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In those days, you'd use FTP a lot. And Archie, a search engine for FTP sites. IRC and usenet also existed as popular ways of online communication before the w

by Luyt 16y ago

In those days, you'd use FTP a lot. And Archie, a search engine for FTP sites. IRC and usenet also existed as popular ways of online communication before the web, and email of course ;-). Somewhat later Gopher servers came into being, and you could use Veronica to search gopherspace.

Keyframe 16y ago
Not to mention MUDs.
- chrisduesing 16y ago
  Which, perhaps surprisingly, are still alive and well to this day: http://www.mudconnect.com/ http://www.mudconnect.com/ Incidentally I was an advertising major until I found MUDs in 93 and practically failed out of the program. I switched to CS so I could learn to make my own, and here we are 17 years later...
kls 16y ago
There was also WAIS, which was interesting in it own respect. you would open "databases" across the net and search for info that you where interested in. A lot of counterculture stuff was available as well as a lot of good programming documents. The process got pretty cumbersome after the net expanded past the universities and government establishments. It did not scale well. To the GP poster. I can remember a time before the net (it seems like yesterday) and back then we had local BBS services that some tech guy, in the local community, usually ran. There where also some regional and national BBS networks. They would advertise them in the back of DR. Dobb's and some of the other computer hobbyist magazines. In some ways, that was a cooler time to be into computing, everything was new, everything was exclusive because it took some technical know how to get onto these networks. Small things where groundbreaking developments back then. Computers where slow so you had to be resourceful and creative when developing. Don't get me wrong, I love where we have come, but back then there was a sense of being part of a revolution, it may just have been because, I was a little younger than you are now, but it seemed so much more fascinating back then.

by Luyt 16y ago

Keyframe 16y ago

Not to mention MUDs.

chrisduesing 16y ago
Which, perhaps surprisingly, are still alive and well to this day: http://www.mudconnect.com/ http://www.mudconnect.com/ Incidentally I was an advertising major until I found MUDs in 93 and practically failed out of the program. I switched to CS so I could learn to make my own, and here we are 17 years later...

kls 16y ago

There was also WAIS, which was interesting in it own respect. you would open "databases" across the net and search for info that you where interested in. A lot of counterculture stuff was available as well as a lot of good programming documents. The process got pretty cumbersome after the net expanded past the universities and government establishments. It did not scale well. To the GP poster. I can remember a time before the net (it seems like yesterday) and back then we had local BBS services that some tech guy, in the local community, usually ran. There where also some regional and national BBS networks. They would advertise them in the back of DR. Dobb's and some of the other computer hobbyist magazines. In some ways, that was a cooler time to be into computing, everything was new, everything was exclusive because it took some technical know how to get onto these networks. Small things where groundbreaking developments back then. Computers where slow so you had to be resourceful and creative when developing. Don't get me wrong, I love where we have come, but back then there was a sense of being part of a revolution, it may just have been because, I was a little younger than you are now, but it seemed so much more fascinating back then.