For me, it was that the Internet never forgets and that you should never enter your real name. In my opinion, both of these rules are now completely ignored.
Don’t pick up the phone if someone is online… I’m old
I’m a millennial, I learned this, and now I just don’t pick up the phone.
It’s weird when someone calls me and it’s actually a live one.
I’m a gen z and I can’t put down the phone
Now try and call someone with it. I’ll wait
Feel free to call me whenever, it only costs you $69 a minute.
Don’t call them, it’s just them screaming " NOT THE BEES!" Over and over again for a minute, weirdest wank ever.
Hot damn! Where’s my wallet!?
I can’t remember. Did it make pterodactyl noises or is that just faxes?
You come from a nice family. My family disconnected each other all the time
That, together with: I’m online, watch out for the ca… “No carrier”
I’m not that old but was dealing with that in the mid-2000s before my parents finally switched.
Social media killed online aliases and I have a hard time deciding if we’re all worse for it.
Instinctively I still stick by that, though, as you can tell by my anonymous profile with no bio, but when I volunteer any amount of personal info these days people are often confused that I’m not sharing openly who I am or where I’m from. Every time someone does that it weirds me out because in the 90s telling (and asking) people those things would have been such a suspicious, sketchy move.
Facebook tried that shit with me. Ban until I sent verification of my ID so I sent a paystub photoshopped (badly) with my alias, it was accepted and it’s still there even though I left FB years ago.
I wish they would ban me. I haven’t logged in in over 15 years and even block several of their servers, and yet I still get mails that someone in there commented on something.
Oh I get zero notifications, but the only real reason I haven’t taken it down is that my posts from IG are cross posted there for the business, which I have to have to advertise our specials because of the boomers that use it daily.
Can you not unsubscribe?
Every time someone does that it weirds me out because in the 90s telling (and asking) people those things would have been such a suspicious, sketchy move.
And now it’s come 180 in that some see it as a red flag if you don’t give up that information. I had someone on a different social media site accuse me of being a bot because I wouldn’t give up the specific town I’m from. I’ve seen it happen to others too. It is both fascinating and insane how viewpoints have changed regarding identifying yourself online.
When reading a long text, disconnect from the internet as soon as it has loaded so you don’t pay for the time you spend reading.
I remember doing that to read and write my answers in forums. Then someone had already posted the same comment or a better version.

(Except other dogs, and we meet every night on irc:#awoo)
This shit’s still true. I bet you’re taking me seriously as you read this and everything.
Me too, thanks.
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” -Abraham Lincoln
Social media, a gorilla getting shot, two US elections, and GenAI later, we have completely fallen off this one simple rule.
deleted by creator
Don’t give your credit card details over the internet.
Nowadays people have them saved in their damn browser for convenience.
Credit card usually isn’t so bad. It’s usually pretty easy to dispute charges etc, debit card on the other hand…no way that’s getting saved
I learned as a kid playing star craft that there are noobs and newbs. Newbs are people new to a game who need help learning. And a noob is someone who has played for a while and refuses to learn and would rather troll.
Just made me realize the term is just a shortened form of newbie.
Damn noob ;-)
I’ve heard this one phrased: “Newbs deserve a helping hand. Noobs deserve a kicking.”
GG ez noobs.
No re?
Hahaha I used to have a shirt from “Jinx” back when they were cool that said “I eat Nøøbs”.
And “Play in your world. Get pwnd in mine.”
Wouldn’t be caught dead in those now. But haha it was amusing in ~2005.
It was a simpler time where a shirt that simply said “gamer” wouldn’t get you socially sneered at.
Haha that reminds me of a shirt I had around '08/'09 that just said “Awesomesauce.” I kind of miss the silly stuff like that and the shirts you mentioned. It really does seem like it was a simpler time :) Nowadays life is pwning me left and right!
I’ve never heard the terms were treated differently. A troll was just called a troll.
Hm, well, there are trolls and there are trawls
How do you pronounce newb ?
Likely contentious but my experience has been “newb” has a slight vocal raising to indicate light-heartedness, ie:
Noob: no͞ob Newb: nyo͞ob
cheers
Basic forum etiquette. It’s horrifying at work seeing teams “teams” (forums) used like chats, all the cross-posting and thread necromancy, people completely unable to keep topics confined to the appropriate sub-forum, etc
thread necromancy
AKA “discussing something with new information more than 31 seconds after people got bored of it”
Necroposting is a slur by the terminally online against normal people trying to get shot done. They’re the reason why every Google search that leads to a forum ends with some guy asking your question and being told to start a new thread instead.
some guy asking your question and being told to start a new thread instead.
If it’s done within a reasonable time period, it’s understandable. Hours or a day or two later depending on the forum.
It’s different when someone saunters in years later with the “I’ve got the same problem!” quip to a post that may or may not actually be the same, and actually expects a response. That, to me, is necroposting.
This is the attitude that leads us to search results polluted with forum threads with bad, unchallengeable ideas (because they’re locked). Almost all web1 forum are becoming digital flotsam because of these bad moderator opinions.
This is the attitude that leads us to search results polluted with forum threads with bad, unchallengeable ideas (because they’re locked). Almost all web1 forum are becoming digital flotsam because of these bad moderator opinions.
I thing you replied to the wrong comment, buddy. Nothing in your comment makes any sense in the context of my comment that you replied to. Nowhere did I say anything about locking threads or moderation.
The very idea of necroposting is the basis for these moderator opinions. It is not a neutral term, the idea of necroposting is a negative attitude toward all late posts, it is a permission that all moderators give themselves to delete late posts, lock threads or even, auto lock after a determined period of inactivity. It makes these ideas, prominent on search result into literally unassailable answers. Which is the secret desire of all moderators, to decide the final word.
I think you are ascribing to an entire community that which only a few descend to.
I’ve been a mod on forums before, and my only concern was keeping the signal::noise ratio high. In that regard, new “I’ve got the same problem” posts made many months or years after the current thread had gotten wrapped up only increases the noise; a new thread is far more appropriate for the latecomer and anyone who replies to them than continuing to use the old thread.
The difference is temporal, and dependent on the activity level of the forum in question: highly active forums should see new threads spawned after only a few days or weeks, slow forums could see follow-up comments in the original thread still being appropriate many months or even years later.
Being a good mod isn’t about power or control, it is ensuring the forum operates as effectively as possible for it’s users. Sometimes that means spawning new threads, locking old ones, or even banning bad-faith or misbehaving users. Once you moderate, you discover very quickly that moderation is a highly grey zone, with surprisingly little black or white.
I see necroposting as when it’s someone coming by months or years after the discussion is over and not bringing much of value to the table. So it’s more to do with the value of the contribution than the timeframe
In a forum system that sorts by last comment that can be annoying. Which is why most systems seem to have moved away from that, it was one of the big innovations of reddit back when it started. But in a format where it doesn’t get more visibility for getting comments I don’t see why it’s a bad thing, just stop reading when you deem the topic done.
During thr brief window between reddit apps dying and the old archive rule being revoked getting comments on old tech support posts with follow ups and/or additional questions was pretty great, and definitely worth the occasional whitenoise posts (“thanks!” " seeing the same problem in 2024" “I clearly didn’t read the whole thread and am asking something already answered” etc etc).
In a forum system that sorts by last comment that can be annoying.
I’ll be real, I entirely forgot that was a thing. Why are you reviving terrible memories like that?!
How is that really different from the same comment 2 second after. It just isn’t.
Just ban hammer low the value commenters don’t lock the thread for moderator convenience.
Been to the Arch forum too ey? :p
I remember being taught in school to apply source criticism, and that seems to have largely died as a concept.
This was back in the early 2000s…
Internet is a proper noun and should always be capitalized.
THE Internet is a proper noun.
AN internet is an network of networks and is just a thing; like an intranet is.
This is the pedantry I came here for!
I never knew this until I realized my phone capitalizes it automatically.
Never click an ad
It’s easy for people to understand with banner ads but sponsored links seem to trip them up.
Don’t top post.
Gmail is super annoying at this, there is no way to automatically turn this off. I just have to delete the ellipsis every damn time
I like to think I’m reasonably intelligent but whatever the heck Gmail does with its reply “conversation” order absolutely bamboozles me. It decides to just hide messages in the middle seemingly at random too, and gives them all reply buttons.
Agh!
… except when it’s a forwarded convo and then it’s okay, as per 1855.
And then when is a conversation NOT a comment or update to something you’ve forwarded back? The answer is never.
So it’s all good.
Came here to say that. It actually predates common internet usage - Fidonet was a much bigger thing through the 80s and early 90s than emails, and BBS forums used it to distribute messages.
Properly quote only what you are replying to. Quote a line, reply to it. Repeat on multiple points.
Then wait a few days for a reply, of course, unless they were dialling into the same BBS.
Now we have boards like this that do a pretty good job about displaying context and quoting is less needed.
On the Internet I grew up on, pretty much anything was ok except to discuss (or even speculate about) the real-world identities of users who didn’t very openly disclose them.
Now many people think the latter is ok.
Don’t talk to strangers.
Searching things is easy so don’t post something without checking it. People now don’t make the slightest effort to verify a rumor or conspiracy crap.
and, conversely, posting things you have “verified”
“You’re wrong! I was able to prove it with a quick Google!”
Your knowledge coming from a ‘quick google’ isn’t the flex you think it is. Most things that can be proven with a quick google are false.
Ah, defending no research. Gotcha
The same people who warned us about the dangers of the internet and not to believe everything, are now the ones readily falling for and spreading conspiracies and lies from social media.
It’s tragic.
I suspect now it was never about “don’t believe everything”, it’s just been “believe what I believe”. Which I suppose follows Nietzsche’s thought on the transition from religion to ideology.




















