A memory of the old network

You know, I’ve often heard about what the internet was like back in the old days. And that got me thinking: when did I actually first encounter the internet as such? I guess it was in 2006. The WAP internet available on cell phones was super expensive. And even when we finally figured out how to set it up properly, the rates were, well, so-so—around 35 cents per megabyte (those were the rates from 2008–2010). So for us, the internet meant ICQ. We did a lot of things there using bots: reading Wikipedia, playing games, hanging out in big chat rooms, playing online games—hell, I even read the book Hitman: Enemy Within right there in ICQ. And I was introduced to Cyberpunk 2020 (though I had no idea how to play tabletop games like that; years later, I learned what tabletop role-playing games were). The internet on computers was super slow. Back in 2008–2009, we’d download games that were 3–5 gigabytes each. And that took a whole day. God, what a strange time that was. And the Pentium 3, which was already ancient by then, meant something deeply personal to me. Mount & Blade, CS 1.6. And when I came here, I remembered that feeling I’d lost—the feeling of when you actually had to go online. You had to log into ICQ specifically, or to get online, you’d literally click on the app and the connection would start. A constant connection wasn’t the default. It was a strange time, after all. Now, years later, it’s amazing to see how the internet is everywhere and people are online 24/7. Social media is constantly part of our lives—all kinds of platforms—and they’re full of ads, algorithms, and so on. The internet has become a huge business platform.

There are a lot of projects where people are trying to bring back that free internet from the past. But I don't think that's very likely. I really want this project to be a safe haven, and to stay that way. Thank you.

Sincerely, KeKeR