Back to 1998, I was attracted by chit-chat :D.

Wow, I wish I could remember.

The drive for everything computers.

Before the net got popular, I ran a dial up bbs from my basement.

During that time, bbs's were hooking together, sharing messages, etc. Fidonet was the big one, though we partnered with other boards and formed a local network as well.

Then, merit.edu (michnet) came about and got access to things beyond the local area. Gopher was neat, but limited in functionality.

Bout a year or so later the first local ISP hit the scenes. This was before AOL had access, before prodigy had access, etc. Very old browsers that didn't even support tables and other niceties.

Then, bbs's died - including mine. Lack of use. I made the migration to the www. Usenet replaced the fidonet interface. I still have the bbs on floppies somewhere. Every few years I take it out and look at the ascii art.

I guess it was a gradual transition - just pushed by more, better, faster. Though sometimes I wish to go back in time to the bbs days. There was a 'community' feeling that isn't reproducable with the internet. Meeting folks you only met in bbs chats, knowing that most folks connecting were geographically close...

Ah well :) Bigger and better it is ;)

I knew a systems admin for one of the first ISP's in my area, and he hooked me up.

Back in 93, I believe.

Fame and fortune.

7 years later I am still looking for that.

I first got online early 2000 and I think my main drive was to create a website (Geocities ;) )

por...i mean....games...ya multi

Free hours from AOL. I was tricked, how do I get rid of this addiction? LOL

My first thrill was whipping emails around the globe.

Then being able to self-publish my stuff to the web. Any writer who has received a 1000:1 ration of rejection slips to offers of publication will understand.

I administer a club that used to required a lot of mail back and forth, printing and photocopying, now done 100X easier and cheaper on the web.

I have a business which formerly only could be advertised practically by phone listing. Now can advertise worldwide on the web. I'm too lazy to work, but it's nice to know for the future in case my social security doesn't come through or something.

Originally posted by thedavid
The drive for everything computers.

Before the net got popular, I ran a dial up bbs from my basement.

During that time, bbs's were hooking together, sharing messages, etc. Fidonet was the big one, though we partnered with other boards and formed a local network as well.

Then, merit.edu (michnet) came about and got access to things beyond the local area. Gopher was neat, but limited in functionality.

Bout a year or so later the first local ISP hit the scenes. This was before AOL had access, before prodigy had access, etc. Very old browsers that didn't even support tables and other niceties.

Then, bbs's died - including mine. Lack of use. I made the migration to the www. Usenet replaced the fidonet interface. I still have the bbs on floppies somewhere. Every few years I take it out and look at the ascii art.

I guess it was a gradual transition - just pushed by more, better, faster. Though sometimes I wish to go back in time to the bbs days. There was a 'community' feeling that isn't reproducable with the internet. Meeting folks you only met in bbs chats, knowing that most folks connecting were geographically close...

Ah well :) Bigger and better it is ;)


Scary how different how it is now huh?

Same as digilines... those stupid AOL advertisements. I remember when AOL added support for www... neat stuff.

Luckily I've gotten rid of AO-hell. :D

cgi chatrooms. now it's php/mysql based message boards.

J.

I think a lot of people started out on AOL.

I also did, back in... 94, on my beast 28.8 of a modem.

Business opportunities attract me, and the chance for world wide marketing schemes

Started out in 1994 on the net or perhaps early 1995, my first internet service was AOL (version 2.5 I beleive), running on a 28.8 modem. My big attraction to the internet was the ability to find and get information from your own home, at anytime. In the past when you wanted information, you had to goto the local library, find a book and get what you could out of it.

I then found chatting with people from around the world was interesting and appealing to me, and I continued to find new things I enjoyed, and here I am now :)

BBSs in 93 or 94. I was on a few local BBSs and there was one that had a chat feature where you could chat up to 3 others in four seperate windows. I was on Prodigy for a short time later. Nowaday a back-up account from work or a friend AOL comes in handy when the broadband goes down.

It started in 1995 (I was 11). We had just moved to Miami, FL from Columbus, GA (Ft. Benning) , my dad had just retired from the U.S. Army after 23 years. In GA we had a computer that ran DOS... it had Harvard Graphics on it, WordPerect and another computer. When we moved into our newly built home and my dad turned on the machine *poof* it went.

So he went out and purchased an HP Pavilion (75Mhz, 1.2GB Hdd, Windws 95, 16mb of ram). And he set me up with AOL (15 free hours at that time). And I was instantly addicted to it! Sadly, AOL didn't have the "unlimited", so the first month's bill came out to $350 dollars. So he decided to switch to AT&T Worldnet, $9.99 for 15 hrs. It was great.

And that's how I got addicted. Now I have 4 top of the line machines, DSL and Cable. I love it!

Sports, news,search, real time, so much more

Hmmmmm,Email is what i started with mostly.........

The Dude :)

The unknown, back in 96 if I remember correctly… It was pretty boring without WHT back then :D

Sex, Porn and Women .. good wholesome endevours. :pimp:

There was also the fact of having to download drivers for various hardware I was installing for my clients but that was secondary. My first homepage was motivate by sheers vanity and pride.

Doc.

samething that attracts me today... knowledge

Sex, Porn and Women .. good wholesome endevours.

You don't have to say all your emotions this way ;) your sig tells the whole story :D

I got addicted to MSN Messenger, then Napster

Originally posted by TheDoctor
Sex, Porn and Women .. good wholesome endevours. :pimp:

There was also the fact of having to download drivers for various hardware I was installing for my clients but that was secondary. My first homepage was motivate by sheers vanity and pride.

Doc. Thanks to the internet, I'm bored with sex...

:homer:

Originally posted by TheDoctor
Sex, Porn and Women .. good wholesome endevours. :pimp:


Yup, give the credit where credit is due. Without porn Internet would not be half as popular as it is today, and still, the porn industry is driving it forward. Joe Average will not update his windows and IE because of security holes, but because he needs latest IE version to see his favourite porn site.

I found I could communicate with old friends around the US via email back in 1992. Then 6 months later I talked an investor into creating an ISP and was handed my first SGI unix server to create email, dns, web and news servers. Was a freaking blast sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag 3 nights a week while running it. I owe a career and now my hosting business to that 12 years ago. After the ISP sold off I got to keep 2 of the SGI servers and I started hosting friends sites for the next few years. Back then you could get $200 a month off of a 10mb/1gb site with no special frills.

I really don't know what to do with a computer now if it doesn't have Internet access. Even the games I play need it.

Yes, I admit, desktop programs can be boring without the net in hand

Email first and then adult content second!

I started from 1995, since all the back home news updates in internet every instnance.

After that entertainment, etc.....................:)

What got me posting on the internet was a political chat side I used to go to called doonesbury. The place was great till it changed ownership, then it went to crap an I moved.

LOL, good ol' memories from 1997, netscape and net@ddress:)

Gotta admit, took me few years to realize, but all those lengthy pleading to mailer-deamon still provides me with endless chuckles:D