[Discussion] Internet Generations.

[Alferd Packer]

I've been online since 1994, I definitely remember putting on a show back in those early days--probably because I was a stupid kid who simply wanted to play the game. Now that everything's much more integrated, I've simply gone ahead and made the transition, and I just act, more or less, like my normal self.

[Darth Fanboy]

I never stuck with one handle or username, largely because this board is the only "community" I ever really participated in. Now do do a lot of posting on a handful of hockey forums and use the same handle at all of those, but my time spent there is much less than it is here.

I'm actually less showy or flamboyant online than I am otherwise. Probably because I don't come here for the same sort of entertainment I pursue when I go out.

[KlavoHunter]

I got into the internet probably starting in 1995 or '96, when the original Command and Conquer was released, and I started making my first few clumsy attempts at getting into online gaming. Of course, the original C&C had fuck-all for over-the-internet multiplayer capabilities, unless you had the other guy's IP, really.

My default online username was, indeed, much like many others, the first letter of my first name and my last name, or a variety of more disposable, meaningless names. This eventually evolved into my current, permanent moniker after joining a clan in MechWarrior 3. (Incidentally, said clan still exists, mostly on WoW.)

As for an online persona... Well, no, I can't say I've ever been in a position to really attract enough attention to make it worthwhile to develop a terribly flamboyant online personality like some, but neither do I treat it exactly like real life, like the MySpace generation seems to. In fact, I don't even have a MySpace account or anything like that. Though I should get a Facebook account, really, for socializing.

[LadyTevar]

I was online before the Internet was the Internet. I 'cut my teeth' on 2400 bps dial-up phone lines, connecting to ASCII or ANSI BBS's (and occasionally ROBO-BOARD). Back when it was all text...

Oh, those are the days I remember. Dick-wagging was all about baud rate! 1200 baud was the norm for so long, and the first guy that got a 2400 baud modem was a god, then it was the first guy that went to 4800 baud. We always heard about, but no one ever knew exactly who, some dude that had the Holy Grail, a 9600 baud modem. Oooohh!

But it was real high tech back then. Shortly after the 9600 came out, it went to the multi-line cable and modern networks we see today.

Shit... I was doing the old 2-line BBS boards with a 300baud. 1200 baud was AMAZINGLY FAST!!!

Gods I feel old, reading all you kids who didn't start til the mid-90s.

[The Yosemite Bear]

should I mention punch cards and Uni-dumb terminals running all networked together back when my mom couldn't afford baby sitters so I hung out at Humbolt State's Computer Science Labs.


thats right chatting with uni-hackers, playing Warmus and StarTrek, while there was yet to be a modem, just a lot of networks. Oh and composing incredably long programs just to make the uni-printers create ASCII art.

[Paradox]

I guess I'm still young enough where people ask if I have a Myspace, of which I have a natural disdain for. Why you ask? Well back when I was in highschool, I had my own webpage, something that would be unheard of, and if I were in a highschool movie, would get me shoved into a locker.

Now-a-days, everyone has their own myspace, its the "cool" thing to have.

[Saxtonite]

Shit... I was doing the old 2-line BBS boards with a 300baud. 1200 baud was AMAZINGLY FAST!!!

Gods I feel old, reading all you kids who didn't start til the mid-90s.

hmm. speaking of the old BBSs and whatnot, has anyone seen this documentary?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBS_Documentary

I also wonder if anyone was on &TOTSE back in the 1980s when it first started.

Now, the MySpace and Facebook generation is here, the people who use LinkedIn and so on, they use their real names, they try to behave on the internet in the same way that they do in real life. Is that part of what's going on here? The number of times I've been accused, for instance, of having mental problems is really staggering to me, and this morning I set back and thought, "you know, maybe people on the board don't realize it's a flamboyant act because in their generation of internet use nobody does that--but in mine, everyone did."

hmm. It might partially be that. The 'newer' internet people, or at least say the people who would go on sites like EncyclopediaDramatica would be less supporting of that and would consider it "drama" and whatnot or call it trolling. But there are "old-school" people who would probably believe the same thing about it being "exxagerated" or whatnot.

There's also that people who use MySpace and Facebook would still be more revealing of themselves on internet forums that are not social networking. People do still use psuedonyms and internet handles and they do behave differently on forums and whatnot than on social networking sites. Say, on a person's deviantart account it might go both ways, the person being more revealing of themselves (see furry and whatnot accounts) but the person might still converse with IRL friends. They do use an internet handle on DA with the option to put in your IRL name below it.

And then the revelations that Mr. Coffee, Havokeff, etc, say they act the exact same way online that they do in person shocked me--I was still in the mode of assuming nobody did that on the internet.

Many people act the same IRL as on line, especially on social networking sites.

I see so many of the new people and it occurs to me that they grew up in an era in which internet and real life are seamlessly interconnected, rather than in the early and mid-90's where the internet was more of a strange pseudoworld in which people could, and were, anything that they wanted to be without any connection to their real lives.

people still make up personalities and whatnot on the internet. Roleplaying groups and whatnot. And some people divide how they act on forums vs how they would act on social networking sites but there might be some 'bleed-through' with some. It depends on the person.

[WesFox13]

Well, I joined the internet back in like 1996 or so. I didn't do much of the persona play and just surfed around looking at different websites, mainly ones based on either Cartoons that I liked or comedy sites with funny flash animations. However when I was about 14 or so, I started exploring different things. Like Animal Transformations in cartoons. That eventually made me explore the furry fandom and allowed me to meet many people from around the world. However some time during my surfing soemtime in 2007 or so I discovered SDN.net. I mainly stayed in the ST vs SW site part of it before going to the Evolution vs Creationism and that made me open my eyes to what the creationism movement was really about because even then I was still very conservative.

The most intresting thing is that I did have a persona but he was basically a furry version of my real self. Body type, hair and all. (and no my Avatar on SD.net isn't my character, just a image I found somewhere) I believed that if I had many of the exaggerated body shapes and personalities of the other furry personas, I felt that I would be lieing to myself and the other people who saw my persona.

Well In chats with my friends on Instant messgngers I occassionaly use some net speak such as "LOL" or "ROFL" and I still use some smilies like ^^ or :3 and I am a little bit more friendly online giving hugs and being a bit more expressive than I am in real life.

So yeah even though I don't use facebook or myspace, I still pretty much act like myself, a slightly more friendly and cuddly version mind you, but myself nonethless

[Terralthra]

I've been online since the early to mid-90s. For nearly all of that with the same net handle, and never really hid any personal details.

[Coyote]

(and no my Avatar on SD.net isn't my character, just a image I found somewhere)

That's for the better, 'cause every time I see your av I think he's asking "what did those steroids do to my wee-wee?"

[Ryan Thunder]

Well, I think I've been at it since 2004 or so. Whenever this forum came about. I joined under a particularly ridiculous user name, never capitalized anything, and rarely used punctuation. I have no idea why.

Then I left for a while out of disinterest in the STvSW thing, and joined a Warhammer forum from which I was banned earlier this year for refusing to change my persona to suit the ego of a mod who persistently acted in a similar manner. The amusing part of this is that I hadn't actually broken any forum rules and had been a contributing and, inexplicably, popular member there for quite some time, so they threw me out without ban-titling me to avoid having to explain to certain folks what happened. If I'd been trolling (as they claimed) and they'd actually had good reason to kick me out, they'd have given me a snide comment for my title, at least.

Then I came back here, under a new account (the old one... egh, I can't even remember the name, never mind the password.)

I think that, at worst, my online personality has been a more raw and extreme version of my actual personality. I tend to be alot friendlier and agreeable in RL.