JasonDJ
Dude in that era accessing the internet was incredibly easy.
Most big ISPs had floppies or CDs you could take (for free!) that included their software (for Windows, at least) that pretty much did everything.
After Windows 95 came out, with Dial-up Networking right out of the box, the ISP software was no longer needed. There were instructional documents, and if you could follow directions, you could get online pretty easily. This made it a lot easier for small independent ISPs to start up.
That’s what we need again. The independent ISPs. It was easy for them then because the phoneline pulled double-duty. I do wish we could do that again…separate the infrastructure from the provider, have a municipal fiber provider and a free-market for Internet services over the fiber.
People don’t know how to follow basic directions though. I don’t know if that’s a recent phenomenon or not. I’m nearing 40 (and rather cynical), but still feel I’m too young to really remember what it was like in the before-times.
What got hard was trying to get your modem working in Linux. Especially if you were unfortunate enough to have bought a Winmodem.
There were plenty of bots, especially on IRC.
The difference is, those bots were useful. They’d send you MP3s, or Warez, or respond to prompts, or just hold down your channel in your absence. Until it got K-lined.
Those bots were good folk. They don’t speak until spoken to.
We should have trust in the system. The system is supposed to be representational of the people that fund it through their taxes and elections for people like school boards, town councils, and DAs.
If the system is fucked, it’s our fault…not the systems.
The root of the problem is that nobody wants systemic fixes. Everyone elected either wants to fix their own little corner independently or just ignore it and starve the beast. Neither work. Systemic problems need to be addressed systematically.
Let’s look at bullying and the causes of it…usually the bullies are abused or neglected, and usually abuse and neglect comes from generational poverty. So you gotta fix that. But nobody wants to.
I’ve actually had a couple of my bullies reach out to me recently, now nearly 30 years later and they are parents themselves, apologizing for the shit they put me through because their home life was shit. Their words, not mine.
