your internet story

movingtables

movingtables

movingtables

Soldato
Joined
11 Feb 2004
Posts
3,343
Location
TheWirral
I was 22 years old (i'm now 39 ) and i was bored silly.
I was never a sociable lad so didnt go out at all really.

Then one day i was flicking through a PC mag and a compuserve internet
disc fell out.. and the rest they say is history.

I played quake 1 online for 4 years every night on 56k modem.
best game ever and never been beaten.

I then discovered a chat room, Lineone, later named Tiscali chat.
I was hooked and to this day i still use a chatroom daily.
although the internet filled a void in my life i can't help but look back
and feel it consumed me.
I actualy believe i am addicted to the internet, but am i?
the net is a way of life now and maybe i have just embraced it?

how did you get here?
 
Started on AOL, I believe. Kept ringing up to complain about speed and cancel toward the end of 30 day trial, so they kept extending it.

Eventually got a second phone line installed and moved to BT Anywhere (I think it was), which had fee-free usage with a 1-hour limit/cut-off. Got told off by them a few times by logging in using the account while round mates' houses etc. for parties so they wouldn't incur phone charges.

Gaming wise... Air Attack on Wireplay! :D

Chatting... the old days of IRC, ICQ etc. Spending forever waiting for an Mp3 to download from Napster or Livewire (was it called Livewire?), ripping and encoding CDs to Mp3 via command prompt utils that took forever. Ah, those were the days.
 
I started out around 2000, mainly using the Linkin Park forums and getting banned several times - it was where I first settled upon my username which I've continued to use to this day. Now I mainly use the OcUK forums and have been banned several times - under the same username as those heady teenage years.

Another ten years and I'll be an accomplished (and regularly banned) mumsnet user, I already have a couple of sleeper accounts there.
 
An ex Mrs I was living with wanted a computer for college work, we bought a new PC and I then took it over playing Kingpin with a mate, I was overly impressed that I could be playing in a server with a mate who lived the other side of the City.

I still fondly remember the dialling tone of the 56k and waiting 4-5 minutes for a web page to fully load, only to then click off it again :D
 
One of the first things I recall is mIRC. Asl/pls?

I also recall looking for books in the library for a report I had and someone suggested I use the "Internet". Unfortunately, the Altavista search offered bugger all.
 
AOL 28k
AOL Chat Rooms
Splatterball
First website, on GTA
128k ISDN
TFC
mIRC on Quakenet
More TFC
Random 0800 dialup numbers
ICQ
Freelancer
CS:S
Eve-Online
OcUK
Present Day

That's it more or less.

Usernames were Fingers (WH40K character, too young to realise) > Strider (LoTR books) > Struder (LoTR films and everyone started using mine) > Russinating (real name based/less geeky)
 
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Theophany said:
Another ten years and I'll be an accomplished (and regularly banned) mumsnet user, I already have a couple of sleeper accounts there.
Click to expand...

One day we're all going to be reading about you on the news. Probable stories include "Self styled super villain taunts police as wool shop siege enters second week".
 
Theophany said:
Now I mainly use the OcUK forums and have been banned several times - under the same username as those heady teenage years.
Click to expand...

What have you been banned for on here?

Theophany said:
Another ten years and I'll be an accomplished (and regularly banned) mumsnet user, I already have a couple of sleeper accounts there.
Click to expand...

We should have a regular OCUK meetup on mumsnet to stir things up a bit :D
 
I started in 1996 when i bought my first house. I was on AOL with my trusty 9.6k modem that my dad gave me. It was good enough for ICQ and IRC. It wasn't till a year later that i got a 28.8 USR modem and discovered QuakeWorld and Quake 2
 
Initially used modem just to link up with a friend to play games when I was in the US. I didn't have a credit card so could not get an ISP. When I came back in about 97 or 8 I was on 56k mainly playing games. Then had ISDN and opened the net to baiting people and manhandling myself.
 
Mr Badger said:
One day we're all going to be reading about you on the news. Probable stories include "Self styled super villain taunts police as wool shop siege enters second week".
Click to expand...

You sir, have given me an aspiration!

Blazin23 said:
What have you been banned for on here?



We should have a regular OCUK meetup on mumsnet to stir things up a bit :D
Click to expand...

A fair few offences here and there, there are a few Dons whose ban hammers seem to get twitchy around my posts.

I'm sure we could orchestrate some kind of mumsnet raid. I think there was an incident a few years back where there was some inter-forum drama. Failing goading mumsnet, we could always branch out and have a pop at miscers over on the Body Building forums. :D
 
Had dial up with telewest/ntl I think and stayed with them since , now vm.

All I remember is playing Delta Force mp, was really fun, I would sometimes bunk off school to go home and play the game.

How I regret that!!!
 
Theophany said:
A fair few offences here and there, there are a few Dons whose ban hammers seem to get twitchy around my posts.

I'm sure we could orchestrate some kind of mumsnet raid. I think there was an incident a few years back where there was some inter-forum drama. Failing goading mumsnet, we could always branch out and have a pop at miscers over on the Body Building forums. :D
Click to expand...

Well I must admit.. your posts do make my hammer a little twitchy..

And there's nothing like a little bit of inter-forum drama :)

[FnG]magnolia;25793180 said:
I'm going to get a little bit shirty if any of you SO starts messing around with mumsnet, I tell you what. That's sacred ground!
Click to expand...

What are you gonna do magnolly? Warn them of the impending 'raid'

I think we should send Michael Ceratops their way
 
Unluckyalf said:
I started in 1996 when i bought my first house. I was on AOL with my trusty 9.6k modem that my dad gave me. It was good enough for ICQ and IRC. It wasn't till a year later that i got a 28.8 USR modem and discovered QuakeWorld and Quake 2
Click to expand...

My story is actually very similar...

I first wanted to get online in the 80's when I read about a game called MUD. It was a text based adventure game that you could dial into. I never did get onto it as I was quite young.

I got online in 1997 when I bought my first house. It was with a 56k USR modem and was to play Quake2 online via Wireplay.

I later upgraded to ISDN and got into a clan (Rv). My typical use at the time was the Wireplay forums along with ICQ and IRC. I even admined a few matches back in the day. I joined OcUK in about 1999 after I found out about it from a clan mate. My Q2 player name is my forum name here :)

I played Q2 and then Q3 almost exclusively until around 2003 when I moved house and didn't have a connection. I briefly returned to it in 2006 after buying a new house but never had the time to get back into it properly due to having a family at that point.

Nowadays I generally wander around OcUK and a few car forums as well as wandering around YouTube while drunk some evenings reliving my musical youth. My internet usage has also shifted quite a bit towards mobile use on my phone and tablet while commuting.

I've never been a fan of Facebook or Twitter and while I did set up accounts I rarely bother with them (only if someone is arranging a meetup).


EDIT: Forgot to mention years of massive phonebills using dialup (£80 a month back in the 90's) and having a year and a half free ADSL with Talk Talk because they screwed up (what a shower of a company).
 
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