Amazing. I was an introverted kid who grew up on the countryside with not a whole lot in common with my peers. I played football because that’s what my “friends” did. I was OK at it, but I never really felt any enthusiasm for it. I only did it because I didn’t know of any alternatives.
I got my first PC in 1996. It was an outdated 386, but it allowed me to really get into the low level stuff an learn about it beyond the usual gaming aspect, and for that I am grateful.
In 1998 I got an up to date PC, and internet access. It was like a whole new world opened before me. Finding like-minded ones were easy. I was 15 at a time, and I still wasn’t allowed to stay online late, so I went to bed and pretended to sleep until my parents went to bed, so that I could get up and dial up undisturbed. I live in UTC+1, so this worked well, as most of the people I knew online was in the US. When everyone around me went to bed, my world was just beginning after a full day of pretending to fit in.
Come 2001 and things were more or less the same, except that I had moved to a rather big city for studies. I got ADSL for the first time, and no longer had to pay for each online minute via dialup. I started experimenting with running servers and services, in addition to poking and prodding the internet to see what was out there and available (you have no idea how insecure everything was back then).
It didn’t take me long to have access to various servers all over, legal or otherwise, so I could pretty much do as I pleased online, as it couldn’t be linked to me personally. I never used this access for anything disruptive or distructive. I was more like the tapeworm you never knew was there. I mostly did it to learn more about how everything fit together.
I had a presence in almost all noteworthy internet communities, and while I wasn’t “famous” on the internet, i knew A LOT of people, as most of my life was online. Sure, I met like-minded people in the city, but nowhere close to how many people I knew inline.
I miss the days before corporate interest ruined the sense of community one had in these small niche corners of the internet.
Thank you so much for sharing this, wow!! You must have so many great stories from that time, the fact that internet communities were small yet distinct enough to remain separate from our real world identity is (sadly) fascinating to me.
Amazing. I was an introverted kid who grew up on the countryside with not a whole lot in common with my peers. I played football because that’s what my “friends” did. I was OK at it, but I never really felt any enthusiasm for it. I only did it because I didn’t know of any alternatives.
I got my first PC in 1996. It was an outdated 386, but it allowed me to really get into the low level stuff an learn about it beyond the usual gaming aspect, and for that I am grateful.
In 1998 I got an up to date PC, and internet access. It was like a whole new world opened before me. Finding like-minded ones were easy. I was 15 at a time, and I still wasn’t allowed to stay online late, so I went to bed and pretended to sleep until my parents went to bed, so that I could get up and dial up undisturbed. I live in UTC+1, so this worked well, as most of the people I knew online was in the US. When everyone around me went to bed, my world was just beginning after a full day of pretending to fit in.
Come 2001 and things were more or less the same, except that I had moved to a rather big city for studies. I got ADSL for the first time, and no longer had to pay for each online minute via dialup. I started experimenting with running servers and services, in addition to poking and prodding the internet to see what was out there and available (you have no idea how insecure everything was back then).
It didn’t take me long to have access to various servers all over, legal or otherwise, so I could pretty much do as I pleased online, as it couldn’t be linked to me personally. I never used this access for anything disruptive or distructive. I was more like the tapeworm you never knew was there. I mostly did it to learn more about how everything fit together.
I had a presence in almost all noteworthy internet communities, and while I wasn’t “famous” on the internet, i knew A LOT of people, as most of my life was online. Sure, I met like-minded people in the city, but nowhere close to how many people I knew inline.
I miss the days before corporate interest ruined the sense of community one had in these small niche corners of the internet.
Thank you so much for sharing this, wow!! You must have so many great stories from that time, the fact that internet communities were small yet distinct enough to remain separate from our real world identity is (sadly) fascinating to me.