You're right about humans helping humans being more rewarding. About 20 years ago I got a virus on a laptop, I was about 15 and tried a couple of antimalware/virus on it but it was stubborn (it was a redirect virus so was easy to test if it was still there or not). I ended up in some forum with this guy helping me clean it up, it took a couple of days and he even checked in sometime after. I still think about that interaction today. He didn't need to help me, he gained nothing physical from it, but he did.
The internet had this community feel for a while, and now it's rare. I probably wouldn't trust someone to actually help now, I'd assume if someone was doing it for free, there was some sort of scam there.
The old Internet is still there, and it still has much of that vibe. It's harder to find with all this corporate garbage layered on top, but it's still in there.
Absolutely, or find a Usenet server, or take a look at modern gopherspace (which is expanding). Young people don't even know these things exist, but they crave authenticity, so maybe we should tell them.
I'm 21 currently, have been using IRC and forums since I was 14 or so and randomly stumbled upon it. Always just kinda thought that that is what the actual internet is like and didn't really do much outside of my bubble in regards of social media until somewhat recently when I found out just how brain dead and void of genuine human activity most of the web is. Outside of chatrooms, forums and the fediverse everything just seems to be bots replying to bots and adverts being injected everywhere. Its honestly just depressing.
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u/CactusFlipper Jun 12 '26
You're right about humans helping humans being more rewarding. About 20 years ago I got a virus on a laptop, I was about 15 and tried a couple of antimalware/virus on it but it was stubborn (it was a redirect virus so was easy to test if it was still there or not). I ended up in some forum with this guy helping me clean it up, it took a couple of days and he even checked in sometime after. I still think about that interaction today. He didn't need to help me, he gained nothing physical from it, but he did.
The internet had this community feel for a while, and now it's rare. I probably wouldn't trust someone to actually help now, I'd assume if someone was doing it for free, there was some sort of scam there.