For me, it was that the Internet never forgets and that you should never enter your real name. In my opinion, both of these rules are now completely ignored.
Dont believe anyone on the internet.
I don’t believe you
I don’t believe you
I don’t believe that you don’t believe me
That’s my favorite Charlemagne quote
Don’t pick up the phone if someone is online… I’m old
I’m a millennial, I learned this, and now I just don’t pick up the phone.
It’s weird when someone calls me and it’s actually a live one.
I’m a gen z and I can’t put down the phone
I can’t remember. Did it make pterodactyl noises or is that just faxes?
The modem made noises when connecting, but if someone picked up the phone, your internet would just stop working and they’d get their dial tone.
Now dot matrix printers, those were real pterodactyl sounds.
Modems also make noises when connected. However, the noise of them connecting is more distinctive because they go through a handshake where you can hear distinct tones, but then negotiate a higher baud rate involving modulation of many different frequencies, at which point to the human ear it is indistinguishable from white noise (a sort of loud hissing). If you pick up the phone while the modem is connected at a higher baud rate (post the handshake), you’ll hear the hissing, and then eventually you picking up the phone will have caused too many errors for the connection to be sustained (due to introducing noise on the line), causing both ends to hang up. You’ll then hear the normal tone you hear when the called party has hung up the line.
- Squeee
- Whale song
- Chunkachunks
- Teeth grinder
- Buckbuckbuck
- They’re here
Ah, another Poltergeist fan, I see. :p
Decades ago, I saw a (one of many) "you might be a geek / nerd if … " list (referencing “you might be a redneck”). As of this moment, the only one I remember is “you leave the modem speaker on after connecting because you think it sounds like the ocean - the perfect sound for surfing the web!”
Modems can still make noise. As recently as five years ago I still had to work with modems. A lot of them now have silent mode though
You come from a nice family. My family disconnected each other all the time
I used to get hella annoyed that my mom would be online all afternoon so I would pick up the phone and blow into it for a few seconds until I heard AOL man say “Goodbye.”
That, together with: I’m online, watch out for the ca… “No carrier”
I’m not that old but was dealing with that in the mid-2000s before my parents finally switched.
Don’t feed the trolls.
Of course nowadays its nearly impossible to tell whos spouting racial slurs to get folks mad and whos doing it because they’re just an asshole.
Don’t feed the AI
More recently, this behaviour is known as “driving engagement”
I remember when it was just funny edgy humor that was clearly satirical for the most part because a lot of us were just dumb kids. It was abrasive and stupid but you had this feeling everyone was in on the joke.
But bizarre satire has turned to deeply held conviction.
I’m not just sad that the mean spirited trolling persists, but that it’s gotten more sincere and often must be taken seriously. :(
When you share something cool, link back to the original creator or where you found it from.
I’d argue this is the opposite of what was asked.
In the early days, no one would post sources or attribute “stuff” to anyone. We’d all just share what we thought were cool pictures.
Now, everyone gets mad when you dont post the name of the artist and their socials.
What people are really mad about us the fact that artists are (and always have been) starving. We throw so much food away, let the artists cook for fucks sake.
This might be more of a blogosphere-era thing I guess. Even when most people blogging did it for pleasure rather than work, it was always considered polite to “hat tip” (h/t) the source of a given link, if you happened to find it on someone else’s site.
I would posit a big part of this is because early-net days were primarily for just socializing and sharing cool stuff (heck yeah, I miss it.) Artists probably didn’t make a majority of their living through the 'net. If something was shared it was likely just “I think this is cool, folks!”
Nowadays, to say the Internet is heavily commercialized would be a massive understatement. Every little interaction is monetized. Many people make their entire living through e-commerce. It’s just how things went.
Meanwhile you have a billion faceless sandfleas with repost-botfarms trying to hustle cash with the stupidest methods possible.
You’ll see entire channels where animations or paintings or whatever are circulated on socials like youtube, twitter, or tiktok with the artist tag conveniently cropped out (if there was one).
Some are outright stealing the work for profit (selling tshirts or something), while others are just using it to farm clicks, which is also a route to profit.
The artist who made the work is cheated, perhaps unaware, as some click-grifter gets all the attention. And that sucks. :( As an artist myself, I try to make sure I share the sources for stuff now, because recognition is a form of thanks, at the very least.
I miss the sharing internet…the attention economy has basically turned the internet into a sociological illustration of “The paperclip apocalypse”. :(
Social media killed online aliases and I have a hard time deciding if we’re all worse for it.
Instinctively I still stick by that, though, as you can tell by my anonymous profile with no bio, but when I volunteer any amount of personal info these days people are often confused that I’m not sharing openly who I am or where I’m from. Every time someone does that it weirds me out because in the 90s telling (and asking) people those things would have been such a suspicious, sketchy move.
in the 90s telling (and asking) people those things would have been such a suspicious, sketchy move.
a/s/l?
Aight, I put on my robe and wizard’s hat.
RIP bloodninja.
We were all 18/f/cal come on man…
Haha true
Facebook tried that shit with me. Ban until I sent verification of my ID so I sent a paystub photoshopped (badly) with my alias, it was accepted and it’s still there even though I left FB years ago.
I wish they would ban me. I haven’t logged in in over 15 years and even block several of their servers, and yet I still get mails that someone in there commented on something.
Oh I get zero notifications, but the only real reason I haven’t taken it down is that my posts from IG are cross posted there for the business, which I have to have to advertise our specials because of the boomers that use it daily.
Can you not unsubscribe?
Shit, I provide every single service with randomly generated data, unless legally required. Just doing my part to pollute the training day.
Every time someone does that it weirds me out because in the 90s telling (and asking) people those things would have been such a suspicious, sketchy move.
And now it’s come 180 in that some see it as a red flag if you don’t give up that information. I had someone on a different social media site accuse me of being a bot because I wouldn’t give up the specific town I’m from. I’ve seen it happen to others too. It is both fascinating and insane how viewpoints have changed regarding identifying yourself online.
Not only telling your real name, you weren’t supposed to tell your real birthday, give away your phone number or where you lived, even just saying the city was a bit much. So filling in those things like on Facebook or LinkedIn feels very wrong but it would be even more wrong to have fake info there. So my new rule is, only add ppl I know irl to places I use my real info and everything else can I add anyone to.
Ugh, the world of “branded people.” Everything is like “Add a picture of yourself, or you won’t seem trustworthy!”
Yeesh. Some artists and such can make it using a pseudonym, but it’s rare in more professional circles…but now if you hope to be taken seriously as a professional, you’re expected to put your real super genuine self out there.
…and we get news stories of people being harassed and doxxed literally to death. It’s crazy…
Yes that picture thing happened multiple times at my old job. They kept pestering me about give them a pic to add to the “about us” page and I had to use my face in all channels (jira, slack email and so on) because “otherwise I can’t tell who is who”… my current job handled that much better, they asked for a pic (if I wanted to) to be used as reference for an artist (always the same) to make an avatar and that is now the avatar my coworkers and I use in presentations, systems, emails, webpages anything, we never use real image of our coworkers unless the person wish for it.
When reading a long text, disconnect from the internet as soon as it has loaded so you don’t pay for the time you spend reading.
I remember doing that to read and write my answers in forums. Then someone had already posted the same comment or a better version.
(Except other dogs, and we meet every night or irc:#awoo)
Me too, thanks.
This shit’s still true. I bet you’re taking me seriously as you read this and everything.
Don’t share your personal information online.
Yeah that’s definitely not being followed anymore.
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” -Abraham Lincoln
Social media, a gorilla getting shot, two US elections, and GenAI later, we have completely fallen off this one simple rule.
The amount of boomer bait on Facebook is staggering. The amount of Boomers falling for obviously AI-generated shite even moreso.
The amount of millennials falling for boomer bait is also staggering
I personally have the opposite issue. Things often sound way too much like satire these days when they get referenced or pop up in memes, then I find a reputable article talking about it. Everything sounds like !nottheonion@lemmy.world
Don’t give your credit card details over the internet.
Nowadays people have them saved in their damn browser for convenience.
Credit card usually isn’t so bad. It’s usually pretty easy to dispute charges etc, debit card on the other hand…no way that’s getting saved
Have you had any experience with that? I keep hearing it, but usage of a credit card is expensive af
It’s only expensive if you don’t pay it in full every month. I’ve had my credit card for years and have paid $0.00 total for it whilst it generates at least 1% cash back or more depending on where used. Not much, but it adds up and makes it beneficial.
I feel like a lot of small shops now (especially restaurants and convenience stores) charge for using a credit card in a manner that wipes out any benefit from “cash back rewards”.
To me the bigger benefit is that a card that is opened many years ago (pair on time) gets you a better credit score. This will net you much better deals throughout life for major purchases like a car or home (if you are lucky enough to still be able to afford one).
Only time I’ve had fraudulent charges was when I was 18 or so and hadn’t yet got my first line of credit. They disputed the charges normally and froze the account. It did suck not having much money but I also was living at home still so I just avoided spending money for a few days until it all finished processing
I have. My bank did a chargeback like they would if it was a credit card. I was told it would’ve been a lot harder to get my money back if my PIN was used. But, I’ve only seen that option available for in-person purchaees.
I remember being taught in school to apply source criticism, and that seems to have largely died as a concept.
This was back in the early 2000s…
You should use the Internet to get info out of it, not put your info there. If you do want to put info, it should never be traceable to you.
I just don’t get why people want so much of their life online…
It went from “don’t post pictures of yourself or your real name online because you might get strangers’ attention” to everyone trying to be their own version of a Max Headroom talking head to try to get the attention of all the strangers. Selfies, video selfies, talking head videos, reaction videos… all garbage.
Sometimes they do serve a purpose. While I don’t see the point of a “reactions” only YouTube channel since they get repetitive. Sometimes you wonder how people took a certain episode of your childhood anime or some episode with an interesting plot line like the red wedding. With that said, channels with no commentary and all “uh hu” or “that’s right” as the most useful additions from the “hosts” are trash.
Yeah a commentary video with a creator of a movie or show is real content related to the other content, not the same as a random person’s “look at me” video
Don’t top post.
twitter built itself on doing this the most nonsensical and annoying way possible.
I’ve never used Twitter and every time I see a post with like… the original comment in the middle, a reply on top, and a reply again? On bottom? I’m like what the fuck is even how
Especially with quote retweets that are screenshots of threads with the quote retweets itself having a thread.
Breaking the rules to demonstrate how this looks dumb
Don’t top post.
Exception: when the quoted thing is the punchline
The thing that grinds my gears
WARNING: I’m not actually a quotation tho my
character says that is what I am for in the specification & if you check my HTML markup I am a<blockquote>which also has a spec saying I must quote a sourceMarkdown-itis is ruining semantics on the web just ’cause it doesn’t support callouts like a proper lightweight markup syntax for documentation, technical writing, & blogging. It is the wrong tool for these mediums but users forgo caring about semantics for the familar not even understand their tools or their outputs.
Gmail is super annoying at this, there is no way to automatically turn this off. I just have to delete the ellipsis every damn time
I like to think I’m reasonably intelligent but whatever the heck Gmail does with its reply “conversation” order absolutely bamboozles me. It decides to just hide messages in the middle seemingly at random too, and gives them all reply buttons.
Agh!
… except when it’s a forwarded convo and then it’s okay, as per 1855.
And then when is a conversation NOT a comment or update to something you’ve forwarded back? The answer is never.
So it’s all good.
Ew. Who does that?
The same people who carelessly hit “reply all”, I imagine. Lol
Came here to say that. It actually predates common internet usage - Fidonet was a much bigger thing through the 80s and early 90s than emails, and BBS forums used it to distribute messages.
Properly quote only what you are replying to. Quote a line, reply to it. Repeat on multiple points.
Then wait a few days for a reply, of course, unless they were dialling into the same BBS.
Now we have boards like this that do a pretty good job about displaying context and quoting is less needed.
Basic forum etiquette. It’s horrifying at work seeing teams “teams” (forums) used like chats, all the cross-posting and thread necromancy, people completely unable to keep topics confined to the appropriate sub-forum, etc
thread necromancy
AKA “discussing something with new information more than 31 seconds after people got bored of it”
Necroposting is a slur by the terminally online against normal people trying to get shot done. They’re the reason why every Google search that leads to a forum ends with some guy asking your question and being told to start a new thread instead.
some guy asking your question and being told to start a new thread instead.
If it’s done within a reasonable time period, it’s understandable. Hours or a day or two later depending on the forum.
It’s different when someone saunters in years later with the “I’ve got the same problem!” quip to a post that may or may not actually be the same, and actually expects a response. That, to me, is necroposting.
This is the attitude that leads us to search results polluted with forum threads with bad, unchallengeable ideas (because they’re locked). Almost all web1 forum are becoming digital flotsam because of these bad moderator opinions.
This is the attitude that leads us to search results polluted with forum threads with bad, unchallengeable ideas (because they’re locked). Almost all web1 forum are becoming digital flotsam because of these bad moderator opinions.
I thing you replied to the wrong comment, buddy. Nothing in your comment makes any sense in the context of my comment that you replied to. Nowhere did I say anything about locking threads or moderation.
The very idea of necroposting is the basis for these moderator opinions. It is not a neutral term, the idea of necroposting is a negative attitude toward all late posts, it is a permission that all moderators give themselves to delete late posts, lock threads or even, auto lock after a determined period of inactivity. It makes these ideas, prominent on search result into literally unassailable answers. Which is the secret desire of all moderators, to decide the final word.
I think you are ascribing to an entire community that which only a few descend to.
I’ve been a mod on forums before, and my only concern was keeping the signal::noise ratio high. In that regard, new “I’ve got the same problem” posts made many months or years after the current thread had gotten wrapped up only increases the noise; a new thread is far more appropriate for the latecomer and anyone who replies to them than continuing to use the old thread.
The difference is temporal, and dependent on the activity level of the forum in question: highly active forums should see new threads spawned after only a few days or weeks, slow forums could see follow-up comments in the original thread still being appropriate many months or even years later.
Being a good mod isn’t about power or control, it is ensuring the forum operates as effectively as possible for it’s users. Sometimes that means spawning new threads, locking old ones, or even banning bad-faith or misbehaving users. Once you moderate, you discover very quickly that moderation is a highly grey zone, with surprisingly little black or white.
I see necroposting as when it’s someone coming by months or years after the discussion is over and not bringing much of value to the table. So it’s more to do with the value of the contribution than the timeframe
In a forum system that sorts by last comment that can be annoying. Which is why most systems seem to have moved away from that, it was one of the big innovations of reddit back when it started. But in a format where it doesn’t get more visibility for getting comments I don’t see why it’s a bad thing, just stop reading when you deem the topic done.
During thr brief window between reddit apps dying and the old archive rule being revoked getting comments on old tech support posts with follow ups and/or additional questions was pretty great, and definitely worth the occasional whitenoise posts (“thanks!” " seeing the same problem in 2024" “I clearly didn’t read the whole thread and am asking something already answered” etc etc).
In a forum system that sorts by last comment that can be annoying.
I’ll be real, I entirely forgot that was a thing. Why are you reviving terrible memories like that?!
How is that really different from the same comment 2 second after. It just isn’t.
Just ban hammer low the value commenters don’t lock the thread for moderator convenience.
Been to the Arch forum too ey? :p
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