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Nostalgia is a weird feeling.

When you’re young, you don’t really have anything to feel nostalgic about, and hearing your patents feel it so much so as to preach “the good old days” was, at the very least, annoying.

Well, now, 30 to 40 years later, you find yourself understanding the thing your parents felt all this time as you now begin reminiscing about everything that was cool about the early days of the internet (and tech of the time in general), and then you realize you have become your parents as you fight and possibly fail to push away that relentless urge to preach about the good old days.

Speaking of which, Redditors have recently been listing old-timer things from when the internet was young, wild and free. User Marambal17 went to AskReddit with the question “what is so ancient only an internet veteran can remember?”, and got loads of answers from said internet veterans.

Bored Panda gathered them all up oh so nostalgically and created a curated list for you to peruse. And while you’re at it, go vote, go comment, and tell everyone what’s an ancient piece of internet or other technology that you fondly remember from several decades ago!

More Info: Reddit

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver awesabre said:
Winamp. It really whips the lamas a&s. So much time perfecting skins.

KlaatuBrute replied:
> "So much time perfecting skins."

Honestly that's kind of one of the things I miss the most about old internet—everything was unique down to the individual user. Flashing marquees, neon text on a different neon color background, dancing gifs everywhere. The entire internet had this cobbled-together look like an old alley in Hong Kong.

Now everything looks the same, like digital urban sprawl.

awesabre , Windows Diary Report

Final score:
252points
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#2

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Conny_and_Theo said:
Having to make sure no one is on the phone so you can use the internet.

ltBurnsWhenlPvP replied:
When I set up our internet for the first time mid 90s I accidentally had it calling a long distance number. Dad received a phone bill for $2800. We no longer had the internet in our house after that.

Conny_and_Theo , Celeste Lindell Report

Final score:
244points
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Terry Tobias
Terry Tobias
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The noise as the dial-up connection was made is burned in my memory.

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#3

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver grendel54 said:
Counters on webpages.

Wildcat_twister12 replied:
When doing research online—Wow this site has had 300,000 people visit, the information must be legit.

grendel54 , Small Biz Geek Report

Final score:
229points
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Stephanie Did It
Stephanie Did It
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And if you created a web page then half of the count was you opening the page to check the counter.

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#4

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Blackout1322 said:
When we used to risk getting viruses just to get cool cursors.

AmoreLucky replied:
Or smileys for your instant messenger like AIM, MSN, or Yahoo Messenger.

Blackout1322 , CursorMania Report

Final score:
215points
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#5

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver ThisBroDo said:
Dial up.

ResponsibleBase replied:
And that unforgettable tone sequence while connecting!

ThisBroDo , Christiaan Colen Report

Final score:
215points
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#6

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Having to actually type out “http://www.” before entering the website.

OriginalAnalysis2940 , Robertas Lisickis Report

Final score:
214points
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Jessica Morin
Jessica Morin
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some websites still require the .www if they havent put the redirection to the website without www in place.

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#7

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver ItsBulkingSeasonLads said:
If going on a long car journey, having to print off directions from MapQuest.

keb1965 replied:
And the first three pages were how to get out of your driveway.

ItsBulkingSeasonLads , Dan Harrelson Report

Final score:
208points
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Stephanie Did It
Stephanie Did It
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you printed the directions, you also printed all the pages with header, each advert, and literally anything shown on the screen.

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#8

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Remember desktop themes? Changing all your icons, mouse pointer, computer sounds, etc., to images and sounds from, like, Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist or whatever.

kal_el_diablo , The Customize Windows Report

Final score:
201points
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NsG
NsG
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For accessibility reasons, you can still do this

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#9

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver joothinkso said:
Not being able to play flash games until the flash player had been updated.

the_hell_you_say replied:
Having to update flash player every time you turned the computer on.

drunk98 replied:
[That thing] updated hourly & never got any better, it's like me if I was an app.

joothinkso , DZ-Techs Report

Final score:
198points
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#10

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Orinocobro said:
Real Player.

Also: uninstalling Real Player.

UebelKanuebel replied:
Yeah. And Quicktime.

1Eternallylost replied:
Reminds me of those postage stamp sized movies at 6 fps.

Orinocobro , Internet Archive Report

Final score:
191points
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#11

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Having to physically carry your computer around to a friend's house if you wanted to play multiplayer

gfyans , Phillip Stewart Report

Final score:
177points
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James016
James016
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I did this. A few of us in London would go to Reading with our pcs for a gaming weekend with friends who lived there. Fun times

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#12

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver sev45day said:
Ask Jeeves.

Sht_Hawk replied:
I remember me and a friend using Ask Jeeves at school and thinking we had to type things in as questions.

Sad_Ambassador4096 replied:
2nd grade our teacher polled the class what to ask Jeeves because we thought we only got one question.

We went with: "Jeeves, why is it called a pair of pants but not a pair of shirt?"

sev45day , AskJeeves Report

Final score:
176points
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#13

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver gfyans said:
Having to clean the gunk out of your trackball mouse with your fingernail.

Jrxbrg replied:
I am so glad I don’t have to boil eggs for the new mouse balls anymore.

lightbulbfragment replied:
Really had to boil them a long time to get that good gray color and rubbery texture.

gfyans , Miles Goodhew Report

Final score:
175points
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#14

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver DriveCreepy9057 said:
Hamster dance is one I think of a lot.

Wyattbw09 replied:
Badger,Badger,Badger.

Woofles85 replied:
MUSHROOM MUSHROOM!

DriveCreepy9057 , MrJClark123 Report

Final score:
168points
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Mimi La Souris
Mimi La Souris
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

tiditidatiditidooouuu tiiiiiidatididouuuuu titititidi didididadidididooooouuuuuu ahahahaha

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#15

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Keithninety said:
Floppy disks and CD’s that came in the mail containing 500 free hours from AOL.

HatchlingChibi replied:
One of my sisters friends decorated their dorm with those. They stuck them on the ceiling and had enough to cover the whole thing. It was interesting decor.

Keithninety , Gilgongo Report

Final score:
158points
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#16

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Lindseykkl said:
You forgot the construction worker excavating gifs and the under construction banner!

ricottapie replied:
Please sign the guest book!

discerningpervert replied:
Geocities was the [shirt]

Lindseykkl , NicePNG Report

Final score:
151points
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#17

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver R33Gtst said:
Signing up for a new email address and the username not already being taken.

Glorious times.

notyounaani replied:
I took like every free email with my first name and my first name and surname combination which was a mastermind move when I was 12. Sucks to be whoever has the same name as me though.

R33Gtst , Robertas Lisickis Report

Final score:
135points
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chi-wei shen
chi-wei shen
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mail address at Yahoo is only 6 characters long. SIX characters! I got it in 1999 and I'm still using it.

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#18

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Having to be invited to GMail.

TipsyRussell , 404 Tech Support Report

Final score:
126points
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Ashley Dimacali
Ashley Dimacali
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember getting invited to Google Beta, my cousin said its going to be big. Little did I know...

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#19

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Ambitious_Nobody7698 said:
A/S/L.

SurferRosa85 replied:
I definitely inflated my A from 11 to 16 in the early days of ICQ.

injury_minded replied:
Using 16/f/Cali when I was really 11/f/middle of nowhere, because I just had to seem cool and sophisticated to everyone else in the chatroom.

Ambitious_Nobody7698 , FileHorse Report

Final score:
118points
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#20

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Going into AOL chatrooms and saying, "Hey! They put a fireworks show into the chat! Hold Alt and hit F4 and you'll see it!"

Then watching as, one-by-one, chatroom participants disappeared.

john_snape_ , Pete Report

Final score:
115points
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#21

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver usspaceforce said:
Putting a music CD into the computer to check out the "extras" only for it to load way too slow to do anything with.

FrogLegsAlwaysFresh replied:
The limited addition Deftones album White Pony had a little game on it. I had forgotten all about that, thanks for reminding me!

SyrupBuccaneer replied:
Back To School's single CD doubled as an Electronic Press Kit which was pretty novel and forward-thinking.

usspaceforce , Nenad Stojkovic Report

Final score:
104points
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Glirpy
Glirpy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Foo Fighters and Weezer had some cool stuff on their CDs way back when.

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#22

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Old websites written in a notepad file with basic HTML using tables for spacing/formatting and images that took forever to load. This included lower than lo-fi midi audio files that auto played when the site loaded and "webring" affiliation links at the bottom of the page.

People thought making a personal page look professional meant it looked like a newspaper column with a "table of contents" link list on the left side in traditional roman numeral style list.

The_Superfist , Free Code Camp Report

Final score:
102points
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Jessica Morin
Jessica Morin
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You still can write websites using notepad if you are really really really motivated.

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#23

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver jolloholoday said:
Encarta.

JerseyJedi replied
Anyone else remember that trivia game built into Encarta, where you had to answer trivia questions to get through this castle where everyone was basically frozen creepily into place and couldn’t be freed unless you made it to the end?

cherrytarts replied:
You mean MindMaze? Young nerdy me loved that game.

jolloholoday , Annapurna Interactive Report

Final score:
99points
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NsG
NsG
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Encarta95 and Cinemania95 (like IMDb, with audio clips, trivia, etc) were how I spent most of my computer time.

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#24

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver superwholockian62 said:
Playing pool in yahoo chat rooms.

Korncakes replied:
Oh man my buddy and I would play Yahoo pool for hours every day after school while simultaneously grinding on RuneScape together back in junior high/high school. Dude lived like two blocks away and we spent more time playing games online than hanging out in person.

superwholockian62 , bitspacemike Report

Final score:
87points
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Kat O.
Kat O.
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I met my husband online 20 years ago on Yahoo Chat. We would play pool for hours!

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#25

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Actually having to "switch on" the internet. Opening the shortcut, typing password and clicking connect and then waiting for the dubstep music to finish.

AlexMullerSA , RoTehnic Beius Report

Final score:
85points
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Robert T
Robert T
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Auto-diallers did exist. We had one at work. Whenever one of the machines wanted to send an off-network packet, it would dial up the modem. Mainly it only did it for sending and receiving email, but if you opened a web browser (Netscape Navigator) and gave it an off-network address, it would also do it. Really only practical with a dedicated phone line.

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#26

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Dialing into the bulletin board.

I'm aware this is not technically the internet, but it was a precursor and one of the things that made the internet possible.

BrainDamagedMonkey42 , Chris Wilkinson Report

Final score:
80points
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Naz Fride
Naz Fride
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My wife was the sysop of a very small BBS, and I called into hers. That’s how we met, back in 1994.

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#27

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Qthaker283 said:
Neopets!

glennjersey responded
[DANG IT], I FORGOT TO FEED MY NEOPETS!

Qthaker283 , Mary-Lynn Report

Final score:
79points
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lenka
lenka
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh my. I forgot about neopets. I just googled.. apparently its still a thing! https://www.neopets.com/

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#28

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Eastern-Release4441 said:
Alta Vista.

ShadyFigure said:
And their Babelfish, the precursor to Google Translate.

Hashpool replied:
Wow when I was in middle school in 2005 they started using a network wide block for all the schools. I remember using Babelfish and other websites that translated well websites and we could circumnavigate around that [nonsense] for a while. Of course they eventually caught in on it. What a time!

Eastern-Release4441 , Alta Vista Report

Final score:
77points
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T.
T.
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah yeah.. The same as German and English words blocked (e.g. s**) for search but not in other languages like Italian (sesso).

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#29

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver Stickdeath.com. flash animations of stick figures being killed in funny ways.

chilli_cheese_cake , StickDeath Report

Final score:
58points
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Stephanie Did It
Stephanie Did It
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At work I had a program that made cute little animated sheep drop in and walk all over the screen. They ate, pooped, jumped and did all the sheepy things. It kept me smiling.

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#30

Person Asks “What’s So Ancient Only Internet Veterans Can Remember?”, 30 Folks Deliver MUDS.

Multi User Domains/Dungeons. They were the text only precursors to games like WOW and Everquest.

Fomalhot , Achaea Report

Final score:
54points
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Robert T
Robert T
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Now this does take me back. Used to play on UglyMUG at uni. Even wrote my own MUG/MUD, though I never published it.

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