The mistake of yearning for the 'friendly' online world of 20 years ago
Nostalgia for the “friendlier” internet of 20–25 years ago collides here with memories of toxic forums, early spam, and exclusionary behavior toward women and minorities. Commenters largely agree that what has changed most is scale, centralization, and monetization: small, hobbyist-run communities and anonymous identities have been displaced by a few ad-driven platforms with algorithmic feeds, influencer culture, and heavy-handed or opaque moderation. Many still see value in rebuilding smaller, intentional spaces—self-hosted chats, niche forums, federated services—as a way to recapture the autonomy, experimentation, and serendipity of the early web without idealizing its flaws.
Was the old internet really “friendlier”?
- Many argue hostility, sexism, racism, scams and trolling existed from BBS/Usenet onward; nostalgia is selective.
- Others say it felt friendlier because fewer people were online, and enthusiast communities were small, self-selected, and more invested.
- Some note that marginalized users often had to hide identity, so “everyone got along” partly reflected who felt safe enough to be visible.
Centralization, algorithms, and scale
- Big change: diffusion across many sites → a few massive platforms with algorithmic feeds.
- Algorithms now drag users into rabbit holes and rage-bait; earlier, finding dark corners required intent.
- Scale makes mass spam, SEO, influence ops and propaganda economically viable and politically relevant.
Small communities, culture, and gatekeeping
- Strong nostalgia for small forums, IRC, mailing lists, and niche chats where you knew regulars.
- Barriers to entry (cost, technical skill, “this tall to ride”) filtered out many casual or malicious users.
- Several argue good communities require gatekeeping, dues, and explicit governance; open platforms inevitably degrade.
Identity, anonymity, and federation
- Old norm: pseudonyms, compartmentalized identities, and minimal real-life linkage; many miss this.
- Debate over how “walled” old IM systems (MSN/AIM/ICQ) really were vs today’s WhatsApp/Discord.
- Federation (XMPP, IRC, Usenet) vs centralized silos recurs; some say situation is similar, others see a clear regression.
Moderation, censorship, and AI
- Earlier moderation was local, human, and tightly coupled to community norms; now it’s centralized and opaque.
- Concern that “civility” teams and safety policies blend corporate PR, censorship, and behavioral control.
- Mixed views on AI moderators: potential scale benefits vs baked-in bias, prompt injection, and inability to handle adversarial users.
Commercialization and “enshittification”
- Strong sense that motivation shifted from “build useful/cool things” to “monetize users and content as data.”
- Ads are more pervasive; platforms optimize for engagement, brand-building, and influencer economics.
- Some technical aspects improved (bandwidth, spam filtering, access), but many feel creativity, weirdness, and autonomy declined.