This essay brought back memories from the last millenia, from the IRC / ICQ / webchat days. Except things were much simpler then, and the whole point of chattin

This essay brought back memories from the last millenia, from the IRC / ICQ / webchat days. Except things were much simpler then, and the whole point of chatting with someone was to meet them IRL (OK, I was young back then, maybe older people had different motives). And the least important thing about it was how "realistic" of an experience it was, because of the textual interface things were very restricted anyway, but in hindsight it was all the better for it.