Anyone miss when the internet was 'weird'?

[CM30]

Both in terms of the kind of content you found there, and the type of people that posted it?

Because in the old days, it felt almost like a refuge for the unpopular and slightly crazy people. Internet forums were filled with 'interesting' personalities that either took everything far too seriously or goofed off in the most ridiculous ways, creative works posted online looked somewhat 'cheap' most of the time, and expectations for things like videos and websites were basically somewhere below the floor; if it wasn't recorded on a potato and didn't literally burn your eyes out, it'd probably find something of an audience.

And to me there was a level of charm there. Yes, most people sucked at the things they wanted to do. Yes, most fan fic was barely comprehensible, most cosplay was clearly done on the cheap and most fan games were amateurishly made at best. But you can tell there was an effort there. Perhaps a misguided one sure, but an earnest effort from someone that had way more ambition than skill and was willing to give it a go regardless.

Plus as someone who was themselves awkward and socially lacking, it felt nice knowing there were communities where I'd fit in. Communities where the people who I didn't get along with in school were nowhere to be seen, and where everyone was in a similar boat.

Nowadays? It feels like expectations for anything you post online are ridiculously high, so anyone who doesn't want their hobby to take up their entire life will just be drowned out by the folks doing it at a near professional level. And the popular kids on social media are the same ones who'd be popular in real life too, with a lot of them being somewhat boring 'normies' posting vapid but easily understandable stuff and getting millions of views for it. It just feels like the internet has gone from a place where the weirdos mess around and post without a care in the world to a non stop virtual equivalent of an American TV high school.

Anyone else feel similarly?

 

[Baker Man]

I wish I was around for that period, I want to see a strange internet without just being edgy or brain rot. I guess we just need some avant-garde nowadays, that's what I think at least. I'm just glad nobody's been like "boo your art sucks" to me, while it does, there's some definite improvement

That's not to say I dislike some edge, I just think it shouldn't be empty edge.

 

[Hotel Horror]

I kinda missed out on the 2000s era of forums, But I do remember playing a bunch of fun, edgy, Mario flash games on my school laptop Instead of doing my school work.

Mario-Combat

Man, those were were the days!

 

[The 3rd Wario Brother]

I do miss lower production values for videos and how the Internet was more luxurious rather than ubiquitous. It felt like a get away from everything rather than the usual way of contacting people. Overall it's hard to say if I prefer back then over now as going back I'd be too spoiled by higher speeds at this point

I wish I was around for that period, I want to see a strange internet without just being edgy or brain rot.

That's not to say I dislike some edge, I just think it shouldn't be empty edge.

You perhaps may not find the YouTube poops or the goths up your alley. Sure you can go earlier than YouTube but you can't go earlier than cringe edge that was day 1

I kinda missed out on the 2000s era of forums, But I do remember playing a bunch of fun, edgy, Mario flash games on my school laptop Instead of doing my school work.

Mario-Combat

Man, those were were the days!

Mario combat was one of many flash games I wish didn't just have one level, definitely high bar for old flash games. And like it has been said a million times yes to all those forums before everything centralized around several sites

 

[CM30]

I definitely don't miss the slower internet speeds, so I'm happy that's changed.

But I think the feeling I didn't articulate well here might be surprise. I miss when going online meant I had no idea what I'd find, and every site or forum visited felt like its own mini adventure. Everywhere you went, the designs would be different, the content would be very different, the community and culture would be different, etc. Honestly, I don't think I ever encountered many of the same people on multiple forums, it was usually a matter of "here's one community of people I talk about Zelda with" and "here's one community I talk about Mario with" if you get what I mean.

 

[NacklesK]

Much like @Baker Man, I wish I would have caught up on it but I'm a bit too young to have known the 2000s of internet. Heck, even the 2010s, my only exposure to the internet was YouTube. But I did kind of experience a bit of the old YouTube though since I didn't grew up watching popular YouTubers. I watched a ton of old Mario and Sonic fan animation.

I did also play a lot of a flash games (Smash Flash and Super Mario 63 were my faves) as a kid. I also loved to play classic Sonic games and ROM Hacks on online emulators as my dad didn't allow me to install emulators out of fear of malware. I always considered video games that predated my generation to be on par with modern games. I was still buying Wii games in 2018 like it was a new gen console lol. Heck, my classmates used to make fun of me for liking Mario and Sonic while the current trendy game was Fortnite by saying "Mario's for kids".... which my answer was "Dude, we're literally 9!".

There's also the expectation thing as @CM30 said. It's a good thing that expectation are higher in a way because it encourages people to do more effort, but it kinda makes it harder to make content now with how polished content has become. At the time, most fan games kinda mixed and matched assets from a lot of game even if it didn't always fit but people didn't care as much back in the day, they will still play it and the fan game could still get very popular. Nowadays, if you use pre-existing assets people will call you out on it. Like look, I'm all for constructive criticism and all but saying a fangame is "low effort" because the dev used ripped assets for a non-profit, 0 bucks budget fan game isn't exactly what I'd call constructive. I get that game engine getting better makes games easier to make but there's still people starting out.

I'm all for the death of modern social media and the return of forums! I've had a lot of fun in here (despite the emptiness) and reading old threads made me want this place back, not gonna lie. The only forum that interested me that has a decent activity was Sonic Stadium. Unfortunately, Wario's too niche too much activity and that's a shame. There's r/Wario but like... have you seen the average post on r/Wario?

 

[CM30]

Yeah, people forget that fan games and other fanworks are well... fan made projects. They're voluntary things done by people with an interest in the series for fun, and shouldn't be held to the same standards as more professionally made works are. Does that mean you can't call out bad design or writing or what not? No of course no, that's going too far (and sadly a problem the fanfic work has right now). But some level of amateurishness should probably be forgiven there, and expectations should be somewhat more realistic as a result.

Subreddits are definitely not a forum alternative either. They feel very... soulless by comparison, and I find it hard to truly get invested in the community there.

Why is that? Well in my opinion, it's because they're so laser focused on one topic that you never really get to know the people that post there. Like on a forum such as this one, people might be fans of the Wario series, but they also discuss everything else about their lives and hobbies too. They have full profiles and avatars and signatures, they casually discuss what games they're playing and TV shows they're watching and how their personal lives are going, and there's a feeling that each member here is a person with their own life outside of the forum, and a personality with somewhat well rounded quirks and interests.

Reddit doesn't really have that. Every member is basically just a name divorced from all context, and you rarely ever encounter them elsewhere on the site discussing other parts of their lives and other interests they may have. So as far as you're concerned, they may as well be bots for as much difference as it makes. You could literally replace every other member with AI, and the community there would feel mostly the same.