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What do you remember from the classic internet era (2007-2012)?
- Thread starter Yanrima~
- Start date
cornimer
grab acorns 'til you're delirious
I spent most of this era playing online games such as Webkinz, Club Penguin, Buildabearville and Poptropica. I was pretty obsessed with all of these sites (especially Webkinz) and would play both before and after school. I was also a member of one forum aimed at kids (the moderation was super strict - nobody was allowed to say their first name, age, etc.) where I did a lot of (cringey) writing.
Classic internet era starting 2007? Personally I remember the mid 2000s the most fondly. Forums were super active back then and I, having no life, enjoyed that so much.
Also, I miss social media being more bloglike. I remember before My Space "social media" was blogsites like Xanga and LiveJournal. I miss this because this encourage more thoughtful posts as opposed to today's memes and picture social media. Perhaps the truth I liked those websites is because I'm nosey. >.< Lol.
My Space was a bit hybrid-y. Sad it faded away so fast, as well.
Also, I miss social media being more bloglike. I remember before My Space "social media" was blogsites like Xanga and LiveJournal. I miss this because this encourage more thoughtful posts as opposed to today's memes and picture social media. Perhaps the truth I liked those websites is because I'm nosey. >.< Lol.
My Space was a bit hybrid-y. Sad it faded away so fast, as well.
You got mail!
It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral
Of course I have to mention the flash games and all the various sites like addicting games, cool math games etc . I especially loved stick figure games, Stick RPG being my favorite lol
oekaki boards my beloved. i miss you sm
But like others mentioned, lots of flash game websites! CartoonNetwork's games were really fun, and... a lot of newgrounds stuff. 2007s was around when I was playing a bunch of MMOs like Maplestory, Trickster Online, Lunia, etc. -- and forums were still super popular! So that's what I remember the most. Also MSN messenger. i miss u nudges
2010-2012 was... when I was playing TinierMe? And also more MMOs. I actively avoided social medias for a long time, so forum and forum-like websites were the best, especially ones with games in them.
But like others mentioned, lots of flash game websites! CartoonNetwork's games were really fun, and... a lot of newgrounds stuff. 2007s was around when I was playing a bunch of MMOs like Maplestory, Trickster Online, Lunia, etc. -- and forums were still super popular! So that's what I remember the most. Also MSN messenger. i miss u nudges
2010-2012 was... when I was playing TinierMe? And also more MMOs. I actively avoided social medias for a long time, so forum and forum-like websites were the best, especially ones with games in them.
Darkesque_
it doesn't matter if you love him or capital H I M
For me, MovieStarPlanet, Animal Jam, Club Penguin, and the Nickelodeon games were my top games during that time lol. I always used to watch vines and musical.ly videos, too.
EDIT: I was also OBSESSED with Purble Place! I miss that game so much
EDIT: I was also OBSESSED with Purble Place! I miss that game so much
girlsgogames.com! i used to play the games for hours and hours. most of the older games i liked don't work anymore though due to adobe flash dying.
they recently changed the mascots' (girls pictured above) designs and all i gotta say is.. nuh uh.
axaniao
previously ecstasy
i was 7 back then so its hard to remember.. im sure i was playing games on the computer though, like old pbs kids games and nick jr games, cool math games, moshi monsters, other things like that..
I remember being on this very forum! Though it lasted a little bit past 2012, I'd say something that's faded out is the culture of signatures on forums like TBT. Sure, we still have the concept of stuff that sits under your post, but the specific classic concept of 'use some brushes in GIMP/Photoshop to make a cool looking background and slap on a video game render plus your name with some fun effects' is gone now. The entire Museum board was practically about just that kind of creation. In contrast, just drawing art was essentially non-existent.
themysterybidder
🐴 Devoted to Buck! 🐴 (UK)
MSN Messenger! I loved it so much. Also, playing Runescape with friends.
Drawdler
Profile comments open to water flowers 💐✨
The internet back then was so freeing and not just like my current life, where in part, it is “freeing” for lack of better options.
Of course, I was a kid back then. I can’t verify this but I've heard with neuroplasticity, your brain as a child does absorb more, for example colors look more vivid and not just due to some naive nostalgia.
It made websites a big deal, but they really were different then. In the 90’s, every site was a little personal GeoCities page, but the late 00’s were where some of those old pages were still holding out. Fake gaming rumors and cheats were still prominent- there was a big culture of it on YouTube, as much as people forget that part of that site. In general, there was still a lot of mystery in life to discuss on the web because we didn’t have as many… organised sources for information, let’s say. Anyway, I remember using Webs back when it was a free service, kids were still making their own sites back then! Point being, the 00’s in general were the perfect fusion of those old clunky sites, and a more developed web 2.0 that had not had its edges filed off for homogenous presentation like today. The most visually customisable “mainstream” site I can think of is Tumblr and it’s dwarfed by larger, more visually boring sites.
Ironically privacy was better practiced then, distinctively before Facebook and Google’s services getting even more popular. If you used your real name anywhere, it would only be on your email.
YouTube truly was better with lesser ads and of course that old web design wasn’t the smoothest, but they didn’t have as much anti-consumer design on it. I remember when you could completely customise your page there and the pages had comments. To a degree that site was actually a social space, which helped foster some of the stuff like the YTP community that people generally remember those years for. There really were very few ads. When they put ads on the iOS apps AT ALL it was a massive deal… ‘cause yeah back in the day they didn’t even have ads there. If you remember the old skeumorphic iPod icon for YouTube then you get a veteran’s discount by the way.
I could also count some of the old App Store shenanigans as a part of the old Internet. The stuff that topped the charts was so different, and honest good games made it up there. A lot of those games had their own weird mini-communities on unique forums/chatrooms integrated in the games.
As far as games in general go the vibe with online randoms was very different and you could easily make friends since lobbies were set up in a way you would be repeatedly playing with the same people, and on Nintendo games where you had to exchange friend codes, doing that was a big deal and made it very personal. You can just put in dream addresses now, and that on its own changed the experience, back in the day if you wanted to hang out in AC you would be getting personal town tours, and asking people not to seed you, stuff like that.
Also, having a lot of different accounts/profiles and showing them off was a lot more common, because things weren’t consolidated on megasites or social apps. I think it’s charming. Personally during those specific years, I joined my first forum ever.
The bad thing about the old Internet is that people were definitely more casually rude. I don’t like how puritan some of the Internet is now but definitely back in the day more of it had to be called out. I do think there was better discussion back then with the slower pace of the internet but hell man I can go on forever and I’m trying to wrap this up. Looking back on shock sites is funny for me but I was never hit by one and objectively I don’t really think they’re funny, it’s more, “damn that was a weird thing in my life I’m glad I dodged”.
I’m honestly glad I grew up during that era though, I feel like the loss of those kid-friendly MMOs is because the Internet is already trying to rope in and advertise to children (which is disgusting) and not actually protecting them regardless of what lawmakers say. At best the social media spaces and influencers of today are a worse influence on kids. It’s another way the old Internet was more personal and genuine. Some of these things are just like, if you know you know. But you don’t know what I would give to go back to Internet like that man, it’s truly special in history.
Of course, I was a kid back then. I can’t verify this but I've heard with neuroplasticity, your brain as a child does absorb more, for example colors look more vivid and not just due to some naive nostalgia.
It made websites a big deal, but they really were different then. In the 90’s, every site was a little personal GeoCities page, but the late 00’s were where some of those old pages were still holding out. Fake gaming rumors and cheats were still prominent- there was a big culture of it on YouTube, as much as people forget that part of that site. In general, there was still a lot of mystery in life to discuss on the web because we didn’t have as many… organised sources for information, let’s say. Anyway, I remember using Webs back when it was a free service, kids were still making their own sites back then! Point being, the 00’s in general were the perfect fusion of those old clunky sites, and a more developed web 2.0 that had not had its edges filed off for homogenous presentation like today. The most visually customisable “mainstream” site I can think of is Tumblr and it’s dwarfed by larger, more visually boring sites.
Ironically privacy was better practiced then, distinctively before Facebook and Google’s services getting even more popular. If you used your real name anywhere, it would only be on your email.
YouTube truly was better with lesser ads and of course that old web design wasn’t the smoothest, but they didn’t have as much anti-consumer design on it. I remember when you could completely customise your page there and the pages had comments. To a degree that site was actually a social space, which helped foster some of the stuff like the YTP community that people generally remember those years for. There really were very few ads. When they put ads on the iOS apps AT ALL it was a massive deal… ‘cause yeah back in the day they didn’t even have ads there. If you remember the old skeumorphic iPod icon for YouTube then you get a veteran’s discount by the way.
I could also count some of the old App Store shenanigans as a part of the old Internet. The stuff that topped the charts was so different, and honest good games made it up there. A lot of those games had their own weird mini-communities on unique forums/chatrooms integrated in the games.
As far as games in general go the vibe with online randoms was very different and you could easily make friends since lobbies were set up in a way you would be repeatedly playing with the same people, and on Nintendo games where you had to exchange friend codes, doing that was a big deal and made it very personal. You can just put in dream addresses now, and that on its own changed the experience, back in the day if you wanted to hang out in AC you would be getting personal town tours, and asking people not to seed you, stuff like that.
Also, having a lot of different accounts/profiles and showing them off was a lot more common, because things weren’t consolidated on megasites or social apps. I think it’s charming. Personally during those specific years, I joined my first forum ever.
The bad thing about the old Internet is that people were definitely more casually rude. I don’t like how puritan some of the Internet is now but definitely back in the day more of it had to be called out. I do think there was better discussion back then with the slower pace of the internet but hell man I can go on forever and I’m trying to wrap this up. Looking back on shock sites is funny for me but I was never hit by one and objectively I don’t really think they’re funny, it’s more, “damn that was a weird thing in my life I’m glad I dodged”.
I’m honestly glad I grew up during that era though, I feel like the loss of those kid-friendly MMOs is because the Internet is already trying to rope in and advertise to children (which is disgusting) and not actually protecting them regardless of what lawmakers say. At best the social media spaces and influencers of today are a worse influence on kids. It’s another way the old Internet was more personal and genuine. Some of these things are just like, if you know you know. But you don’t know what I would give to go back to Internet like that man, it’s truly special in history.
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-this fits the end of the time frame but flash games on abcya. i was 7 years old in 2012 so i wasn’t on the internet very much apart from computer class and abcya was one of the teacher approved educational flash game sites.
-another computer teacher approved activity was kid pix. it’s probably older than 2007 but the school computers were as old as dirt. now that i think about it, that was my first exposure to a digital art program.
-2010: the double rainbow video when it went viral. i remember my dad thinking it was hilarious and showing the entire family the video on our PC. i remember him saying that he found it on “the google” and i thought it was a funny word.
-2010 or 2011: nickelodeon flash games on their website, mainly spongebob games. i remember playing a game on there were you could make your own game level then play it. also this papa’s burgeria type game where you would make a krabby patty and stack the ingredients.
-animal jam, when it first came out i saw a TV commercial for it. i never actually got to play it because signing up was too complicated for me at the time because i was still learning how to read but that’s a memory from my very early childhood that i have for some reason.
-another computer teacher approved activity was kid pix. it’s probably older than 2007 but the school computers were as old as dirt. now that i think about it, that was my first exposure to a digital art program.
-2010: the double rainbow video when it went viral. i remember my dad thinking it was hilarious and showing the entire family the video on our PC. i remember him saying that he found it on “the google” and i thought it was a funny word.
-2010 or 2011: nickelodeon flash games on their website, mainly spongebob games. i remember playing a game on there were you could make your own game level then play it. also this papa’s burgeria type game where you would make a krabby patty and stack the ingredients.
-animal jam, when it first came out i saw a TV commercial for it. i never actually got to play it because signing up was too complicated for me at the time because i was still learning how to read but that’s a memory from my very early childhood that i have for some reason.
MiniPocketWorld
🌺💦🏄💦🌺
Time and the internet is a blur into one thing to me.
I remember Facebook looking different.
I do remember some of my first times on a computer. I remember some art program we used in elementary that had stamps that would put pixel images on our poems or we could just use it to draw stuff.
I remember PowerPoint and I had a ton of fun using it to make stuff.
I remember this popcaps browser game where you fed gold fish and other fish. They would grow and stuff. They had the ability to die if you didn't feed them. I think I remember they could eat each other too if some where bigger than others..
I remember a not child friendly elf bowling game series and thinking it was absolutely hilarious being a child myself. I remember Chip Adventures and a game called Same.
I remember Myspace and GeoCities.
But I couldn't tell you the years of these things though. Just that it was what feels like life times ago compared to how things are now in the internet/computer.
I remember Facebook looking different.
I do remember some of my first times on a computer. I remember some art program we used in elementary that had stamps that would put pixel images on our poems or we could just use it to draw stuff.
I remember PowerPoint and I had a ton of fun using it to make stuff.
I remember this popcaps browser game where you fed gold fish and other fish. They would grow and stuff. They had the ability to die if you didn't feed them. I think I remember they could eat each other too if some where bigger than others..
I remember a not child friendly elf bowling game series and thinking it was absolutely hilarious being a child myself. I remember Chip Adventures and a game called Same.
I remember Myspace and GeoCities.
But I couldn't tell you the years of these things though. Just that it was what feels like life times ago compared to how things are now in the internet/computer.
ShinyDungeoneer
Egg Maestro
I was 3 during this era, so I'd have to say discovering Animal Jam (it counts since it's from this era, right?) circa 2016. Sadly, AJ has no account recovery, so I lost my first ever account (recently) due to password forgetting. I have since made a new account, and luckily, I remember my password whenever I look at my username because they are related (kinda shocked I haven't been hacked yet..)
My family's always been in computer-related work, so I was on the computer as early as two years old playing those dollar bin CD-ROMs. My first MMO was Toontown Online, and I remember people making "clubs" in-game and joining a few of them. People would go all out, and I remember one group I was a part of specifically having this glittery blue layout with those cheap chatbox popups everyone used in 2008, haha.
Another memory I had in 2010 or so was looking up places to watch Sgt. Frog and Soul Eater and coming across one of those anime hosting sites that're like, owned by some college dude and his buddies. I remember none of the shows' episodes being listed in order properly and some of the links were nonfunctional. They also had one of those hella active user chatboxes that you couldn't mute(it notified you every time someone said something) which made it near impossible to actually watch anything, but it was pretty charming in retrospect.
Another memory I had in 2010 or so was looking up places to watch Sgt. Frog and Soul Eater and coming across one of those anime hosting sites that're like, owned by some college dude and his buddies. I remember none of the shows' episodes being listed in order properly and some of the links were nonfunctional. They also had one of those hella active user chatboxes that you couldn't mute(it notified you every time someone said something) which made it near impossible to actually watch anything, but it was pretty charming in retrospect.
My main memories were talking to strangers online… which is so bad hahaha. I was around 12-16 during those years and I was always on MySpace, Omegle (rip), & Stickam. If anyone doesn’t know what Stickam was - it was a website that you could go live on and random people could join and talk to you.. Where were the adults in my life? lol
QueenCobra
Gutted, rotted, Gila monster, BEAST!
-Millsberry
-Webkinz
-Club Penguin
-NeoPets
-Yahoo Answers
-Internet Explorer
-Disney Channel show games/quizzes
-AOL
-Shaye St. John (I discovered the videos after classic internet, and then when the website shut down I was kinda sad lol.)
-Angelfire anime character fan websites
-Webkinz
-Club Penguin
-NeoPets
-Yahoo Answers
-Internet Explorer
-Disney Channel show games/quizzes
-AOL
-Shaye St. John (I discovered the videos after classic internet, and then when the website shut down I was kinda sad lol.)
-Angelfire anime character fan websites
Dunquixote
Water King
i barely remember it, but I’m pretty sure 2012 was the last year I played WoW. I’m not sure if I was playing in during that whole time though; I’ve needed breaks from it. I was also in college around that time.
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