Digital Nostalgia

[Blockhead]

So many different virtual memories over the years. I spent time moderating a pokemon roleplaying forum on a freewebs site probably uhhhhh fifteen years ago? Grew to actually have a pretty active community and then the other moderators and I kinda forgot about it. Couple of years later I came back to it and there had been a whole second wave of community that had come after the moderators had left. After that I spent a significant bit of time posting on the Kongregate Off Topic forums, where I got to know a fair amount of the regular posters and that served as a proto-4chan experience because of how crude but unique the perspectives were
Played Runescape as far back as 2008 and remember some of the really crucial times and fun holiday events (definitely was a bit more fun prior to the implementation of the Grand Exchange). Then there is 4chan years ago, some of my fondest and darkest internet memories come from that era. I feel like people always lament about the era that makes them a true oldfag on 4chan but it definitely does feel different these days visiting it. /x/ used to host a lot more original content and interesting revelations, the OC on /v/ used to be fucking hysterical, /mu/ was crucial in sharing underground music and really getting me to discover off the wall shit (before it was just k-pop threads), and /a/ used to be a lot of fun to talk shit on. Not at all trying to be political but I think 2015-2016 American politics kind of fucked up a portion of the 4chan userbase. It became so blatantly and frequently off topic right wing that certain smaller boards even got spammed with it. I still visit 4chan every week, and there are obviously nuggets of cool shit on there, but it doesn't feel the same.
I miss the communities that I grew up frequenting. I learned a lot about music, movies, videogames, anime, literature, and politics from frequenting them. I also was subjected to fetish porn and isis beheading videos at a formative and impressionable age. My incredibly fucked up sense of humor and niche interests are largely inspired by my discovery of these websites. That's part of why I love this forum, even though I don't frequent it as much as some of you do. Recognizing users and their perspectives over the course of a number of threads and knowing that many of you have a similar internet background to me makes me feel at home and comfortable. I admire this quasi-movement to return to the archaic community of the old internet, though I have neither the time nor resources to contribute to it.

 

[Some_porcupine]

acapela.tv was fun, in 2008s.

 

[Some_porcupine]

idk a think, but people relate to this
courtesy: ouch right in my childhood

 

[Raz]

Like many of you, I grew up on the net. When I wasn't in school, I was wired in. Messing with HyperCard. Downloading mystical software and MP3s. Adventuring in Myst. Chatting on AOL Kids Only chat rooms. Exploring the world wide web.

I have a deep nostalgia for the 90s net and the early web. I know many of you do too. For some of you, it might be BBS era nostalgia. Or IRC, MUDs, newsgroups, you name it. For others, it might be MySpace nostalgia, early YouTube, Halo, or Wii.

Regardless your era, these digital realms of our formative years are either changed, becoming vacated, or gone entirely.

Unlike those before us, or those increasing few alongside us who never took to the thrills of digital life, our digital nostalgia, combined with rapid technological innovation, have perhaps in some ways warped our psyche.

Imagine if your childhood memories were exclusively sports, or chess, fishing, hunting, cooking, cleaning, crafting — analog, classic-in-the-sense-of-timeless activities. Personally, I have many memories of all of these things, but none nearly as significant to me as my digital experiences. Those, my cherished digital experiences, were what shaped me, for better or worse, because they captivated me. And so, those memories are what form my nostalgia.

It's easy to imagine a life of analog nostalgia, one less impacted by technological change. As an adult, we might find great joy in returning to those nostalgic things, like fishing, carpentry, or watching baseball, and in many cases, little will have changed. Perhaps a new setting, or new people by your side, but all the same experiences would be there, largely undisturbed by time, waiting for you to revel in again.

For us, those with nostalgia for digital places of old, our old ways and their realms are gone. The hardware too ancient. The software incomplete or incompatible. The interface too dated. The graphics too poor. If you emulate or virtualize your way back to nirvana, many of these places are now empty. But of those that aren't, there is still something awry— times have changed. We have changed. We have seen beyond the promise of the early net. We have experienced post-wonder. And where there is not wonder, what is there left?

We are left with an unquenched longing. A place of unbelonging.

But, we wander on, seeking wonder. Some of us will find it. Others, we'll have to create it ourselves. New realms. New places for others, like our younger selves, to revel in. So that they too might form their own unquenchable longing, and wander on, seeking, creating.

I lurk. But had to say... true say.

 

[alix (dead account)]

I remember spending a lot of time on roblox as a kid, and it was wild to see it become relevant again among gen alpha. It's crazy that my account is now older than some of the kids playing it. I know there is (was?) a group maintaining private servers on old versions of roblox studio and it's something I'd been interested in lately. I wouldn't want to play the modern version though, it is basically unrecognizable from when I was a kid.

Roblox is the biggest downgrade I have ever seen. It's sad, but it's unstoppable

 

[urgentmeow]

There's some quality of "quietness" that I remember in the digital world I grew up in. Everything today is trying to grab your attention and manipulate you, but back in the 90s a lot of software was just about exploring new possibilities and expanding the mind. Really well said, OP. We can't return to these vanished worlds even if we can emulate the literal software involved; the whole ecosystem is gone now. I can translate some of my nostalgia into the present day, though. When I was a kid I learned how to use DOS and program in QBASIC, played games like Commander Keen and Jill of the Jungle. These days, I use Linux as my go-to desktop OS and there is something about being able to do anything you want at the terminal that delights my kid self. I had to boot into Windows 3.1 to do some things and it always took forever and, well, it was Win 3.1, not that great. I think this kid version of me is always a little thrilled when I use a modern terminal. It brings me back to the very beginning of my engagement with the digital world and brings it forward a little bit, something I can do now that I couldn't do back then, but wanted to.

I think there is always going to be something unresolved in this kind of nostalgia, but if you can find small ways to connect it to things now, I find it helps ease some of the bite of that vanished world. Maybe a little creativity and thoughtfulness can come from nostalgia as well, and it can help keep us from just going along with the mass manipulation of our times.

 

[imnotdeadyet]

There was also some early web flash-style game where you were a yeti that hit penguins with a bat to see how far you could get them to fly, there'd be land mines and stuff that could potentially make them go further.

Man that takes me back, used to play yeti sports all the time. It spawned so many clones that newgrounds used to have one frontpaged pretty much all the time.

Anything flash related gives me so much nostalgia. I used to spend an unhealthy amount on flash communities such as z0r.de, dagobah, newgrounds, /v/, etc. Most of it is still around and with ruffle actually works but visiting these sites (besides newgrounds) is like visiting a dead mall with a store or two left open, "everything must go sale" signs out in their windows. It might be still around but the communities and the soul are long gone.

this is probably really niche but did anyone else spend a lot of time on trsrockin.com as a kid? it was a pokemon fansite that mainly focused on cataloguing glitches like missingno and so on.

Not that site specifically, although I'm sure i visited it at some point, but i had a bit of an obsession with old Pokémon game glitches. Found the specific details and complexities about how these old games worked and broke so fascinating. Spend hours reading and watching these clips even though the only Pokémon game I played was Pokémon Gold way back and barely remembered it.


On a side note, anyone remember those "easter eggs" related to Google's "I'm feeling lucky" button? Knowing how that button works now really takes all the magic out of all the "secrets" and I'm also sure most don't even work anymore.

 

[brentw]

It's always a trip to think in some time people will be nostalgic about this era.

Well when you consider how awful the future is looking, it begins to make a lot more sense.

Remember when we could eat meat and drive cars?

 

[Obake]

For me it was forums and emulators on my Windows XP machine. I guess technically I could set up a Windows XP machine and install the emulators I used back in the day, but it would be pretty pointless since I have real hardware.

As for the forums, they're all long gone except for one. Unfortunately the one that's still around is a ghost of it's former glory. It's nowhere near as active as it used to be, and all of the cool users who made up the community (and even admins and mods) are long gone. To me, the community truly died when the lead site administrator handed over the reigns to someone else and left. I'm still in contact with that admin, but I do miss chatting with them on the forum. The only members who are left are cancerous individuals that nobody liked. And they chaged the site layout so it doesn't look the same anymore

I hate that forums have largely been replaced by Discord and reddit.

 

[Some_porcupine]

this aesthetic

View: https://sk.pinterest.com/pin/862087553686500454/visual-search/?x=16&y=16&w=468&h=659&imageSignature=96f97682391082058ca3e93713468da0

/
e: found that game i was looking on and played as kid

Pandas BIG Adventure - Play on Armor Games

Pandas BIG Adventure, a free online Adventure game brought to you by Armor Games. On a secret mission panda discovers a time traveling toilet, as usual things go wrong and panda ends up trapped in the past, its your job to help him get back by helping him retrieve the parts of the time machine.

armorgames.com

Description ​

On a secret mission panda discovers a time traveling toilet, as usual things go wrong and panda ends up trapped in the past, its your job to help him get back by helping him retrieve the parts of the time machine.​

Controls​

use the mouse to pick up objects and use them to solve puzzles.