Corporatization and Centralization killed the internet.

I think that's a statement that's factual when you look at how the internet looks now compared to then. What was once a large scale digital highway in and of itself has become a large hub controlled by larger companies. We live in an era where no matter where you go, almost every website is under some monopolistic company's control and thrives off of some form of advertisement. No longer are the days of fun games and safer spaces for younger users, now they're easily exposed to material that shouldn't be seen by their impressionable minds. No longer are the days of discovery and exploration on the internet, now we go to the same websites and social medias for entertainment. What's left of the era of the internet I dubbed "the personalized internet" is only upheld by users interested in the revival of the "Old Web." You know, janky HTML, fun little GIFs, userbars, blogs, GeoCities, funny memes like Awesome Face and Nyan Cat? The Old Web.

...

wait, that's not it...

there's a portion missing from the internet at those points.

Sometimes I see people fawning over the "old days" of the internet. Sometimes they say they want it back. Some say it's better than now. And most of the time? It's all aesthetics, just that old Netscape MSPaint smiley face aesthetic. Webcore, I believe it's called, is one of the major driving points for the interest in the "Old Web", Epik Wafflez error windows and all. But something keeps giving me this itch. An itch for that missing piece. The part of the internet not many people like to speak about anymore, yet is part of the shaping of internet culture as a whole. Why do we never recognize the mother and fathers of the internet? Why do we never recognize the impact places like 4chan, 2chan, Something Awful, YTMND, and quite possibly thousands of forums left out from the aesthetics of webcore and Y2K had on the internet? I could think of a few reasons, but I'd like to ask one thing. If most of us on SpaceHey are here are interested in the "Old Web", then..

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How Far Are You Willing to Go?

(haha she said it! she said it!)

This might seem easy, just pick and choose what aspects of the internet back then are acceptable. But isn't that just remaking the Modern Internet with an older paint job? That's the thing about the internet in recent years, people have become more sensitive to what is acceptable and is not. This has led to a distaste for some users of this day and age; Trigger Warnings? You're a snowflake. DNI list? I ain't reading that. Callout posts? What a waste of time. (These are just examples, not my real feelings.) Some users believe that in order to experience the true "Old Web", you need to lower your standards, start to deal with it, and only take action on your own if it seems necessary. That seems like an issue with more modern users, people are more interested in calling out people and making it everyone's problem instead of taking action by themselves and hoping others see what's wrong. 

(However I can't blame them, in recent years it seems like internet moderation has dropped to an all-time low as less human reviews are making the decisions, automation has allowed some questionable people by like no issue.)

Abandoning this moral high ground already seems like an issue that most users would not like to do. But if we're going to talk about morality, we need to talk about the humor of the old web. Does anybody remember watching youtube videos of different gifs and videos of the hottest fads at the time? You know, like Shoop da Whoop or lol, internet compilations? Well, if you were like me, you also may have encountered many a video with humor that normalizes some very taboo topics. Whether it just be making fun of the disabled, based in racism, poking at rape, or straight up pedophilia, you bet your ass that was going in a fad compilation of whatever YTMND or 4chan was cooking that month.

Anybody remember pedobear? An hero? ***** stole my bike? Literally any anime meme from before 2010? The humor of the time wasn't just fun youtube or icons, people were making memes of some of the most vile topics imaginable of this age. And yet, people gloss over it like a soviet officer being removed from a photo of Stalin. But it isn't just recognizing the way the internet acts today, it's also recognizing how different we are from what once was.

To understand, you have to realize...

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The Internet was Privatized At One Point.

Privatized in this sense meaning that the Internet was more or less a place for folks to find each other in a niche community and begin integrating with their fellow people. Unlike today's friendlier approach to providing context to people unaware of what's funny about a ridiculous video, if you weren't knowledgable about a certain thing or not part of a certain fandom, you stay in your lane and figure it out yourself. Not sure what was funny about a man time travelling with no guarantee for safety? Find out yourself, don't ask some anon who already knows. Not sure what to think about an edit of different anime girls being stalked by a png of a bear set to a certain Oingo Boingo song? Tough shit, maybe you'll find it funny next time. 

It was an era where you just had to be there to fit in. Nowadays everything is public for all to consume. It also shows in our meme culture, whereas fads were for people in the know, you can just pick up the funniest video on twitter or youtube, laugh, and move on. No context required. My best example for this is the case of Azumanga Daioh. In the era of the 4chan-born fad, every character had a kind of balance of appreciation. Just a whole bunch of Kimuras attracted to their favorite character and making funny little pictures to post around the boards for others to pass along. Then you look at now, where Azumanga has gone through a surge in interest, Osaka has overtaken every other character's popularity. And that popularity comes from many people who have not taken a look at the source material, anime and manga, they just look at Osaka and say "wow azumanga daioh awesome it has autism in it"

Unfortunately, while I see gatekeepers as spiritual successors to the private ways of the "Old Web", it's useless to gatekeep such a monument like Azumanga Daioh. Think of it as trying to gatekeep a rickety shed, it's unstable and anybody could just knock it over and steal whatever was in it easy peasy. That's just the thing. Returning to the old web means that you need to get in or get out. And with the ever declining attention span of a modern internet user that seems almost impossible to do now. So with all of these paragraphs full of nothing out of the way, let me ask you again.

How Far Are You Willing to Go?

Do we truly want the "Old Web" back? With all of the aspects of inside jokes, private communities, normalized taboo topics, and overall lower standards, do you want that past back? It's not a matter that I can answer for you, because I have mixed feelings on the topic. I believe that while I believe the internet should return to its former privatized ways in the midst of overmonetization and overcentralization, I believe some things are best left in the past. We already know what has happened to the websites that built the internet fad by fad, user by user, community by community, 4chan has become a crazed shell of what it used to be, YTMND has died from neglect, Something Awful is mostly a memory, and forums are a dying art. 

So, what do you think? Are you really wanting the "Old Web" back? Or do you want a Neo-Y2K sanitized experience? I think most would want the latter.

TL;DR: people have forgotten most aspects of the older internet and i'm wondering if the true "old web" is something people want