every place had a forum. Nowadays, more places have Discord instead, which I'm just not a fan of. I don't really like the chat format, I feel overwhelmed by it and always feel like I'm interrupting if I want to post in it.

Thankfully, there still do exist forums like this one here.

omg, same, i just got into forums like 2 years ago (back then i didn't speak english and wasnt familiar with the term), in a forum i feel like i can reply to someone who commented like 2 weeks ago and nobody finds it weird, while in discord i feel like i can't interrupt the conversation nor revive a dead channel

Also, discord servers die way too quickly and those who don't die they have an already stablished "friend group" so it feels weird to "invade" their discord, does that make sense?

Edit: Actually, i believe i got into forums back in 2021, but it was from a single site and only used it to make questions to the mods about how to use the site, from there i got into others and finally found this one

 

[Guinea]

The first forum I ever remember joining was called gametalk.com, oddly enough. I was a kid and talked about Sonic Adventure 2 all day. I remember writing fanfiction on there too.

 

[ThirdEidolon]

I miss when forums were everywhere and every place had a forum. Nowadays, more places have Discord instead, which I'm just not a fan of. I don't really like the chat format, I feel overwhelmed by it and always feel like I'm interrupting if I want to post in it.

Thankfully, there still do exist forums like this one here.

discord was a successful attempt to centralize everything and keep an eye on the "subversive" gamers.

Post automatically merged: Apr 15, 2026

people not getting offended at virtually everything and making it everyone else's problems, because they have no actual personality.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I "lived under a rock" so to speak as I didn't have regular access to the internet until around 2018. I don't think there's anything drastically different for me to miss from back then.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

I don't miss anything about the old times but i do miss when Jayonaisse lived under a rock

 

[ZEGA ZONICZEGA ZONIC's icon]

I don't miss anything about the old times but i do miss when Jayonaisse lived under a rock

 

[ThirdEidolon]

I "lived under a rock" so to speak as I didn't have regular access to the internet until around 2018. I don't think there's anything drastically different for me to miss from back then.

there is. we had a lot more freedom what we could say and do. people didn't just disappear for badmouthing foreign governments and piracy was far easier. information wasnt controlled

 

[Appiplyer]

I already answered this thread but that answer is two years old… so FUCK IT, I’ll update my answer.

Without jumping the gun by ignoring things like slow downloads (not fun) or expensive data consuming sites (even more unfun), and in an attempt to avoid the elephant in the room that is the modern YouTube landscape….

I would say that I kinda miss when the internet used to be part of the “full package”, so to speak. Where it supplemented your offline life, and not completely take over it.

I recently got into toy-collecting as a hobby thanks to @Jayonnaise6105 exposing me to Onegai My Melody, a show so whimsical it made me wanna start collecting merch and decorate my room.

Of course, the natural course of action in 2026 is to use Amazon/eBay, right? So to protest, I got everything entirely offline. Here’s a few highlights of my collection.

Some plushies.
View attachment 173278
A few amiibos, including a Kazuya amiibo I’m very proud of.
View attachment 173281
He is the cutest character, after all.
View attachment 173286
This silly looking buroto uno I got as a happy meal toy.
View attachment 173285
Dark magician girl figgyz I found by chance
View attachment 173283
And a ton of other stuff from other toy stores nearby.
View attachment 173284

I have a monthly browsing routine/rotation I do at least once or twice every 1-2 months.
I miss out on stuff occasionally but it is what it is.
The feeling of whimsy and joy from getting it first hand is unmatched.

So to summarize, I still make an active effort to interact with my offline life.
I want things to be a marriage of the two.

This is the reason I’m such a huge fan of Internet cafes in gta iv.

They help recapture that old whimsy, when internet was more of a luxury rather than a daily commodity that fades into the background.

I’ve been replaying gta iv (again) to prep for vice city nextgen edition, been having a ton of fun reminiscing on old times hehehe.

FR offline shopping are the best.

I always search for light novel locally and if they didn't publish it at my country then i might buy it online (if i'm desperately wanted to read it).

You know even the journey itself has a certain romance in it. (Except if i got stuck in a traffic and somehow people keep honking at me)

As for the old internet i do love it when i open a forum just to see some random creepypasta, internet bullshit or heck a guide or a lifehack in there. Even tho i never participate in anyway whatsoever just a reader lol.

 

[Sfjeov]

I missed the flash games that got wiped out by adobe. Yea you can emulate them now but no sense of discovery though.

 

[Sinsic30]

dail up modem sound - dreamcast - friends

 

[SeventhSon]

I missed the flash games that got wiped out by adobe. Yea you can emulate them now but no sense of discovery though.

https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/218789

 

[Princess Viola]

I miss when the Internet wasn't completely sanitized, corporatized, and homogenized into a handful of big sites for the vast majority of people

I actually legitimately wonder who intended audience for the modern Internet even is cause apparently all the adverts online nowadays are often for things like gambling or adult stuff (I use uBlock so I never see this shit) so that clearly can't be for kids. But then on the other side, on basically all of these big sites - if you try to talk about anything 'adult'? Post removed, post hidden from the algorithm, account suspended, account banned, etc. So clearly it's not for adults either.

I've been using the Internet since I was 5 years old I've been seriously 'engaged' with it since I was like 9-10 years old.

It's not fun anymore and it hasn't been fun since the early 2010s and I don't think it ever can become fully fun again.