I don't know where this nostalgia is coming from. "The Internet" has never been this super perfect place on a pedestal some people make it sound like. The Internet is what you make of it. Not more, not less.

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thejash 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I was there in the early days (90's, early 2000's)

It was categorically, undeniably better--that's where the nostalgia is coming from.

There are lots of reasons why this happened (and those are interesting questions.) But simply denying that it was better doesn't seem particularly reasonable to me.

	▲	icedchai 17 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I miss the early days. I made my first "telnet" connection in either 1990 or 1991. I remember exploring gopher, FTP, early web sites, the transition from BBSes to early ISPs. It was all so exciting and new. The Internet of today is barely recognizable. The very thing that made it sustainable (commercialization) is also what led to its demise. There are still sites (like HN!) that give me a taste of the old world. But they are few and far between.
	▲	harladsinsteden 17 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It was better because it was, well, less. Constraints tend to make you enjoy something more. I agree that a lot of the things that annoy me today weren't present back then. But a lot of other things that I take for granted these days also weren't present back then. Was it better? No, I don't think so.

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curious_cat_163 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agreed.

Also, it is not a monolith. There are parts of the internet (arguably like HN) that are off the charts when it comes signal-to-noise ratio, for me personally.

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Analemma_ 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If people are being honest, the nostalgia comes from a time where people only had to interact with other high-income, high-education, broadly-cosmopolitan technology enthusiasts similar to themselves. The moment the internet become used by everyone, including the riff-raff, it suddenly become "not fun".