4 ms·

The old Internet was definitely my support network, I met a lot of people I could relate to back then, totally different from "IRL people". The Internet is the

by gary_0 2y ago

The old Internet was definitely my support network, I met a lot of people I could relate to back then, totally different from "IRL people". The Internet is the opposite of that for me now. Where did all the weirdo super-introvert nerds go? Do they all feel as lonely as I do?

petre 2y ago
Niche forums and gaming communities? HN? They've grown up, some have become braiwashed by corporate culture, some have wives, kids, dogs, cats, mortgages.
- MarcelOlsz 2y ago
  The grand irony of remote work is I have way more time and money than I did back then, except the net is 'dead' now.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
antisthenes 2y ago
> Where did all the weirdo super-introvert nerds go? Private discords, away from the normies.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  Nah, that's just kids; adults don't have time for following a Discord per every topic they're interested in. Then again, adult life has a way of sucking nerdiness out of people, so maybe OP's right in a way.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    some nerds have private slack or zulip instances
  - antisthenes 2y ago
    > adults don't have time for following a Discord per every topic they're interested in. Funny, I do just that, despite having a bunch of pets and a full-time job - I follow at least 30 game-specific discords. You must be thinking of people compulsively checking notifications like a social media addict? I feel sorry for anyone who uses Discord like that. Thankfully, you don't have to since many communities now have mini-wikis inside of the Discord to organize the FAQ/common knowledge.
- animex 2y ago
  lol not discord. we are in IRC.
  - glimshe 2y ago
    Where? I miss IRC so badly, but don't know where to go there.
    - behringer 2y ago
      Liberal chat. We're also on discord and Mastodon.
      - behringer 2y ago
        Libera chat*
    - MarcelOlsz 2y ago
      Same. I'm just 'floating around' now. Good times in #startups ages ago.
    - dijit 2y ago
      I run a small network, but this might come across as advertising. It’s been running for 20 years now. People come and go, but its wild how the community spirit largely remains, even with significant changes in the lifestyle of the people that have been frequenting the network for a large segment of that time. anyway, the network is: * ircs://irc.darkscience.net:6697/darkscience * https://darkscience.net https://darkscience.net * https://www.darkscience.net/webirc/ https://www.darkscience.net/webirc/
rezmason 2y ago
As others mentioned, there are Discord and IRC pockets. I'm in a Fediverse community with a bunch of nerds, and many of us just met in person at this week's Handmade conference. You can watch the entire conference here. I want to disclaim that not every attendee and talk is nerdy. It's more that this is a space where nerds are thriving. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2306676590 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2306676590 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2307512869 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2307512869
- jjav 2y ago
  > As others mentioned, there are Discord and IRC pockets. Ah, discord, the proprietary service that demands a phone number just to be able to read anything (so I've never been able to). Basically the exact opposite of IRC.
armchairhacker 2y ago
Most likely 1. Fear and embarrassment. Back then the expectation was that online you were anonymous, today you constantly hear about doxxing. People were also less aware of the consequences.Even if it's unlikely for some random person, that doesn't help introverts. 2. Outnumbered. Back then the internet was mostly weird people, so most posts including the popular ones were weird. Today, "new" and "random" are filled with spam, and "popular" is filled with posts upvoted by "normies". Weird posts and posters are still here, but they're obscured by the noise. 3. Feedback. People imitate what they see, and feel more comfortable following trends. When "normal" people see weird posts, they become weird and make weird posts. When weird people see weird posts, they feel safer and make weird posts. When normal people see non-weird posts, they make non-weird posts. When weird people don't see weird posts, they feel embarrassed making weird posts, so post non-weird or not at all. I think 3 is the biggest factor, caused by 2. As other people mentioned, "weird" people are still on servers that are private or otherwise hidden from the mainstream (preventing 2 and 3). 1 is probably not a big factor, instead it explains why less people show their face or post identifying details.
- subsection1h 2y ago
  > Back then the expectation was that online you were anonymous [...] Back then the internet was mostly weird people, so most posts including the popular ones were weird. What years are you referring to when you say "back then"? In the early 90s, which was "the old Internet" for me, the best contributors to discussions on the newsgroups I followed (comp.lang.c, etc.) weren't anonymous; they were well-educated people who used their real names, including academics whose signatures included URLs like http://example.edu/~jsmith http://example.edu/~jsmith. And their posts weren't weird, at least not on the newsgroups I followed.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    The cohort immediately after you described - those geeks grew up along with growth of videogame market, IMs, and birth of multi-player gaming on the Internet. People who were still geeks, and learned from all those academics and realname adults, but who also had to come up with nicknames early on, and got used to pseudonymity this way.

by gary_0 2y ago

petre 2y ago

Niche forums and gaming communities? HN? They've grown up, some have become braiwashed by corporate culture, some have wives, kids, dogs, cats, mortgages.

MarcelOlsz 2y ago
The grand irony of remote work is I have way more time and money than I did back then, except the net is 'dead' now.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

antisthenes 2y ago

> Where did all the weirdo super-introvert nerds go? Private discords, away from the normies.

TeMPOraL 2y ago
Nah, that's just kids; adults don't have time for following a Discord per every topic they're interested in. Then again, adult life has a way of sucking nerdiness out of people, so maybe OP's right in a way.
- fragmede 2y ago
  some nerds have private slack or zulip instances
- antisthenes 2y ago
  > adults don't have time for following a Discord per every topic they're interested in. Funny, I do just that, despite having a bunch of pets and a full-time job - I follow at least 30 game-specific discords. You must be thinking of people compulsively checking notifications like a social media addict? I feel sorry for anyone who uses Discord like that. Thankfully, you don't have to since many communities now have mini-wikis inside of the Discord to organize the FAQ/common knowledge.
animex 2y ago
lol not discord. we are in IRC.
- glimshe 2y ago
  Where? I miss IRC so badly, but don't know where to go there.
  - behringer 2y ago
    Liberal chat. We're also on discord and Mastodon.
    - behringer 2y ago
      Libera chat*
  - MarcelOlsz 2y ago
    Same. I'm just 'floating around' now. Good times in #startups ages ago.
  - dijit 2y ago
    I run a small network, but this might come across as advertising. It’s been running for 20 years now. People come and go, but its wild how the community spirit largely remains, even with significant changes in the lifestyle of the people that have been frequenting the network for a large segment of that time. anyway, the network is: * ircs://irc.darkscience.net:6697/darkscience * https://darkscience.net https://darkscience.net * https://www.darkscience.net/webirc/ https://www.darkscience.net/webirc/

rezmason 2y ago

As others mentioned, there are Discord and IRC pockets. I'm in a Fediverse community with a bunch of nerds, and many of us just met in person at this week's Handmade conference. You can watch the entire conference here. I want to disclaim that not every attendee and talk is nerdy. It's more that this is a space where nerds are thriving. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2306676590 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2306676590 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2307512869 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2307512869

jjav 2y ago
> As others mentioned, there are Discord and IRC pockets. Ah, discord, the proprietary service that demands a phone number just to be able to read anything (so I've never been able to). Basically the exact opposite of IRC.

armchairhacker 2y ago

Most likely 1. Fear and embarrassment. Back then the expectation was that online you were anonymous, today you constantly hear about doxxing. People were also less aware of the consequences.Even if it's unlikely for some random person, that doesn't help introverts. 2. Outnumbered. Back then the internet was mostly weird people, so most posts including the popular ones were weird. Today, "new" and "random" are filled with spam, and "popular" is filled with posts upvoted by "normies". Weird posts and posters are still here, but they're obscured by the noise. 3. Feedback. People imitate what they see, and feel more comfortable following trends. When "normal" people see weird posts, they become weird and make weird posts. When weird people see weird posts, they feel safer and make weird posts. When normal people see non-weird posts, they make non-weird posts. When weird people don't see weird posts, they feel embarrassed making weird posts, so post non-weird or not at all. I think 3 is the biggest factor, caused by 2. As other people mentioned, "weird" people are still on servers that are private or otherwise hidden from the mainstream (preventing 2 and 3). 1 is probably not a big factor, instead it explains why less people show their face or post identifying details.

subsection1h 2y ago
> Back then the expectation was that online you were anonymous [...] Back then the internet was mostly weird people, so most posts including the popular ones were weird. What years are you referring to when you say "back then"? In the early 90s, which was "the old Internet" for me, the best contributors to discussions on the newsgroups I followed (comp.lang.c, etc.) weren't anonymous; they were well-educated people who used their real names, including academics whose signatures included URLs like http://example.edu/~jsmith http://example.edu/~jsmith. And their posts weren't weird, at least not on the newsgroups I followed.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  The cohort immediately after you described - those geeks grew up along with growth of videogame market, IMs, and birth of multi-player gaming on the Internet. People who were still geeks, and learned from all those academics and realname adults, but who also had to come up with nicknames early on, and got used to pseudonymity this way.