It was so fun back then. Not the yelling and moaning we have going on today.
Here on Lemmy, even in non-political discussions some is always whining about the current president or whatever.
Or calling for alt voices to be banned.
Back in the 80’s computer stuff and conversation was more fun and not so freakin’ political.
It was about games, DYI, trying to learn to hack, learning the new tech. It was awesome!
I was part of it, but not as much as I could have been because I was in a small town and couldn’t afford a lot. But I def had a foot in the scene, and it was awesome!
I grew up in rural NM and was in elementary school in the early 80s. My school was not much, multiple years I had more than one grade in my classroom. We had a total of about 60 students on a high year. But we had a very progressive principal who applied for every computer grant he could. We had a Tandy computer in every classroom, complete with tape drive, and a wall of computers in the library, including two that had dual 5.25” floppy drives.
Shortly after that I convinced my parents to buy a computer, I was 8 or 9. I wanted an Apple, but because of the larger variety of programs and games available for the IBM clone we went that route.
In 88 or 89 I skipped school with a friend and we ended up at the university in town and someone got us onto the internet and playing an Amber MUD. By high school I had dial up internet and have been online since. I am still in touch with some of the people I met back then, I married one of them.
I miss when people would balk at the idea of email and the internet in general.
I think you have a few rose lenses between you and your memories. There was a reason why FidoNet, say, had a bunch of nicknames like “FIght-o-Net” back then. The things people argued about weren’t all that different from now.
Hmmm, maybe. But I don’t remember it being nearly as prominent right now. Here on Lemmy, post a picture of a cute dog and prepare for replies with variations of, “Yeah, well now that Trump is president, get used to not being able to afford a dog!” or “Wow, look at that. I’ll never be able to afford a house now. Since fascists voted in a dictator. The closest I’ll get to a dog is having to eat dog food because it’s all I can afford on my way to the deathcamps!”
Ugh, it just EVERYWHERE now. Also back then it seemed to be smarter people arguing because the cost of admission was higher to get into the computer world–both in intelligence and money.
But to your point, I wasn’t THAT smart or rich, so I guess I was never in the hardcore argument worlds. I was reading BASIC magazine and trying to write cool programs that showed colored lines. BBS was more of “OMG I am talking to someone in another state without using the mail!” lolol
That’s just raw numbers.
If one in 100,000 people are total shitheels, in an environment with a million users (and I don’t think FidoNet was anywhere NEAR that size ever!) you’ve got ten total shitheels.
Today there’s 5.5 billion people on the Internet. That would be over half a million total shitheels that can interact with you.
I was young, early teens in the mid to late 80s, so I remember the time but not particularly fondly.
