Yourself on the internet, eight or so years ago.

[Cap'n Sofa]

Eight years ago I had first discovered the internet and joined the old Nintendo NSider Forums and I was basically a complete idiot who managed to transform himself into slightly less of an idiot in that I made a reasonable attempt to spell things right. And I honestly did pretty well for an eight-year-old I think.

 

[Music Dragon]

I don't want to remember how much of a noob I was, mainly because I'm extremely antisocial unless I'm online. (The most social thing I do is go to school).

You most likely mean "asocial". Pet peeve.

 

[Butterfree]

I guess because everybody was the same age as me (or younger), people were always so nice about the wackiness/lolrandomness I came out with. I cringe when I think about ye olde fanfics, but every so often I'll get a PM on Deviantart or something from somebody who remembers them :p

Your fanfics were like the most hilarious thing ever written when I was twelve, okay.

Also Jolty aaaa. D: *additional hugs?* (also having way too many Fluffy flashbacks)

 

[Ulqi-chan]

Well, considering I was a young'un back then, I guess I was kind of new to the Internet. Which means I was kind of not using it.

Though the memory of me spamming my mom's email one day when I was about four because I felt like a total troll in doing so still haunts me to this day. I distinctly remember a slap to the bottom and a time-out.

When I first started with forums, though, I'd say the most dominant memories of me being an annoying brat who knew nothing of grammar or capitalization were at Cheatsguru. (I think there was a forum beforehand, but meh, I can't remember.) Sweet Nutella on an effing sandwich, I was a God awful mess. (DarkAura, you tell 'em)
Whoo, and those times I accidentally posted the same thing twice and then posted again to say it was an accident and not intentional? Dear God in heaven.

I also remember having this tic of making all my words "Southern." And all my grammar "Southern." (eg. Ain't that just the dandiest thang? I'll be gettin' m'self one soon. That's what'cha get when ya ain't quick enough, sunny boy.) GOD FORBID it was probably because I live in southern Georgia and have a distinguished Southern accent when I get irritated and start using improper grammar.

And then there was that time I told everyone at CG I was a year older than I actually was. You know, to make everyone think I was actually mature. (I think when my birthday rolls around, I'll actually post my real age to see if it affects anything.) I WAS SO STUPID.

Heavens to the Betsy. *hides in corner*

 

[Autumn]

(also having way too many Fluffy flashbacks)

Do you mind if I asked what ever happened there? I don't remember a whole lot about Fluffy or any TCoD romances back then other than that Fluffy was dating Light Mightyena, there were some issues with Light's mom, and not long after that (iirc) Fluffy was dating you, and then all of a sudden there wasn't Fluffy anymore and there was Shadey instead.

 

[Worst Username Ever]

Oh god no... NO.

Well, I was 9, and a newbie to the net that didn't really know how to act. Example: My first thread on my first forum (the norwegian pokemon forum) got closed. I opened it again, and wrote that "a stupid jerk (a moderator) closed it". I think it was 3 threads before I stopped.

Also, I had some kind of obsession with Sneasel... Holy shit. I always wrote about how it was so cool and cute and awesome and fuckyeah and everyone else was just "SHUT UP ALREADY" and started mocking me for it, insulting Sneasel so I would get mad. I now understand why, and that yeah, I was annoying (but I still think it was wrong of half the forum to just gang up against me like that). Luckily, this phase of my net life is all gone and buried away... the only remnant is my Neopets username(sneasel363, because I WANTED TO BE NAMED SNEASEL BUT THAT WAS TAKEN so I decided OHLOL RANDOM NUMBERS YAY).

That brings me to another topic... Neopets. Oh god I loved Neopets. Still do, but not as much as back then. It was my internet childhood.

I wanted to make a website too... and that started shortly after I started using the internet, I think. So my dad helped me a bit to set up crappy Frontpage and make some things there. It started out as pictures of Pokémon cards, and later developed into some site about things I like (with stolen images EVERYWHERE. Well, I didn't claim to have made them, but yeah.) On one of them I even wrote "hey I just really wanted to use this, please don't get mad *name*" (in Norwegian), not even considering that they probably didn't know Norwegian, much less actually knew about my crappy little site.
Then I changed it to English and tried making it a "pokemon/neopets/sonic" site. Bad idea. I had it for a few years, and it had little content other than facts everyone knows and my bad drawings.
In its last incarnation, it had a proper HTML menu at least. But then I gave up.

 

[surskitty]

I also remember having this tic of making all my words "Southern." And all my grammar "Southern." (eg. Ain't that just the dandiest thang? I'll be gettin' m'self one soon. That's what'cha get when ya ain't quick enough, sunny boy.) GOD FORBID it was probably because I live in southern Georgia and have a distinguished Southern accent when I get irritated and start using improper grammar.

re: improper grammar: Fucking prescriptivism.

Also quasi-phonetic spelling is the worst. It assumes the reader would normally read it with a different accent to the one being conveyed. Really, it says more about what accent you consider default than it does about the accent you're talking about. 8|

 

[Music Dragon]

Ain't no nothing worse than prescriptivism!

 

[Ulqi-chan]

re: improper grammar: Fucking prescriptivism.

Also quasi-phonetic spelling is the worst. It assumes the reader would normally read it with a different accent to the one being conveyed. Really, it says more about what accent you consider default than it does about the accent you're talking about. 8|

I'm ashamed of my younger self. Whelp.

Also, also:

Christ on a bike

New favorite thing.

 

[Spoon]

I was eleven or so when I joined here, so as you'd expect I was fairly annoying. Except I think it was more that my sentences made little sense, posted a lot, and had no idea how to role-play than that I was truly obnoxious or bratty. I remember that I made a silly club apparently promoting burning things and quite possibly arson. Oh I drew some stuff, too.

 

[Noctowl]

Shy. Like now. ^^;

I mean, my intro forum was just the world 'hello'.

 

[Coroxn]

Oh my God the nostalgia I am a blubbering little blubberer right now.

I had this account on the Kingdom Hearts Wiki and I made a a fannon mechanic and new fannon Drive Forms and new fannon Party Members and oh my gawd I had so many friends on that IRC and I don't know any of them any more and I don't even remember why I left.

Then there was the Runescape Fan Fiction Wiki, which was long dead, and so I went back into it and advertised it and then people started doing it again and we held elections to see who would be the mods and I got selected and then we made the old creator mod us and it was magical. But then most people left, including Berus, the guy I was making a story serial with so I abandoned it. It's still alive now though, and I think that's partially because of me maybe?

And then we had Worthy of Publishing, where I wrote...not terrible, but hey, I was writing then, which is more than I can say for now.

I was so homophobic and transphobic like basically everyone in my school and I was the one who was getting into internet communities and meeting non cis and non hetero people and I guess the internet had been crucial in making me a more tolerant/decent person because everyone else except for my best friend (and maybe that's due to my influence because he doesn't internet) that was in that class is still prejudiced and hateful towards people.

And then I came here, just a year ago, which brings me nicely up to date.

This thread made me so happy, thanks guys.

 

[Byrus]

Oh God. I was basically the epitome of LOLRANDOMXD humour back then. As well as an internet tough guy who was so ~*dark and edgy*~ and you just wouldn't understand. Just for fun, here's some choice quotes from one of my old Neopets accounts:

Challenge me! I know you wanna! How do i know you wanna? Because i can read minds.....OK, maybe not but i like saying stupid random stuff that makes no sense.....*runs off holding a pitchfork*

*Sneaks up behind you* DEATH TO THE INVADER!! MWHAHAHAH!!! Sorry, Sugar rush. :D *starts chanting* DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM!! DOOM ON YOU! DOOM ON YOU!!! Oh yeah, I REALLLY WANNA BE PAINTED HALLOWEEN!!! ObSeSsEd dude! I could have a reeeeally sharp pitchfork and poke everbody with it! ^_^ MWHAHAHA!!! DOOM DOOM!! *is dragged off by a very annoyed rabid_mutt*

AND NOW FOR MY FAVOURITE SONG!!! LIGHT UP LIGHT UP!! IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE!!! I'LL BE RIGHT BESIDE YA OHHHH HEAR MY VOICE!! WE'LL BE RIGHT TOGETHER IN HEAVENNNNNNNN!!!!!

*window breaks*
O.O Er.....Goodbye! Have a nice day! *bashed on the head*

(I have no idea why that account hasn't been purged; it's ridiculously old.)

And then I was a wannabe goon for... a while. It took me an awful long time to actually wise up to be honest, and I'm more of a quiet lurker now, which... may be for the best really.

I also wrote some angsty stories and poems, though not much fanfiction funny enough. Just a couple of Pokémon stories, but they were set in their own ~*super dark*~ and angsty world and all my Pokémon OCs were demonic murderers from hell. They were basically just recoloured Pokémon with evil eyes and tattered wings though. I also seemed to be completely oblivious to the concept of paragraphs.

Oh yeah, and there was this time on the (really early conforums) MH that I got into a ridiculous argument with a girl called Freezachu. I don't know if Butterfree would remember this, but I had a PM conversation with her about it that also demonstrated my amazing maturity at handling the issue. The conversation also ended on a bit of an awkward note. Good times.

 

[Minish]

! I remember Freezachu.

I have this really weird fascination with witnessing the lolrandom phase of all the internetgoers I know now :o it seems like seriously pretty much everyone goes through it? It's kind of cute! It makes things pretty hilarious when people who've been around a while get genuinely annoyed by lolrandom things now as if it's like, this totally new irritating thing and ~definitely~ not a thing probably every kid on the internet does to some extent.

I don't think I was thaaaat bad, but. There was a lot of -shot- going on.

 

[Autumn]

I don't think I was thaaaat bad, but. There was a lot of -shot- going on.

I still use that. xD

 

[Minish]

As long as it's not -brick'd-, everything is fine.

 

[Music Dragon]

Ah yes. Back then, I was less comprehensible and more needlessly Patois, and I would - *laminated*

 

[Adriane]

Eight years ago, I was 12! I was not on the Internet then, ohoho.

(I attribute basically everything to #tcod. Seriously.)

 

[opaltiger]

Eight years ago, I was 12! I was not on the Internet then, ohoho.

(I attribute basically everything to #tcod. Seriously.)

Lots of people have said this. We ought to start charging.

 

[Autumn]

Ah yes. Back then, I was less comprehensible and more needlessly Patois, and I would - *laminated*

... somehow this post reminds me of sireafi.