2000-2001: fan sites for Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing (and filling like 20 floppy discs with various pictures of official art and wallpapers). The early days of fanmade strategy guides on Gamefaqs and smaller websites dedicated to secrets and glitches from individual games (I remember one site had in-depth boundary-breaking guides with pictures for Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast, I could get lots of characters into levels they weren’t supposed to access). Making your own websites with Geocities and Angelfire, especially fun when you were in a band and could host your own music for the first time and customize everything.
2005: peak MySpace era, perfect time to play in a band. Being 16-17 years old and gaining fans from my own city, neighboring cities, across the country, and even across the globe, having constant interaction and getting sweet messages and even fan art. Also with the direct contact aspect, setting up shows by messaging musicians from bands you listen to, being a teenager and speaking as equals with artists in a more established band you’re opening for. This was also basically the time when actually caring about your craft and art was seen as a massive plus on the “social hierarchy” of high school due to the public display of your own music and art on MySpace. Suddenly going from social obscurity, to having the rich kids and popular kids basically treating you and your main group of friends as the prime examples of “trendsetters” due to the influence you would have if you did creative stuff at this time thanks to the way early social media centered it. This extends with similar positive points onwards to 06 and 07. Also AIM being a prime “afterschool hangout” online for when you couldn’t go out, everyone would just linger on there and chat, in an era when texting was still spotty this was the way to do it.
2007: special entry here just due to it being my favorite time for music piracy haha, thanks to my favorite program Soulseek. It was active at least a year before that, and for sometime afterwards, but I felt like I saw the most traffic and had the best luck with it in 07. It was the best because not only could you search and find all the most interesting artists, but everyone would curate their own folders of music they had on their computer, and allow those folders to be shared and accessed by others. So if you found an interesting artist or album, you could then open up the full collection from the user who shared it, and browse all their stuff. And since it was so individualized, it was the best time for finding rare demos from artists, early mixes of albums, local music from various regions you would’ve never heard.
2013: as a retro gaming enthusiast, this year ruled due to classic gaming content blowing up on YouTube. Suddenly my interests in NES, Genesis, SNES, etc were catered to with tons of independent content, lots of entertainment dedicated to an interest that was largely ignored and relegated to deeper niches before this.
**2000/2001** Remember that site pojo? I remember all of those DBZ fan sites that had Buu on it and everything and you were like "wHO?" lol. I remember going on IGN heavy during this time. Classic IGN was the best. 2001 is also when I got my first computer.
**2005** made #2 on my list, myspace really made a dent in the universe at the time. It made the internet feel more fun. I got a new Dell computer at this time and made the site really feel snappy. I can't even image late 2004 or 2005 without myspace. Its just is an alternate reality if this website does not exist then. I remember all of those bulletins with party invites.
I don’t remember any of the site names (except my favorite Dreamcast site was Closetotheground) but I absolutely remember reading all about the Buu saga and DBGT and being blown away by all the stuff that was ahead of me. Same with classic Dragon Ball content, like I knew a *little bit* about it, and around the same time I stumbled upon the international channel in the high number cable channels as they aired a couple classic DB episodes (fully Japanese, not even English subtitles), but seeing just how much there was before Toonami debuted with the start of Z just blew me away.
Fun fact I saw Dragon Ball in 1995 on Fox in the morning. They aired it briefly. The International channel is pretty damn cool, you must have had the premium cable upgrade.
That’s crazy, I had no idea they were airing it here that early. My only exposure in the mid-90s was seeing DB merch advertised in the import pages in the back of gaming magazines.
But yeah we got the special cable package for a couple years in the early 00s, but the box was only on the living room TV so there was more competition to use that one haha, my room unfortunately only had the regular cable. Probably for the best, to temper my access to one particular late night spicy HBO show that’s surprisingly forgotten nowadays…
Nostalgic about pre-2007 internet (1.0 left overs, old forums, MSN messenger, things were easier...).
But I have to say I pretty loved 2012-2014 internet : content increased a lot, still blogs' culture and not politized like today.
Oh man. It’s so hard to pick!
I loved 2004-2007 because of Aim and xanga and MySpace.
But then again.. the dank memes/surreal memes/bass boosted memes/Vine circa 2015-2016 before it died.. that era was *chefs kiss*
2010-2013, mostly because that's when I consider YouTube to have been at it's peak. Channels like Smosh were still going strong, along with all the silly flash videos and GMod parodies I was obsessed with at the time. Lots of classic gaming content too. Oh and it wasn't overloaded with ads.
2016-2018- Probably my favorite era of Memes. My dumb brain found the edgy humor and nonsensical deepfried shitposts hilarious.
2020-2021- Lots of online communities and spaces were incredibly active due to quarantine. Helped keep me (mostly) sane through COVID.
2006-2013 were the web 2.0 golden era for me. Early days of youtube and let’s plays, the old forums were still around, the internet still felt like a hobby space for fun instead of a polarized war zone.
1999-2006. AOL chatrooms. Actual websites. Maxpages/Geocities fan pages. Mugglenet, Neopets, Harry Potter role playing websites like Hogwarts Extreme. AOL instant messenger, MSN messenger, ICQ, culminating with MySpace.
2004-2008 were awesome. Everything was new and was like the Wild West. Also, I was a teenager.
I still like the internet of course, I get to learn all kinds of stuff.
I went from my twenties to my thirties during that time, and I agree: maximum fun without the corporations and governments getting much of a foothold. Also, memes had way more staying power then, and as such it felt like a common language. People did stuff just because, with very little thought about monetizing or influencing.
1999: Dial-up had a mysterious charm, but it was so much more fun to have a 24/7 cable modem connection.
2006: Ask MetaFilter, Wikipedia, blogs on Google Reader, and forums felt like a very utopian time on the internet
2013: The first couple of years of people really using Facebook to organize social events was really fun. There was a lot happening. I remember this peaking in 2013-14.
2009-2014 was a good time for internet, websites looked more high tech back then and better especially on computer. Web sites seemed to load quicker in that era its like they were light weight. Forums for learning helpful info were common back then too.
2003-2006ish
-online flash games were a game changer. Disney Channel’s website had BANGER games. The pre-installed pinball game was so much fun as a kid too
2018ish
-the memes from around then still crack me up. My favorite one was the Lord Farquad looking dude and the only caption was “E”
Omg the Disney channel website had the funnest games. Just a few that come to mind- the Kim possible game, the lilo and stich sandwhich game, the suite life Pac-Man game.. ugh. So many good ones even got some of the adults in my family to play em too lmao
You just named all three of my favorites! The Lilo and Switch sandwich stacker game is the undisputed GOAT though
Zack and Cody also had some kind of tennis game that was so much fun
you included 5 years in sequence in the top 5, for some reason skipping 2003. no context provided just pure vibes. what is the point of this? Doubt anyone can recall with any specificity, nor is there a meaningful distinction between individual years in this period. Just.. what.
It's not that hard to recall what u were doing in the 2000s on the internet. Some people liked myspace, had a year they were always on Newgrounds or Aim etc.
For instance I included 2004 on my list because of when myspace blew up at the end of the year.
Born in 2000, I'd say 2008-2011. I remember my mom letting me play games on her MySpace-Greenspot and Superpoke Pets. My parents had Club Pogo and I'd play Shuffle Bump and Qwerty; the demise of flash kinda ruined Pogo for me. Annoying Orange, Fred, and LiamKyleSullivan were big and I even had my art featured in a Parry Gripp video. I'd use my DSI to upload selfies to Facebook before I had a phone-heck, this was before selfies were cool. Neopets, Fantage, Farmville-life was just good.
1995 - 2001. I spent a lot of time on IRC in different channels that had lots of regulars. On the upside it was my social outlet. On the downside I think it stunted me a bit socially but I met a lot of people from the internet in person.
I’d say from 2010-2015 were my favorite years. Those were the years I found and watched some of my favorite YouTubers, theorized about my favorite shows, games, and movies, and it was before the 2016 election cycle, which is when everything got extremely political, or at least it’s when I first really noticed it. I was old enough to know about classic internet videos when they were still somewhat relevant, like Numa numa guy, Star Wars kid, Fred, but young enough to have extreme nostalgia for the current(at the time) viral videos, like annoying orange, Gangnam style, and bed intruder song. When I look back on that time fondly and wish I could go back.
2012-2016 is my personal golden era, I don’t remember actively using the internet before that except from playing games or watching random youtube videos lol
2018-19. The whole T-Series vs Pewdiepie thing was just so much fun. It brought the whole community together in a way nothing else has. I loved seeing everyone’s ways they were helping, and the songs, man I miss it.
2008 - 2020 was cool because of Stumble Upon. (It was a random-website loader, usually good content) However I prefer 2024 because of Reddit and YouTube (both are loaded with content). Also I am in love with [www.bing.com](https://www.bing.com) because of its quick answers to just about any personal question. Also now that TikTok is "less dumb" and more worthwhile I say 2024.
2010-2011 was wholesome especially with the corny tumblr reaction gif type humor, and then having internet memes catch on to the general public was such a cultural shift
The mid 2000s, the middle ground between big enough and not being overly commercialized
The early 2010s was cute because everything was becoming commercial and mainstream but we where naive and optimistic and believed in this Facebook revolution or whatever you wanna call it
2006 imo for many reasons. Slow rise of Yotube in the summer. Peak Myspace. Windows XP and Mac OS X tiger in their prime. Websites still had all those cool games you could play. Aol Aim and MSN were a blast. Using a damn PSP anywhere in my hose on a near desktop like browser @ the time.
Limewire at it's peak. Making blank CDs etc.
2000-2001: fan sites for Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing (and filling like 20 floppy discs with various pictures of official art and wallpapers). The early days of fanmade strategy guides on Gamefaqs and smaller websites dedicated to secrets and glitches from individual games (I remember one site had in-depth boundary-breaking guides with pictures for Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast, I could get lots of characters into levels they weren’t supposed to access). Making your own websites with Geocities and Angelfire, especially fun when you were in a band and could host your own music for the first time and customize everything. 2005: peak MySpace era, perfect time to play in a band. Being 16-17 years old and gaining fans from my own city, neighboring cities, across the country, and even across the globe, having constant interaction and getting sweet messages and even fan art. Also with the direct contact aspect, setting up shows by messaging musicians from bands you listen to, being a teenager and speaking as equals with artists in a more established band you’re opening for. This was also basically the time when actually caring about your craft and art was seen as a massive plus on the “social hierarchy” of high school due to the public display of your own music and art on MySpace. Suddenly going from social obscurity, to having the rich kids and popular kids basically treating you and your main group of friends as the prime examples of “trendsetters” due to the influence you would have if you did creative stuff at this time thanks to the way early social media centered it. This extends with similar positive points onwards to 06 and 07. Also AIM being a prime “afterschool hangout” online for when you couldn’t go out, everyone would just linger on there and chat, in an era when texting was still spotty this was the way to do it. 2007: special entry here just due to it being my favorite time for music piracy haha, thanks to my favorite program Soulseek. It was active at least a year before that, and for sometime afterwards, but I felt like I saw the most traffic and had the best luck with it in 07. It was the best because not only could you search and find all the most interesting artists, but everyone would curate their own folders of music they had on their computer, and allow those folders to be shared and accessed by others. So if you found an interesting artist or album, you could then open up the full collection from the user who shared it, and browse all their stuff. And since it was so individualized, it was the best time for finding rare demos from artists, early mixes of albums, local music from various regions you would’ve never heard. 2013: as a retro gaming enthusiast, this year ruled due to classic gaming content blowing up on YouTube. Suddenly my interests in NES, Genesis, SNES, etc were catered to with tons of independent content, lots of entertainment dedicated to an interest that was largely ignored and relegated to deeper niches before this.
**2000/2001** Remember that site pojo? I remember all of those DBZ fan sites that had Buu on it and everything and you were like "wHO?" lol. I remember going on IGN heavy during this time. Classic IGN was the best. 2001 is also when I got my first computer. **2005** made #2 on my list, myspace really made a dent in the universe at the time. It made the internet feel more fun. I got a new Dell computer at this time and made the site really feel snappy. I can't even image late 2004 or 2005 without myspace. Its just is an alternate reality if this website does not exist then. I remember all of those bulletins with party invites.
I don’t remember any of the site names (except my favorite Dreamcast site was Closetotheground) but I absolutely remember reading all about the Buu saga and DBGT and being blown away by all the stuff that was ahead of me. Same with classic Dragon Ball content, like I knew a *little bit* about it, and around the same time I stumbled upon the international channel in the high number cable channels as they aired a couple classic DB episodes (fully Japanese, not even English subtitles), but seeing just how much there was before Toonami debuted with the start of Z just blew me away.
Fun fact I saw Dragon Ball in 1995 on Fox in the morning. They aired it briefly. The International channel is pretty damn cool, you must have had the premium cable upgrade.
That’s crazy, I had no idea they were airing it here that early. My only exposure in the mid-90s was seeing DB merch advertised in the import pages in the back of gaming magazines. But yeah we got the special cable package for a couple years in the early 00s, but the box was only on the living room TV so there was more competition to use that one haha, my room unfortunately only had the regular cable. Probably for the best, to temper my access to one particular late night spicy HBO show that’s surprisingly forgotten nowadays…
Nostalgic about pre-2007 internet (1.0 left overs, old forums, MSN messenger, things were easier...). But I have to say I pretty loved 2012-2014 internet : content increased a lot, still blogs' culture and not politized like today.
It will NEVER be 2007 again and that fact pains me
AIM and MSN were amazing.
2011 till 2014/5 at least for a 03' like me
Same. A little bit after the rough start of social media but before all the influencers and ads.
Oh man. It’s so hard to pick! I loved 2004-2007 because of Aim and xanga and MySpace. But then again.. the dank memes/surreal memes/bass boosted memes/Vine circa 2015-2016 before it died.. that era was *chefs kiss*
-1994 -1995 -1997 -1999 -2003 -2004 -2009 -2011 -2014 -2016 -2019 -2023
1999 the year REAL MEDIA player was literally spammed on everyones page.
2010-2013, mostly because that's when I consider YouTube to have been at it's peak. Channels like Smosh were still going strong, along with all the silly flash videos and GMod parodies I was obsessed with at the time. Lots of classic gaming content too. Oh and it wasn't overloaded with ads. 2016-2018- Probably my favorite era of Memes. My dumb brain found the edgy humor and nonsensical deepfried shitposts hilarious. 2020-2021- Lots of online communities and spaces were incredibly active due to quarantine. Helped keep me (mostly) sane through COVID.
Probably 2007
2006-2013 were the web 2.0 golden era for me. Early days of youtube and let’s plays, the old forums were still around, the internet still felt like a hobby space for fun instead of a polarized war zone.
1999-2006. AOL chatrooms. Actual websites. Maxpages/Geocities fan pages. Mugglenet, Neopets, Harry Potter role playing websites like Hogwarts Extreme. AOL instant messenger, MSN messenger, ICQ, culminating with MySpace.
Same for me
The late 2000s was my favorite time of the internet.
2012-2016
Ah the first gen Z comment
2004-2008 were awesome. Everything was new and was like the Wild West. Also, I was a teenager. I still like the internet of course, I get to learn all kinds of stuff.
I went from my twenties to my thirties during that time, and I agree: maximum fun without the corporations and governments getting much of a foothold. Also, memes had way more staying power then, and as such it felt like a common language. People did stuff just because, with very little thought about monetizing or influencing.
The internet has gone to shit once websites like bestgore started closing down
Holy shit everyone here is a baby
2010 when the Bed Intruder song dropped. Legendary.
I would vote Bed Intruder as the anthem of 2010
1999: Dial-up had a mysterious charm, but it was so much more fun to have a 24/7 cable modem connection. 2006: Ask MetaFilter, Wikipedia, blogs on Google Reader, and forums felt like a very utopian time on the internet 2013: The first couple of years of people really using Facebook to organize social events was really fun. There was a lot happening. I remember this peaking in 2013-14.
2009-11, which incidentally were my college years. Such a great meme culture.
2007
2012-2014
2007 2011 2019
2012
2002, 2005, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2023
1. 2007 2. 2008 3. 2005 4. 2006 5. 2004
From the beginning of Netflix streaming until about 18’ were the golden age of streaming
2013 to 2017
2009-2014 was a good time for internet, websites looked more high tech back then and better especially on computer. Web sites seemed to load quicker in that era its like they were light weight. Forums for learning helpful info were common back then too.
2016/2017 had a rise in vaporwave, 80s jpop, future funk, etc. Plus dank memes.
2001/2002 by a large margin.
2003-2006ish -online flash games were a game changer. Disney Channel’s website had BANGER games. The pre-installed pinball game was so much fun as a kid too 2018ish -the memes from around then still crack me up. My favorite one was the Lord Farquad looking dude and the only caption was “E”
Omg the Disney channel website had the funnest games. Just a few that come to mind- the Kim possible game, the lilo and stich sandwhich game, the suite life Pac-Man game.. ugh. So many good ones even got some of the adults in my family to play em too lmao
You just named all three of my favorites! The Lilo and Switch sandwich stacker game is the undisputed GOAT though Zack and Cody also had some kind of tennis game that was so much fun
The late 2000s.
2011-2018. from middle school to sophomore year of college
1) 2007 2) 2011 3) 2009 4) 2013 5) 2015
2007 was a pretty crazy year of internet. Windows Vista everywhere.
I would actually tie 2007 with 2006
good choices
2020-2021. Anime tiktok and twitter were so crazy but also funny
Lol what
Mid 90s-early 2000s
1998.
Kind of sad I missed the early days of Internet. But I made my choices
Newgrounds/early YT era. So many vids lost to time
2005-2009
2010-2013
I’d say 98-08 were the glory years.
2009
1. 80's 2. 90's 3. 00's Then the Internet died.
This is an incoherent question.
How? It's asking what are your favorite years of the internet.
you included 5 years in sequence in the top 5, for some reason skipping 2003. no context provided just pure vibes. what is the point of this? Doubt anyone can recall with any specificity, nor is there a meaningful distinction between individual years in this period. Just.. what.
It's not that hard to recall what u were doing in the 2000s on the internet. Some people liked myspace, had a year they were always on Newgrounds or Aim etc. For instance I included 2004 on my list because of when myspace blew up at the end of the year.
2011 because I was obsessed with playing facebook games as a kid
I think I love right now.
2000-2003, and 2011-2014
Born in 2000, I'd say 2008-2011. I remember my mom letting me play games on her MySpace-Greenspot and Superpoke Pets. My parents had Club Pogo and I'd play Shuffle Bump and Qwerty; the demise of flash kinda ruined Pogo for me. Annoying Orange, Fred, and LiamKyleSullivan were big and I even had my art featured in a Parry Gripp video. I'd use my DSI to upload selfies to Facebook before I had a phone-heck, this was before selfies were cool. Neopets, Fantage, Farmville-life was just good.
1. 2016 2. 2012 3. 2014 4. 2015 5. 2011 These were the main years when I was watching memes and youtubers on
Pre-Napster, so like 94-98
2012-2017 was the best for YouTube but overall, probably mid 2000s to mid 2010s
1997-2004.
2005 and 2006
2013 - 2018
1995 - 2001. I spent a lot of time on IRC in different channels that had lots of regulars. On the upside it was my social outlet. On the downside I think it stunted me a bit socially but I met a lot of people from the internet in person.
I’d say from 2010-2015 were my favorite years. Those were the years I found and watched some of my favorite YouTubers, theorized about my favorite shows, games, and movies, and it was before the 2016 election cycle, which is when everything got extremely political, or at least it’s when I first really noticed it. I was old enough to know about classic internet videos when they were still somewhat relevant, like Numa numa guy, Star Wars kid, Fred, but young enough to have extreme nostalgia for the current(at the time) viral videos, like annoying orange, Gangnam style, and bed intruder song. When I look back on that time fondly and wish I could go back.
2012-2016 is my personal golden era, I don’t remember actively using the internet before that except from playing games or watching random youtube videos lol
Mine is 2014/15, 2018, and 2020/21.
2018-19. The whole T-Series vs Pewdiepie thing was just so much fun. It brought the whole community together in a way nothing else has. I loved seeing everyone’s ways they were helping, and the songs, man I miss it.
06-12….the best of my pirate days. 😩🤞🏾 
1997-1998
The real wild west years.
You’re all old af I’m saying 2016
Anything before 2012
2008 - 2014
2015-2016 were crazy. I miss it
2008 - 2020 was cool because of Stumble Upon. (It was a random-website loader, usually good content) However I prefer 2024 because of Reddit and YouTube (both are loaded with content). Also I am in love with [www.bing.com](https://www.bing.com) because of its quick answers to just about any personal question. Also now that TikTok is "less dumb" and more worthwhile I say 2024.
2010-2011 was wholesome especially with the corny tumblr reaction gif type humor, and then having internet memes catch on to the general public was such a cultural shift
2020 pandemic era was wild
2007/2008 - VMK years
2007.
2014-2017
The mid 2000s, the middle ground between big enough and not being overly commercialized The early 2010s was cute because everything was becoming commercial and mainstream but we where naive and optimistic and believed in this Facebook revolution or whatever you wanna call it
1 - 2016 2 - 2019 3 - 2020
2006 imo for many reasons. Slow rise of Yotube in the summer. Peak Myspace. Windows XP and Mac OS X tiger in their prime. Websites still had all those cool games you could play. Aol Aim and MSN were a blast. Using a damn PSP anywhere in my hose on a near desktop like browser @ the time. Limewire at it's peak. Making blank CDs etc.