Two Gizmodo colleagues, one former and one current, are currently discussing their first Internet memories as I type out this sentence. Sam Biddle abused his father’s AOL screenname in the name of Valentine’s Day advice, while Jon Herrman rocked Hootie.
The whole conversation, which I just creeped on Twitter and did not partake in, got me thinking of a great question for a lazy Sunday afternoon:
What is your first Internet (or online) memory?
I’ll kick it off with what I believe is mine: Connecting to a local game store’s BBS to play a little MUDD. Geektastic! It worked, like, 25% of the time and the modem’s chimes quickly became a little tune that I definitely had made lyrics to, but can’t remember today. I’m so incredibly ancient at 29 years old!
On the AOL side of things, I definitely remember cruising the “warez” chatrooms and contaminating my parents’ PowerMac with all manner of sketchy software, Anarchist’s Cookbook excerpts and CC# number generators. All for research purposes, naturally.
Again, what’s yours? Comment, comment.
Nodeity
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 9:03 AMErm,.. playing “Doom” with a mate who lived about 200mtrs down the road… :}
Adrian Cascun-Valencic
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 9:33 AMVery first online memory would be watching – enthralled – as my uncle chatted with his mate in *coloured text* on his Commodore 64.
First memory of going online myself? Would have been some years later, searching for … something on AltaVista using Netscape Navigator. My very first Hotmail account, made in late ’96 (which I have to this day) is among those hazy halcyon memories.
Matt Larritt
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 10:21 AMI was at school in 1997, I would’ve been in year 5. The computer teacher told me I could use the internet and opened up the navigator browser…. After about a minute of scanning whatever page was up (Maybe ninemsn or something) for about 12 seconds, I switched it to F/A18 hornet and had a LAN match with my mates… It wasn’t until later in life I realised the power I had access to for a brief time. I woulnd’t be for another year or so until I actually learn what the internet was…
Ben Thomas
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 10:32 AMFirst internet access was in 1994, in first year of Computer Science at RMIT. Fun activity at the time was making a webpage for Doom multiplayer maps. Used the maps on multiplayer Doom on a BBS.
Adam
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 10:46 AMgood question, I actually remember sitting at the computer, using the dial up, hearing all the screeches and then using netscape in windows 3.0 for the first time but cant remember where i went first. Might have been to yahoo when it just came on the scene and chat rooms which were ancient format compared to chat rooms of today.
BS
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 11:15 AMGoatse.
OWEY
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 3:03 PMme too
Matt Esse
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 8:34 AM“What has been seen cannot be unseen”
Nathaniel Baker
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 12:29 PMI remember way back in the late 80s when it very first started coming out to the public. I remember going to a meeting with my Dad at some APCUG meeting in Adelaide. This was the time of modems that could only just run 1200bps. At that time it was mostly BBS’s with Owl CD’s to back them up, where you basically got what the BBS’s offered anyhow. I remember sitting watching this demo for Altavista (no Google wasn’t around then) and then getting confused between Astalavista and Altavista (both of which still exist). They showed a few other sites too, but I don’t remember which ones. Few years went buy and finally got internet at home in the early 90s when it started becoming available to the mainstream public with a 33.6k modem (just think.. now we curse if we get slowed to 64k, having said that sites are more content rich now).
noone
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 1:31 PM1994 DEC’s AltaVista. Read an article from someone who said that the internet is only for real Techos who know what they are doing. Mr average is not ready for it and should stick to BBS groups and bluewave instead. http://www.dailygyan.com/2008/07/100-most-oldest-websites-in-intenet.html
Jarod Harrison
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 1:34 PMOpening up some email while in primary school that contained pics of “feral farm girls” this still haunts me to this day.
tpc
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 1:58 PMAfter a good while playing Doom2 and Duke3d on various BBS’s, I remember one of the BBS’s I was on got a Quake server running but hosted on the internet rather than on the BBS though I connected to the internet via the BBS to access the game online because I didn’t have my own internet connection at the time. Needless to say it was pretty unstable so I just went back to Doom & Duke. I guess this would have been about 96.
Al Gore
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 2:02 PMI remember the time I first used the interweb, it was straight after I invented it way back in 1906, in those days we used a potatoe which was connected to a spinning top that amplified a signal through Tommys knee bracers, it was only later that we discovered that by using an old can of lead paint we could reverse the polarity of the analogue signature by whacking it with a with a dead jackrabbit.
DK Son
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 2:40 PMMy first internet experience was when I uploaded the original 2 girls 1 cup video. Those were the days.
Rollz
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 3:41 PMI joined the Melbourne PC Users Group, spent $550 on a Maestro 14.4K modem and hit the BBS’s. Played turn based games, downloaded naughty 64 kb images and generally chatted about modem strings. Had to wait until uni for the real net- Oh the days of WAIS, ARCHIE, Gopher, Mosaic, Pegasus etc
Seamus Byrne
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 3:49 PMI’ll share too!
I walked into my first-year comp sci lab in 1994 with a fresh new login to the Unix system. I was amazed by email, instantly fell in love with Usenet, started hanging out in MUDs, and then found out how to launch xmosaic. That was it.
The second I found xmosaic I knew my life would never be the same and this brain-extension was something that I would never NOT have again. It was exhilarating and over the coming years I derailed my original study intentions in favour of working in this new fangled online website building space. Yay!
Feral
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 4:53 PMFirst got on the internet in Netscape running under Windows and Novell at Tech.
Downloaded Doom from a friends BBS which inspired me to run Renegade to propagate the cycle.
Discovered Wildcat was way too complicated.
First memory of internet, Wow its so easy to find stuff.
nicky
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 5:13 PMDANCING BABY..we all thought it was the most amazing thing ever
Travis New
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 11:16 PMI think was really old MSN/Hotmail chat. I was maybe 8 or 9?
Rob
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 12:08 AM1986/7 in a UWA lab, where they had access to some newsgroups. The rules were strict: no bad language, nothing commercial. There were rumours that some people in the uni got busted for running an illegal betting group.
In the early 1990s I remember playing with gopher, the first steps into using hyperlinks. I can’t remember what the first bits of useful information were. I think it was email addresses of people in other universities.
Matt Esse
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 8:30 AMThe first day of my Bachelor Business (Computing) degree at RMIT University, March 1st 1993. We we allowed to use LYNX a ‘text only’ web browser, running on a VAX VMS. It was fun and had me enthralled for at least an hour; then I discovered you could go to ‘links’ OUTSIDE Uni! First another Uni in the US, then Non-University ‘Links’…the browser has changed, but I haven’t stopped browsing.
Steve
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 10:59 PMHaving to ‘log in’ to the internet every time you wanted to use it, then it cut out when there was an incoming call.
That, dancing baby, printing out videogame walkthroughs and Netscape.
Robbo
Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 2:44 PMSitting on a VT-100 terminal with 1400 baud modem connecting to the University of Wollongong in 1991. World Wide Web? What was that? Usenet news and IRC ruled my world.