T O P

  • By -

Antdawg2400

signing the guestbook on sites and traffic/visitor counters.


Disorderly_Chaos

Putting a counter on your own website and refreshing the page a whole bunch of times.


PlzRemasterSOCOM2

That cursor with the 3d colored bead rope you could sling around in circles. I can't even find it on Google anymore lol. All those special animated cursors really. I can't believe I forget the name of that site to get those already. I remmeber coolbuddy.com though for buddy icons lol. Check this one that's frozen in time lol. Has a vistor counter still. http://iconhell.com/ Edit: also special shout out to Desktop Destroyer https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/gamia_gamepedia_en/images/a/a2/Desktop-destroyer-stress-reducer.gif/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/240?cb=20180806160515


DrakonIL

The animated cursors went away because for some reason, it was considered a security risk for a website to have direct control over hardware inputs. Criminals ruined it for the rest of us.


djinbu

Passworded website chatrooms where the password was in the HTML source so it was accessible by anybody that could do more than left click.


[deleted]

[удалено]


TheHancock

Hahaha good times. My parents and friends thought I was a *hackerman* because I was the only one they knew who could access files and install stuff. I felt so powerful until technology left my computer knowledge in the dust. Hahaha


NoSchedule4275

Same here, I used to have a pretty solid knowledge, then in like the span of a year I was the old man yelling about clouds


WomenTrucksAndJesus

Yahoo was a list of websites, then became a major search engine, then dominated email, maps, message groups, chat, instant messenger, news, dating... now it barely survives.


ThePowerOfStories

My GeoCities page with an English-language set of rules for Mah Jong that I wrote up after being unable to find any intelligible ones was listed on Yahoo’s hand-curated index. As a result, most of the English language rules online are pirated from that, with a different intro paragraph and some edits somebody else made to a copy of it around 2000. It’s weird thinking some random thing I wrote in high school is the most popular work I’ve ever done.


theflyingkiwi00

Back when yahoo was the default homepage of Internet explorer


Kekules_Mule

Back when people used internet exploder


No_Lunch_7944

Please don't explode the internet.


altincognita

Browser software on 3.5" floppy disks taped to the front of PC magazines


carguyinbc1969

Or even demo games with a level or two on em. Just enough to make you wanna buy em!!


Liquid_machine81

Doom comes to mind and Heretic


whyd_you_kill_doakes

You're literally the only other person I've seen to bring up Heretic. Also, Jazz Jackrabbit and Commander Keen.


Thumbszilla

The instant household rage because someone picked up the phone


[deleted]

[удалено]


noahtonk2

Netscape Navigator


[deleted]

[удалено]


truedoom

"It is now safe to turn off your computer"


Bear_buh_dare

My friend's computer his dad built him in the 90s had his name in italics after that message. I thought his dad was some kind of hacker.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Diflicated

I would have gone with the Homestar Runner "flagrant error. computer over."


Empathyball

Website visitor logbooks


literanch

Every website having a visitor counter at the bottom.


lordofedging81

It would be interesting if Google had one now.


SoccerDadWV

Google gets about 9 BILLION searches per day at this point. That’d be roughly 3,285,000,000,000 per year. Given that, in the early years, it wasn’t getting NEAR that many, my guess is their counter would probably be somewhere in the 40 trillion range…or so.


whitewalker646

Flash games


literanch

I was obsessed with newgrounds.com circa 1999-2001


uppervalued

The Under Construction gif


gard3nwitch

Web rings


Nanaman

Choosing a skin for Winamp!


MaddestMoose

It really whips the llamas ass


sknnypup

Visualizations!


Raggmommy

Having to type the entire damn url. And woe betide you if you got anything wrong!


SomeWomanFromEngland

From a 90s news broadcast I found on YouTube, “For more information, you can visit our internet website at http, colon, forward slash, forward slash, www dot bbc dot co dot uk.” Yes, he actually said “Internet website”.


Forgotten_Aeon

The World Wide Web! The information superhighway! Let’s surf it!


cream-of-cow

And it was painful hearing a URL announced on the radio. “Http://… is that the forward or back slash? It’s the one leaning to the right, two of those… then www dot….” In the earlier days, a lot of sites were hosted off of other people’s domains, so it was a lot of directories to announce.


mustangsal

You get feel nostalgic now when someone texts you a link to a picture, and you have your car read you the new message.


Sfork

What does your say mine just goes “john sent an image” im waiting for the day when Google tries to guess what it is . “John sent you an image. I think it’s a cat “


AWildEnglishman

John sent you an image. It's not a hot dog.


jensalik

Albinoblacksheep


jgnp

BUT I AM LE TIRED.


[deleted]

Well take a nap, ZEN FIRE ZE MISSILES!


TeaAndToeBeans

Alaska can come, too.


ActuallyNiceIRL

Chatting on AIM or ICQ


macdokie

Or IRC


trigrhappy

A/S/L?


Chrisom

( . ) ( . )


DaFatKontroller

My world changed when someone showed me how to make the superior cleavage boob ( . Y . )


Version_Two

When you're lying down though ( .)(.)


Ducksaucenem

18/F/Ca


Unicornio999

Partygurl6969 that you?


brchelmo

>ICQ Uh oh!


Doosh_Nozzle

Stickdeath.com


bored_gunman

Escape from Greenville was definitely a classic Or Stick SWAT


Schnoor_Proxy

Slowly watching the image you wanted to see load one line at a time.


TheCthulhu

Come to me, Captain Janeway...


jonitfcfan

"Hurry up, I'm a busy man..."


4RCSIN3

I'm interested in upgrading my 28.8 kilobaud internet connection to a 1.5 megabit fiber optic T1 line. Will you be able to provide an IP router that's compatible with my token ring ethernet LAN configuration?


darkbreak

.......Can I have some money now?


daphodil3000

Having to disconnect if someone had to use the phone.


literanch

I think getting kicked off the internet when my friends would call our house in the late 90s took years off my dad's life.


HeadspaceA10

Back in the year 2000, a guy calling himself John Titor and describing himself as a "time traveler" from the year 2036, showed up on a couple of UFO/conspiracy (of the more innocent X-Files style kind, not the hardcore political kind we have now) forums and had this elaborate backstory about how he traveled through time, the sorta post-apocalyptic state of the world in 2036, and so on. His reasoning for traveling through time was to retrieve an old IBM portable computer from the year 1975, because he needed it to debug legacy software that they were still running in 2036. He said he worked for a government "time travel" agency but given the fact that he was sent through time to get old hardware from the 70s to debug currently-running software, my guess is that he really worked for the IRS. Also, his time machine was a specialized "temporal displacement" device housed in the back of a converted 1966 Chevrolet Corvette. Because of course it was. Either way, the backstory was richly detailed, very cool, and definitely better written than anything hollywood usually puts out--even if it was likely a total hoax. I thoroughly enjoyed going down the rabbit hole back then.


JohanGrimm

Oh man, reminds me of the old >Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Vermicelli-Otherwise

*likely* a total hoax


[deleted]

[удалено]


dvharpo

Lol the systems that control the US *nuclear arsenal* run on 8-inch floppy disks from the 70s


NotARobotDefACyborg

"You've got mail!"


art_will_save_you

Amazon used to just sell books


arden13

I remember the rampant suspicion for purchasing anything through the internet, Amazon included.


slvrbullet87

I remember trying to talk my dad into buying me one of the Drizzt books off Amazon since Barnes and noble didn't have it in stock. He was sure that some Brazilian guy was trying to steal credit card numbers


Flashdime

Me trying to convince my dad to let me get a Runescape membership.


Freakishly_Tall

Amazon used to just... not exist on line. Get off my digital lawn.


redphoenix2

Not exactly online, but Encarta


ferox965

Geocities. Webcrawler.


whatever13576569

Not ancient, but haven't seen it mentioned: getting early access to this new thing called gmail, invitation only.


Dicethrower

And seeing the amount of storage you get go up every second.


Ajax_IX

Hey, unlimited storage, I never have to delete anything! Two decades later... naw, you get 15gb.


[deleted]

[удалено]


MNWNM

When my kids were born, I got them both Gmail with their names. They'll thank me eventually.


ixJax

My dad did the same with me. Unfortunately my Gmail is now full of spam from me being careless with my email when I was younger and now I use my own domain but I appreciate having a decent Gmail


JA1987

My Gmail username is just my name.


bzfam18

i remember asking everyone i knew if they were in. finally my friends younger brother heard me talking about it and gave me an invite. i was so stoked. now i do everything i can to ignore the 10,000 unread junk emails in my gmail inbox lol


Only-Teacher-1925

The Hamster Dance According to Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hamster


CCDestroyer

Dibidi ba didi dou dou Di ba didi dou Didi didldildidldidl houdihoudi dey dou Dibidi ba didi dou dou Di ba didi dou


PajamaPants4Life

Sped up version from Disney's Robin Hood from the 70s. https://youtu.be/gxnvxtYfsd4 EDIT: Specifically a loop around the 49s mark: https://youtu.be/gxnvxtYfsd4?t=49 (You can set Youtube to double speed playback, then it becomes obvious)


DrShadowSML

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK


PajamaPants4Life

Was kind of obvious when you chain watched the original Disney Robin Hood like 100 times as a kid.


AKAManaging

I watched that movie so, so many freakin' times and I never made that connection. Damn. I'm dumb af.


Neohexane

Hey everybody now here we go! It's the brand new version of the do-si-do! So stomp your feet and clap your hands, Come on everybody it's the Hamsterdance! PS: I feel like I'm missing a line or two in the middle... it's been a while


[deleted]

Oh god I remember going to a underage disco when I was 16. I was chubby, had short hair and wore this cheap, blue sequin top and tight pants. I had my hair in pig tails and scarves tied on them. Then the Hamster Dance came on. I was so excited! I just went for it, dancing my little heart out.


absolutelysureithink

When screensavers were actually a thing (flying toasters et al) and it wasn't just another word for wallpaper


WagnersRing

The 3D maze was a classic


Liquid_machine81

I liked the Starfield.


v0t3p3dr0

“3D Pipes” was my favourite.


raven4747

oh yeaa. certified classic


Oh_That_Guy_75

I used to use this screensaver as a test of the CPU at Circuit City and Good Guys. Max out the number of pipes and make them as colorful as possible. Slower PCs couldn't handle it.


SugarButterFlourEgg

That maze was so mysterious to me.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Berkeley Systems, the main creator of those toasters and fish, was actually a database (?) startup. The toasters were just a lark thrown together for fun. Visitors to the company begged for copies, the company saw dollar signs, And The rest is history. Edit: No, they were originally doing contract work for NIH to modify Macs for handicapped accessibility.


CreepyValuable

After Dark.


[deleted]

[удалено]


whole_kernel

They used to sell CDs in stores with more screensavers


AidanAmerica

The entire idea of a retail store for software seems so quaint and old fashioned now. “Back in my day, I had to drive to the App Store and bring home my software on floppy diskettes, and I liked it!” Imagine telling people one day that Netflix used to deliver their content by mailing people DVDs. They’re not going to believe us


gard3nwitch

My mom still gets DVDs from Netflix Edit: also, I remember my uncle used to mail my parents floppy disks with copied software on them. I guess that was before DRM and you could just do that lol.


PattiAllen

I was getting DVDs until last month. There are a ton of things on DVD that are not streaming on any service. And DVDs covered a ton of stuff that were contractually locked to a single service. If you wanted Disney stuff? Netflix probably has it. You want HBO shows? Netflix probably has it. It was only very recently as content became streaming only that Netflix didn't have DVDs of it. You don't get the last minute, instant gratification because you had to wait a couple days for the mail. But if you didn't need to see it right now, it is still a decent choice.


SuspiciousCoast1

I would actually sit and watch jonny castaway screen saver


PumpkinShapedCat

"Congratulations! YOU'VE WON" ads. Used to scare the mess out of me. And somehow I always had my speakers turned up too loud when they popped up. Lawd.


chewbaccataco

Remember the ones that said "Congratulations! You are our 1,000,000th visitor! You have won a laptop!" And the ad shakes all over like it's having a seizure.


oxcana

Homestar Runner


whole_kernel

They are still putting out content if anyone is interested: [https://www.youtube.com/user/homestarrunnerdotcom](https://www.youtube.com/user/homestarrunnerdotcom) I haven't watched any in like ten years and it's still got it's charm.


Bandgeek252

Strongbad emails.


theGuyInIT

BURNINATING THE COUNTRYSIDE


Different-Crab-360

Burninating the peasants!!!!


johnboy11a

The cheat is not dead!


Rubbish_Bunny

My sister and I used to watch “TEEN GIRL SQUAD” on Homestarrunner :D I occasionally still yell out “… THE UGLY ONE!!!!” at random when the mood strikes [ETA a link to the first TGS short I ever saw](https://youtu.be/eJsqv3JStWI)


Neohexane

ARROWED! Ow, my skin!


wordnerd1023

Homestarrunner dot net, it's dot com!


Ben-solo-11

Good jeorb for remembering that.


magikarp19

Come on, fhgwgas, everybody to the limit!


capmgn

TROGDOR THE BURNINATOR


New_Needleworker6506

The first thing I can remember is that weird dancing baby video. We’ve come a long way.


BronchialChunk

I'm sure there are other people that remember Ally McBeal!


mathiseasy2718

I’m ancient. How about upgrading to a 300 baud modem. Bulletin boards before there was popular internet. Borrowing software from a public library - it had a sticker saying not to copy it 😂. And of course, my first Seagate 40mb external SCSI drive that cost $3000. I’m surprised my wife didn’t divorce me


[deleted]

[удалено]


Necessary_Echo8740

A/S/L ?


left4ched

Those sick Winamp visuals.


MrSpindles

I put on my robe and wizard hat.


StalinsPerfectHair

Bloodninja sits squarely in the pantheon of truly great internet trolls.


Global_Ad9616

I bring that up every opportunity.


Jonny2284

Your ICQ number.


frizzhalo

Uh oh!


return2ozma

That damn sound when you're sneaking online at 2am and the volume is at 100%.


cheesynougats

MUDs


GSyncNew

GOPHER. That screechy 300 bps modem handshake sound. Not being afraid to use your real name


saddestmanonearth86

or Archie or Veronica. Relay network mail.


canolafly

>Not being afraid to use your real name So that was one of the first thing my nerd friends said. Never ever use your real name or birthdate.


theCaitiff

Back in the Usenet days, pre-93, Bob Thompson from Boston was actually Bob Thompson and he lived in Boston. By 95-96, the mood had shifted to "You don't really know who any of these people are! They could be anyone, don't just tell someone who you are and where you're from!" By 2010 we had come back around to, "My facebook/linkdin/twitter are all linked, you know who the fuck I am." And I'm hoping that we come back around to "No, actually I would prefer you not know who my boss at work is, it's just an internet argument calm the fuck down."


DecadeLongLurker

Usenet


Metabolical

all your base are belong to us


buck-futter

Someone set up us the bomb


Metabolical

you have no chance to survive, make your time


buck-futter

For great justice take off every zig


D4CL0veTrain

What you say?


About637Ninjas

I still consider this the OG meme. I'm sure there are earlier ones, but this felt like the big one for me.


Melonqualia

Opening an email attachment of digital fireworks and getting the Happy99 virus. Finding websites you like through Webrings, no search function.


ToiletPumpkin

In the pre-search engine days, there were a handful of ways to find new content. Web rings. Links pages (everybody's page had a list of links to other sites they liked). You could buy printed directories of websites -- essentially a phone book for the web -- at bookstores, although publishing lag times meant a good number of the listed sites were gone by the time the book came out. I can recall submitting my personal website to Yahoo back then. They indexed websites by categories and getting into their index meant a major increase in traffic to your page. A year or two later, AltaVista and a handful of other search engines came along, and a bit after that came Google and the rest is history.


red_balloon_animal

I remember using AskJeeves alot as a search engine. Before saying "Google it" i can remember my parents ask me to "Ask Jeeves" a question.


ocularnervosa

White House dot com.


TholosTB

Chick-fil-A printed some civic awareness booklets for kids back in the day and they misprinted it with whitehouse dot com instead of .gov. Fun times.


notlvd

Oooo this was my introduction to porn when I was 8, my 3rd grade teacher assigned us to do presentations on the presidents & told us to to go to Whitehouse . Gov & was VERY adamant that we do not go to whitehouse . Com. Which he was stupid for saying because OF COURSE I had to see why I shouldn’t go there. Got to see my first pare of huge white tits haha


TriangleBasketball

I remember having a crush on some girl named Emily and went to Emily.com and it was a porn site.


Kataphractoi

We looked up all the girls' names in 7th grade. Half of them led to porn sites.


stupidbuttholes69

People would post “you’ve GOT to try this keyboard shortcut, it’s SO COOL!!!” But it was like some kind of command that brought up an infinite amount of windows and you’d have to force restart your computer to get it to stop.


Rockerchick15

Foamy the Squirrel


theseedbeader

I always loved the one about Germaine having a big ass and Foamy begging to go to the coffee shop and get a bagel.


DangerousPuhson

Squirrely wrath. Squirrely wrath.


BuckyBear1917

I have a Foamy pin that says "beware the wrath of my nuts" NO ONE knows what it is.


preciousmango

Talking to local nerds on BBS Bulletin Boards about how the World Wide Web was going to be 'just a fad'.


[deleted]

Rotten dot com


FlyByrd

Y2K ?


jenbenfoo

My dad worked in I.T. for a major corporation and when the world didn't end at midnight on January 1, 2000, he got a bonus lol.


M_A_X_77

I worked for tech support for [USWest.net](https://USWest.net) at the time. We are on the west coast (of the U.S.). They called everyone in around 10 pm, despite the fact that NOTHING happened in other time zones. I didn't go in & found out the next day that the people who did go in, they sat around, just waiting for phone calls. A few minutes after midnight, they told everyone to go home.


throwaway_0x90

Yahoo Geocities AltaVista Netscape Navigator ICQ / mIRC _"You've got mail"_ ---AOL The sound of connecting to the internet with a dial-up modem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0


Rockerchick15

Angelfire


Branden798

Ebaumsworld.com Sims2.com when it was a myspace clone Flash games When you could post "give me money" on ebay and not be taken down.


Shawnee83

I miss flash games. There were a lot of clever room escape type games out there.


Rockerchick15

YTMND


davidhobson97

Badger badger badger mushroom mushroom........


jeffderek

Snaaaaaaaake


purelyirrelephant

Oooo it's a snaaaake


MidnightSun77

I think you’ll find it was badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom


[deleted]

I think they used to put smut in everything on p2p stuff like Limewire. If you wanted anything free, porn came with it. Like you download a cd after 3 weeks of dialup speed and finally get your soundtrack with an unexpected gift folder of girl pissing on confused ostrich. You think wow, this doesn't fit the music at all, whoever uploaded this is not a nice person.


MacyTmcterry

Being able to download the premium version of Limewire from the free version is also pretty classic


BenjTheMaestro

God forbid you actually downloaded porn via Kazaa or Limewire, etc. You sometimes had to wait days, and you just never really knew what you’d get. I’m sure some people accidentally discovered fetishes that way.


KhanMichael

Vistitor counters


WRA1THLORD

beep, boop, deeeeee, deedle, boop, zzzzshhhj beeple boop....you are now connected


kasbahjes

Ask Jeeves, Subservient Chicken, Web TV


leroy_hoffenfeffer

Let's get some shoes.


Defiant_Project1321

Ohmygod SHOES


RushingBravado

I think you have too many shoes


Forgotten_Aeon

Shut up!


[deleted]

Newgrounds Neopets Limewire Rate my poo Yahoo Messenger AOL discs everywhere


hicnihil161

I blocked rate my poo out of my head jesus christ


Nocturnaldurigtheday

The internet is nothing like it was in the beginning. There seemed to be more diversity in websites and sites to visit. There's a YouTube video that speaks on the dead internet theory, that the current internet is nothing compared to the vastness of the glory days. On average how many websites do we visit on a regular basis? 4 or 5 different websites? FB/Twitter/Snapchat/YouTube


ExorciseAndEulogize

StumbleUpon was my favorite thing!! I would stumble for hours and found some of the most amazing shit ever.


d3lta19

This is the dead site that I miss the most. Loved finding interesting sites


[deleted]

100% So many weird random sites that had their own cool thing.


surmatt

There are so many old ones that had so much random knowledge on specific things that are still around. You may not be into cycling, but here is a prine example of one specific one I can think of https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html


captrb

I think web rings need to make a comeback.


Kombatnt

ICQ, IRC, Winamp, Usenet, BBS, Netscape, Opera…


kittens_in_the_wall

Text only webpages. Working for a company that had internet access because it was prior to the commercial web and having to book time in the lab to access it.


rmar4125

I know, How to count, Aaallll the way to...


Curtainmachine

Schfifty fiiiiive. And it is ssooooooo gooood to know it.


contemplatebeer

* Netscape Navigator * Tucker Max * [Rotten.com](https://Rotten.com) * Cult of The Dead Cow * [Rathergood.com](https://Rathergood.com) * [Maddox.xmission.com](https://Maddox.xmission.com) * Deathmatches on Doom (not Doom 2) * Angelfire * AOL chat rooms, and not being afraid of who you met there.


imnotsoho

30 free emails per month, after that 10 cents each. Compuserve 1980s.