The early Internet had a few simple rules:

• Never feed a troll
• Never trust anything written online
• Never tell anyone your real name or address
• There are no girls online (i.e. people are not who they claim to be)
• Online is not IRL

And most people knew these rules. The proliferation of the Internet has brought a lot of people who don’t understand these rules in to the fold and it has made the Internet a worse place. “Normies” seemingly think the Internet world works like your normal social interactions - it does not. The anonymity of the Internet brings out the worst in people. We really need to bring back the rules of the early Internet for the safety of everyone.

Feel free to comment more rules if you remember any.

As much as I miss the early Internet though, I genuinely do wish I’d had more protection from the seedier sites. I am not better off for having seen the gore and shock sites.

NGL, I saw the gore and shock as well - stileproject, rotten, marsonline, ogrish, bestgore… and even WPD on Reddit in the early days and it really did give me an appreciation for safety first! in almost everything I have done since.

The biggest rule was proof/cites linking to legitimate sources, (not conspiracy sites or your friend “Sally” on facebook) or it didn’t happen.

Yeah I think it’s actually pretty healthy and good to see and read and watch horrible horrible things. For most of human history, people were exposed to such things from a young age. It strips away a harmful naivete. I know so many people who, when they see the ICE shootings, say stuff like “I can’t believe a human could do that to another human”, and I’m like…seriously? People think that atrocities are in the past just because they don’t see them. People think that humans have changed or grown up or lost a capacity for viciousness, but it’s absolutely still there. Actually watching ISIS slit someone’s throat and seeing how the people around them react, or seeing someone kicked to death in the slums, I’m not saying this stuff was pleasant by any means - but it gave me a much more realistic and accurate understanding of humanity and our world. It’s one thing to hear about it, it’s another thing to see it, imo. The point sticks with you better.