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Existential Comics
@existentialcomics.com

If any young people want to know what the early Internet was like, it was mostly visiting random website about stuff like Why Ninjas Are So Awesome, and getting into 68 day long arguments on their forum with some guy named shaolin_master69 about whether Bruce Lee could have beat up Mike Tyson.

Existential Comics
@existentialcomics.com

One thing that was great about those old forums was that there were no votes, so no one could tell just much of a moron everyone else thought they were. Really creates a Wild West atmosphere of stupidity that is missing today.

2 reposts155 likes

Bas Wisselink
@baswisselink.com

The death blow to forums were Karma systems that were implemented. The best thing we had on our forums were whimsical temp bans which people took in stride and used to get some damn work done (or spend a day outside).

Existential Comics
@existentialcomics.com

Nah I said the atmosphere of "Wild West" stupidity. Today the stupidity is organized, directed, co-opted, concentrated, reinforced, amplified by algorithms, harnessed by corporations, etc. Back then it was just pure, unfiltered thoughts from some dumbass across the world. Much better.

Existential Comics
@existentialcomics.com

Today, someone would just point out that Mike Tyson was a 220 lb World Champion, and Bruce Lee was a 120 lb actor, and they would get more votes and that would end the argument. Back then no one could tell who was winning the argument, so it could carry on forever.

Todd R. Rossman
@mystic-scientist.bsky.social

So, you know Bruce would have won after that talk the time we argued ...or do we hafta go over *again* why?! ;) ...then there was the Internet Conservation Society, when a brave group was making webpage image files *smaller* to free up bandwidth for emergency lines