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Honest question: is there also a boatload of sketchy stiff to avoid if you just wanted to have a nice SFW time? Early 2000s internet before Google indexed everything had some pockets of unsavory.

Also, is it just a bunch of middle aged dudes in mostly text forums? That’s like 85% of my experience with 90s internet.

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harmbugler@piefed.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I haven’t stumbled upon much sketchy stuff, you’d need to know where it is and discovery is still fairly manual though indexing services exist. Of course you need to find those services in the first place…

Anonymity is more of a focus than 90s internet, so it’s hard to tell who anyone really is but you’re probably right. There are active Russian and Iranian dissident text forums though.

However, for me, it’s the people just hosting personal websites e.g., a darkwave radio site, or a cryptography blog. Obviously the barrier to entry means it leans fairly techy.

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- hansolo@lemmy.today ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Cool, thanks for sticking with me and explaining.
  
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perviouslyiner@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
To avoid? Remember when you had to go to Yahoo! Directory to find the few websites which exist? It’s like that.

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- hansolo@lemmy.today ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yes, to avoid. Boolean search operators looking by filetype led me to 2 instances of finding someones CP foolder circa 2000. No real easy way to report it back then.
  
  I understand that 90s internet was much more streamlined and meager, withy own fair share of geocities pages. But I2P also exists in a more complicated time.
  
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