What do you remember from the classic internet era (2007-2012)?

[Yanrima~]

For me, I do remember watching AVGN episodes and YTPs back when YouTube had more creative freedom.

I also remember old MMO games especially Club Penguin and a whole host of other MMO online games. Flash games and animations are everywhere and they're entertaining as well.

What do you remember from the classical internet era?

 

[daringred_]

i remember playing on "andkon arcade" a lot lol. there was one game that was racing on bicycles where you could unlock characters, and another one called dune buggy, i think? plenty of others, but those are the main two i remember.

i was also on moshi monsters for the backend of the timeframe in the thread title, and several years after. highkey miss that website lmao. i think the distinct lack of games/websites like that now has only done the internet harm, because i think they provided a generally safe place for children online. (or at least safer than, say, social media today.) plus, they were just cute and fun! also definitely miss flash games in general rip </3

 

[SkyKnight03]

From 2010-2012, I wasn't a teenager yet, but I was learning to navigate the internet.

The game @daringred_ is thinking about is probably cyclomaniacs. I loved flash games, but I mostly stuck with the tower defense genre. Or the Mario inspired ones.

I was way too chatty and adventurous for my own good. But also not dumb enough to give out my age, so I was never banned by the under 13 law.

At one point I got tricked into clicking a shock site link. It automatically turned up my volume and wouldn't let me exit the browser. To this day, I will never ever click a random link. Lesson learned for life.

 

[Seastar]

I played a lot of browser games like Neopets (though I joined that in 2004), Club Penguin, and even some Pokemon fan games, some of which are gone now.
I'm sure there were some other things I did, but I cannot remember right now.

 

[Yanrima~]

i remember playing on "andkon arcade" a lot lol. there was one game that was racing on bicycles where you could unlock characters, and another one called dune buggy, i think? plenty of others, but those are the main two i remember.

i was also on moshi monsters for the backend of the timeframe in the thread title, and several years after. highkey miss that website lmao. i think the distinct lack of games/websites like that now has only done the internet harm, because i think they provided a generally safe place for children online. (or at least safer than, say, social media today.) plus, they were just cute and fun! also definitely miss flash games in general rip </3

Honestly yeah, the lack of games like that is probably due to the monetization issues or the lack of funding that keeps the website and servers up and running compared to full-priced games. And I do miss the times when the internet is pretty simple.

Really wish there's more websites like the one you mentioned, so I fully agree on you on that.

 

[daringred_]

The game @daringred_ is thinking about is probably cyclomaniacs. I loved flash games, but I mostly stuck with the tower defense genre. Or the Mario inspired ones.

yes, cyclomaniacs is the one !! pretty sure there was a sequel i played the hell out of, too. i could remember some of the characters -- the robot, the stick man, the penguin -- but not the game title for some reason lmao.

 

[oak]

These were the years I was in high school so I definitely remember. I remember Facebook being born and thinking no one was gonna use it.

 

[Midoriya]

I remember forums being nowhere near as advanced-looking as some are today, lol.

I also remember Discord not existing and everyone using Skype or something else instead.

 

[Foreverfox]

Xanga and MySpace lol and rip my OG Neopets account because I had no recovery email to my original email.

Oops, just realized these things were all pre-2007.

 

[Saylor]

I'm not sure how much of it is just me being older now and not being aware of the replacements but I definitely feel the lack of those kinds of browser-based games too. I remember the ones they'd advertise on cereal boxes like Postopia and Millsberry, and all the Flash games on the Cartoon Network and Disney websites. They were really fun! Games like that just felt much more ubiquitous back then than they do now which makes me a little sad.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

Neopets is the first thing that comes to mind. But another thing I just got reminded of by thinking about Flash is Bionicle’s official website, especially the Mata Nui Online Game (which I still have downloaded on my laptop as of today, but I still miss the old day).

 

[kurisutina]

Does anyone remember Miniclip?
Also Gaiaonline, before they ruined their economy

 

[duckvely]

i spent a lot of time playing club penguin and fantage!! all i did back then was play games

 

[rocketspruggs]

I used to play a lot of Moshi Monsters and Poptropica in 2011 and 2012.

I also remember the old YouTube, the shorts feature didn't even exist back then.

 

[Reginald Fairfield]

Irritable people I hope I don't find again. That seems to be a constant.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

- DeviantArt
- Facebook was still cool and not ruined by ads
- Way way way less ads on Youtube (if any)
- Simpler memes
- Netflix was affordable and had so much great stuff on it because it and Hulu were the only streaming platforms out at the time iirc

 

[magicaldonkey]

used to boot up club penguin and friv quite a lot

 

[danmokun]

No way, AVGN mentioned?? Oh man, I loved his videos back then. (YTP are still fun too) I always liked when the Guitar guy or James' cat would make an appearance. The board game episodes with Bootsy were cool too. I didn't care too much for Mike, honestly. He'd get a little too carried away and was too good at the video games for it to be funny. Skype, Roblox and eBay were what I used a lot in that period. I still do use eBay though. Remember when YouTube channels had awards on the page and you could customize the entire background and colors and font??? I actually had an award or two once and I had a cool profile look! Those were the days...

 

[Corrie]

As much as I like online shopping, I truly miss the older internet days. Nowadays it's just all about ads, tracking people's data, and making as much money as possible. Not many people just do things for fun anymore. It has to always make some kind of money.

I fondly remember:

- Piczo and Freewebs for website building
- Photobucket for image hosting
- Fansites
- DeviantART
- Neopets
- Addictinggames.com
- Skype
- Club Penguin
- Newgrounds
- Xat chatrooms

Obviously this had to be my 10,000th post!

 

[Mokuren]

Creepypastas - they were soooo popular. Anyone remembers Ben drowning? You have met with a terrible fate.