Nobody thinks the modern Internet is more friendly. But it takes some fanciful memory tricks to don the rose tinted glasses when comparing it to the pre-commerc

Nobody thinks the modern Internet is more friendly. But it takes some fanciful memory tricks to don the rose tinted glasses when comparing it to the pre-commercial net. Yes the bad stuff is greatly amplified today. But absolutely everything that you can say that made it "better back then" is actually still here today. That was my point. Even the crime. Today, kiddy porn is sorta kinda hidden on the deep/dark web. Back then, it was all over the news groups and IRC, out in the open. And the luring was exactly the same as it is today. How is that a better Internet? Pre-commercial Internet was not friendly. There were just fewer people being hostile compared to today. 4chan would easily have fit in, and indeed there were many similar groups and sites back then. But now everybody and their grandma is on the net and can see it happening and easily become targets (just like it was back then!). And other than population size of netizens, that really is the only difference in behaviours. More people doing the same things. New wine, old bottles.