Nostalgia for websites/forums from one's first internet experience

Shockwave was renamed Nick Mom? What?

I think.

My first encounters of the Internet I had were pretty weird. I was a perverted little shit even back in Primary 4, so I searched up some pretty weird stuff. I came across this anonymous storytelling board or something, and yes, most of its members were adults. There were mentions of the Kanye West interrupting incident and some of the members had usernames like Dick-something or Napalm-something. The stories were also pretty weird, and I tried to post a fictional story of my own, but the members mentioned earlier told me it had to be a real story that is weird.

Eventually my parents and my therapist found out about the site I'm visiting and told me it's not good for my innocent mind.

Oh God why.

I don't even remember what exactly my first encounters with the Internet were, but I do remember that at age 5, I somehow managed to download Bonzi Buddy onto my mother's computer. My parents were PISSED.

As for old sites that I miss, well, I used to really like the Netscape home page for some reason. I also used to frequent the American Girl website, the Disney Channel website and Whyville way back in the day. I'd go back to them for shits and giggles, but most of the games that I remember from the American Girl and Disney channel sites are gone and Whyville was just a cesspool of shit to begin with. I honestly only went for the games.

Update: I have found a lot of the old Kim Possible games from the Disney Channel site, but that's about it. Shame, since I really miss Sandwich Stacker and Raven Pinball.

edited 10th Jan '17 7:02:25 PM by Explosivo25

Game FAQS was my first forum/message board. Used to find all the information for any game I happened to be playing there. Going there now is nowhere near the same.

I just remembered I used to go on those Dollz Mania dress up sites all the time.

These things.

The first forum I ever joined was the filefront forums back when Dawn of war was first released,from there I joined the Relic news boards (which are closing down at the end of this month after 15 of service ) then I decided I wanted to join other forums too so I sighed up to a bunch,including this one back,Janitor had just passed the admin role to Eddie,I think they shared the position or something,can't remember

All I know is,I have been on many forums,far too many in fact,I should have stuck to one or two

edited 15th Jan '17 4:26:45 PM by Ultimatum

I miss the old Neopets.

While I wasn't aware of Neo Pets the time I was younger, after looking at it's history, it's really sad what a business decision can do to one fun, small game.

My family first got internet access back in 1999 thanks to something called Web TV (man, this video takes me back...). I remembered one of the first things my mom did with it (probably because my brothers and I were in the room, was go to Nintendo's official site, where we discovered that a sequel to Mario Party was happening.

Back then (much like now), I was a big-time Nintendo fanboy, and hung out a lot on The Mushroom Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Headquarters (yes, I saw the very first Sprite Comic, Neglected Mario Characters, back when it was still in its infancy). I also remember, despite not being a big Pokemon fan, nor a fan of shipping even then, looking at "Ash & Misty's Love" with morbid curiosity.

We had Web TV for about a year or so before we got an actual computer (Windows ME. Oh yes, the stories were true. God, what a terrible operating system.)

As for forums, I didn't really get involved in forums until about 2003 where I became a member of SuperHeroHype (mostly to talk about MTV's Spider-Man cartoon. VGF (and YES, I did have a sprite comic of my own).

I could also discuss my experiences with other old sites (like how Newgrounds actually changed my life), but I feel this post has gotten long and boring enough already.

Gamespot was the first forum I joined it was in 2005. 10 years after I was first on the Internet. I wasted 8 years on Gamespot.

I also was a member of Cartoon Network. I used to play the games and collect and trade stickers on that site.

I also joined Chucktv.net I think that's what it was called I forget the name. It was a forum for fans of Chuck.

edited 16th Jan '17 6:10:04 AM by Halberdier17

Eh. Most of the sites that I hanged out on early on - Newgrounds, YouTube, Bulbagarden are still alive and well.

But the first fansite I personally found was a Finnish One Piece site. I don't have much clear memories about it.

Also, the first webcomic I read was Brawl in the Family. Sniff. I really miss it.

God, my early days were hella weird.

First website I that I was presented was YT (thanks to a cousin). First vid I watched was one of Daft Punk's Animesque music videos. Somehow.
That was back in, idk, 2008? The site was still kinda young at that year.

Started off on Facebook, where at that time there was little to no adult obnoxiousness. I did things that would surely get me sent to Weeaboo Rehabilitation™: Fangirling on Hatsune Miku and/or screaming constantly about Vocaloid. Oh, and also somehow, Haruhi Suzumiya. Make of that what you will.

When I somehow got intro'd to Rage Comics, Annoying Orange and basically now-stale memes (thanks again, cousin), I somehow was REALLY invested in them. Browsed Memebase or whatever it is now. Even wanted to make a Rage Comic manga and Annoying Orange fanime (I was, like, 11? Again, stuff that could get me sent to weeb rehab.)
In the same year, I still was a Vocaloid weeb, who found out about UTAU, and tried to make one by mercilessly and obliviously plagiarizing another person's wiki page. Basically, what followed suit was the first time that I ever got banned.

Weird old days.

My first site online was this site called "Ology" which was this science website for young kids.

Not sure if it's still a thing or not.

I remember there used to be "shrine" websites dedicated to certain anime characters. Those were always fun to visit. :)

..Those sound creepy if I'm honest

My first forum was the orignal forums for the Gamemaker Engine. There were confusing times to be had, very confusing indeed... That said, the first forum where I am consistently active is Tvtropes, which is really cool!

Have I ever talked about Bob's Animal Fights on this thread? If so, I can look back at my time at mangafox.

I was a little shit, basically. I got hard into Fullmetal Alchemist at the tail end of its run, I was excited to be part of a community that loved FMA as much as I did, and because of that I was a little "overenthusiastic". I liked messaging people, I liked posting weird awkward stories, I loved interpreting playful prodding as harassment and trolling. I was no good.

Have things changed? You, the reader can decide for yourselves.

edited 15th Jun '17 11:44:26 PM by mrsunshinesprinkles

I've been using the Internet for as long as I can remember, way back when I was preschool age and could just barely read (c. 2000). The first sites I can recall browsing were the official sites of major kids' TV networks; Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, etc.

Yeah I know this sounds nostalgic, but it's really kinda sad that most of my early life (and still to the present day) has been defined by my addiction to digital media, instead of doing anything really cool in the real world.

I used to want to give every virtual world a chance. I've played on Barbie Girls, Club Penguin, Dizzywood, Habbo Hotel, Fantage, Gaia Online, Kidscom, Moshi Monsters, MovieStarPlanet, Neopets, Nicktropolis, Panfu, Penguin Chat, Poptropica, Rune Scape, Second Life, SuperSecret, tinierMe, Tootsville, Virtual Magic Kingdom, Webkinz, Whyville...

(I'm gonna be real here: I still play Club Penguin Rewritten and Webkinz.)

"Gee, Assassin, did you ever go outside?" Well uh anyways I remember the game sites I used to play on too. Mainly AddictingGames and Miniclip. I remember Club Penguin and Miniclip used to be affiliated.

Man, for years I'd thought of Miniclip as a kids' game site (I'd always have it open as a safe window if my parents walked by), but there's apparently a girls' volleyball game on there where you can put in a code to unlock a topless mode.

edited 19th Jun '17 6:53:29 PM by Assassin-sensei

Don't know if the people here are old enough as me to remember DMOZ, but it's dead now. RIP!!!!

I remember DMOZ. It's how I found the furry fandom.

I watched this video (it seems that this is a reupload, and the original version is gone) when I was a kid, and it actually traumatized me. At least the other commenters seem to agree...

Well, at least it felt good to dislike the video.

edited 11th Jul '17 6:46:26 PM by DrNoPuma

Eyemaze. I remember my internet days when I was 10 years old playing in this website. I found it when my sister bookmarked it on our family computer. I rediscovered it when I was randomly searching in Youtube when I found a Grow Planet walkthrough.

I'm old, so my memories are of things I found on Yahoo (back when it was a hierarchical Web directory and not a portal)...the Useless Pages, early memes like Ate My Balls, things like that. I think I even ran into the Pm in Pmwiki's "combustible Pop-Tart" page back then at some point.

As for forums, Web forums didn't really exist in 1995, so I spent a lot of time on Usenet.