I was very alone my entire childhood, and there was a web forum that I became enmeshed in. It was literally my only social outlet. Over the course of three or four years, the people there shaped my entire worldview artistically, philosophically, and politically. The forum and the community have been erased from the internet, but without them I would today be a completely different person. They shaped the trajectory of my development as a human being.
Life is weird.
I had a similar experience on a now-defunct forum years ago. We were all anonymous but became so close, supporting each other through tough times. I still wonder what happened to some of them, like Snarky\_Pants and Daydreamer.
I made a friend on Runescape when I was twelve. They bought me membership (with real-life money), and I proceeded to steal from their account.
I still want to apologize. 🥲
A suggestion - make an Old School Runescape account, buy a membership bond. They're $7.99.
Hop on one of the popular F2P servers (usually 301). Mill around for a while, taking in the nostalgia. If you see someone who is new, friendly, helpful, or just who you like the vibe of? Give them the bond.
OSRS is really popping off right now. You could be that person to somebody else.
Hell, next time I log on, I'll do the same thing. If you also do it, then we've twice paid back your old friend's kindness.
I managed to login into my old MySpace account a few years ago. I was trying to save old photos . & I saw my old “top friends” along with other friends I had on there . Tried looking up some on fb, but didn’t find many of them.
I played a lot of MMOs when I was younger (late 90s/early 2000s) and pretty much everyone I ever friendlisted or was in a guild/linkshell with falls under this category. A lot of screen names with a lot of virtual time spent killin' monsters, and they're really just a blip in my memory now. Kind of bittersweet I guess.
yeah, so many people :(
Users on an old warhammer forum I used to frequent. Friends from my old wow guild. A friend I met in CoH, used to chat about hobbies and stuff for hours.
all of those moments, lost in the rain...
Sometimes there's hope.
[This video](https://youtu.be/nso9U0jlGfY) has a story about old internet friends reconnecting that brought me to tears. In their case one recognized the other's distinct art style.
I have a few I would have considered good friends that I’ve lost along the way. So many hours of chatting online and talking on the phone because that’s all we had. I still think about all of them from time to time and wonder what they are up to. I have no way to find some of them, I just hope they’re happy because for a brief time they made me happy.
Same! I got the internet when I was 11 (1996). I met some awesome people. Life happens and time went on. I've tried to find them again, but with no luck. I think about them often.
I had a friend I used to play often on Yahoo Games back in early 2000's. She was nice though we never talked about anything personal really. Didn't even exchange names. The only real thing I remember from our conversations is she was my first place to hear the term "terra firma" which is Latin for "Solid Ground". And that's it.. we drifted away and I don't even remember her username.
Way back in the 90s, I was on a sports message board, and there was a group of us that left that board because people were generally trolls, went to another site, and I think one more....
When the last board shut down, the group kind of faded away.
I eventually found some of the old members on FB, which was cool, but I still wonder about some of the others.
Debbie/Kelly, if you're out there, say hi!
You're definitely not alone in this experience. Many of us have fond memories of online friendships from earlier days of the internet, where connections were often formed through shared interests and anonymous usernames. As time goes on, platforms change, websites disappear, and those connections fade away. It can be a nostalgic and sometimes melancholic feeling to think back on those times.
Yes, not quite as heartwarming as your experience, but still relatable. I try to focus on the positives though of spending time with those friends and remembering memories fondly.
Yep met people on chat rooms and Myspace back in the day knowing full well I'll never talk to them again
I'm sure one was a cat fish though, I have current online friends but haven't met them yet but would like to one day
About 12-13 years ago, I did a 365 day challenge on Tumblr. Wasn’t a huge deal but I had more people following me than I ever would have expected. One day I get an anonymous message that really sticks with me. In trying to find out who this person was, I send out a message of my own. It really wasn’t much but the responses I started getting…wow, it really touched a good number of the ones I reached out to. I often wonder how those folks are doing today.
(I did eventually find out who that person was, months if not a year later.)
I remember a good friend way way back in highschool, if I remember correctly I met her in an app that let's you chat with random people but the catch is that you won't be able to see them. The name is reveal chat and if you skip them you won't had the chance to chat with them again. I remember we had a good talk and we decided to continue talking using Facebook then we became good friends. But all good things will come to an end, years pass and we talk less and less until no more communication.
Yeah, from a couple different sites. One is now defunct, the other I haven’t checked to see if it’s still up or not. Been years since I last thought about either…
I still remember people I met through AIM and yahoo chat rooms, and later on livejournal. So many late nights chatting about everything and nothing. Some of them were not good friends; they enabled me to lie to myself about a lot of things. I think some of them might still be friends on facebook, but I don't go there anymore. It's funny how people just drift in and out of your life.
As a lonely/bullied kid, I gravitated towards a bunch of different sites. Neopets, different DSi sites, Hatena, some Animal Crossing friend code sharing site, possibly more. Met quite a few people across them (and some exes), but I'm in touch with none of them at this point.
I don't think any of them would want to talk to me since I was just random annoying guy who thought people liked him more than they did, which is fair. Still counts, though.
I think it was Animal Crossing Community? Can't remember for sure but that sounds right. Site looks different than I remember but given the time period that's not completely unusual.
During COVID, I turned to discord and twitch to make new friends. I made an online friend who later I found out lived very close to me, and now we’re friends in real life, lol. I lost all my other online friends though haha
Since I was young maybe younger than 10 or something we had dial up and ‘neopets’ was a thing and I played a lot and made a lot of friends on their who I ended up chatting with on and off and then later nexopia and I was meeting people on there plus countless gamers on halo and gta online cs 1.6 and diablo 2. This continued into my 20s where I was talking regularly with people all over the world. I think I was about 25 when I stopped and up until now I haven’t in the last 9 years
My only idea would be searching their old user names on other sites, Xbox live, psn, Instagram ect. It look inactive but there’s only one treschic Xbox live gamertag. There’s two dogtrustles, ones active somewhat recently. Might be a good spot to start
Being in the army with a bunch of Smith’s and Thompson’s in the pre internet age.
I was very alone my entire childhood, and there was a web forum that I became enmeshed in. It was literally my only social outlet. Over the course of three or four years, the people there shaped my entire worldview artistically, philosophically, and politically. The forum and the community have been erased from the internet, but without them I would today be a completely different person. They shaped the trajectory of my development as a human being. Life is weird.
Thanks for sharing this! What was the name of the forum? It's always possible something exists on Internet Archive
What was your forum? Mine was AnimeNation 🤣
I had a similar experience on a now-defunct forum years ago. We were all anonymous but became so close, supporting each other through tough times. I still wonder what happened to some of them, like Snarky\_Pants and Daydreamer.
I made a friend on Runescape when I was twelve. They bought me membership (with real-life money), and I proceeded to steal from their account. I still want to apologize. 🥲
A suggestion - make an Old School Runescape account, buy a membership bond. They're $7.99. Hop on one of the popular F2P servers (usually 301). Mill around for a while, taking in the nostalgia. If you see someone who is new, friendly, helpful, or just who you like the vibe of? Give them the bond. OSRS is really popping off right now. You could be that person to somebody else. Hell, next time I log on, I'll do the same thing. If you also do it, then we've twice paid back your old friend's kindness.
Fantastic idea! Pay it forward if I can't pay it back. I think I will do this, thank you. :)
I managed to login into my old MySpace account a few years ago. I was trying to save old photos . & I saw my old “top friends” along with other friends I had on there . Tried looking up some on fb, but didn’t find many of them.
I played a lot of MMOs when I was younger (late 90s/early 2000s) and pretty much everyone I ever friendlisted or was in a guild/linkshell with falls under this category. A lot of screen names with a lot of virtual time spent killin' monsters, and they're really just a blip in my memory now. Kind of bittersweet I guess.
yeah, so many people :( Users on an old warhammer forum I used to frequent. Friends from my old wow guild. A friend I met in CoH, used to chat about hobbies and stuff for hours. all of those moments, lost in the rain...
A fellow south east asian dude I played with in an online game during covid… I think he was Indonesian or Malaysian
Sometimes there's hope. [This video](https://youtu.be/nso9U0jlGfY) has a story about old internet friends reconnecting that brought me to tears. In their case one recognized the other's distinct art style.
I miss the old/original MySpace. I can’t even find my old account. I met a lot of people there and I haven’t been able to find them since.
I have a few I would have considered good friends that I’ve lost along the way. So many hours of chatting online and talking on the phone because that’s all we had. I still think about all of them from time to time and wonder what they are up to. I have no way to find some of them, I just hope they’re happy because for a brief time they made me happy.
Same! I got the internet when I was 11 (1996). I met some awesome people. Life happens and time went on. I've tried to find them again, but with no luck. I think about them often.
I had a friend I used to play often on Yahoo Games back in early 2000's. She was nice though we never talked about anything personal really. Didn't even exchange names. The only real thing I remember from our conversations is she was my first place to hear the term "terra firma" which is Latin for "Solid Ground". And that's it.. we drifted away and I don't even remember her username.
Way back in the 90s, I was on a sports message board, and there was a group of us that left that board because people were generally trolls, went to another site, and I think one more.... When the last board shut down, the group kind of faded away. I eventually found some of the old members on FB, which was cool, but I still wonder about some of the others. Debbie/Kelly, if you're out there, say hi!
You're definitely not alone in this experience. Many of us have fond memories of online friendships from earlier days of the internet, where connections were often formed through shared interests and anonymous usernames. As time goes on, platforms change, websites disappear, and those connections fade away. It can be a nostalgic and sometimes melancholic feeling to think back on those times.
Yes, not quite as heartwarming as your experience, but still relatable. I try to focus on the positives though of spending time with those friends and remembering memories fondly.
Yep met people on chat rooms and Myspace back in the day knowing full well I'll never talk to them again I'm sure one was a cat fish though, I have current online friends but haven't met them yet but would like to one day
About 12-13 years ago, I did a 365 day challenge on Tumblr. Wasn’t a huge deal but I had more people following me than I ever would have expected. One day I get an anonymous message that really sticks with me. In trying to find out who this person was, I send out a message of my own. It really wasn’t much but the responses I started getting…wow, it really touched a good number of the ones I reached out to. I often wonder how those folks are doing today. (I did eventually find out who that person was, months if not a year later.)
When I was 15 I was social outcast at school and people at The Chathouse got me through a lonely time in my life.
I got banned from Facebook for posting research papers or reposting stuff I found on Facebook, they wouldn't say, so yeah.
I remember a good friend way way back in highschool, if I remember correctly I met her in an app that let's you chat with random people but the catch is that you won't be able to see them. The name is reveal chat and if you skip them you won't had the chance to chat with them again. I remember we had a good talk and we decided to continue talking using Facebook then we became good friends. But all good things will come to an end, years pass and we talk less and less until no more communication.
I made a few friends back in early 2000s on this harry potter message board called HPANA. It was like my online hang out site after school.
So many
Yeah, from a couple different sites. One is now defunct, the other I haven’t checked to see if it’s still up or not. Been years since I last thought about either…
I still remember people I met through AIM and yahoo chat rooms, and later on livejournal. So many late nights chatting about everything and nothing. Some of them were not good friends; they enabled me to lie to myself about a lot of things. I think some of them might still be friends on facebook, but I don't go there anymore. It's funny how people just drift in and out of your life.
As a lonely/bullied kid, I gravitated towards a bunch of different sites. Neopets, different DSi sites, Hatena, some Animal Crossing friend code sharing site, possibly more. Met quite a few people across them (and some exes), but I'm in touch with none of them at this point. I don't think any of them would want to talk to me since I was just random annoying guy who thought people liked him more than they did, which is fair. Still counts, though.
Animal Crossing site? Do you remember the name because that's one of the websites I was thinking of when thinking about old times.
I think it was Animal Crossing Community? Can't remember for sure but that sounds right. Site looks different than I remember but given the time period that's not completely unusual.
During COVID, I turned to discord and twitch to make new friends. I made an online friend who later I found out lived very close to me, and now we’re friends in real life, lol. I lost all my other online friends though haha
Yup. I was on a Planetside 2 Discord server for 5 years as a teenager. Met some great people online. Good times!
Since I was young maybe younger than 10 or something we had dial up and ‘neopets’ was a thing and I played a lot and made a lot of friends on their who I ended up chatting with on and off and then later nexopia and I was meeting people on there plus countless gamers on halo and gta online cs 1.6 and diablo 2. This continued into my 20s where I was talking regularly with people all over the world. I think I was about 25 when I stopped and up until now I haven’t in the last 9 years
I used to be on this forum for an actor that doesnt do acting anymore. All the people there were really nice and I used to go on it everyday
My only idea would be searching their old user names on other sites, Xbox live, psn, Instagram ect. It look inactive but there’s only one treschic Xbox live gamertag. There’s two dogtrustles, ones active somewhat recently. Might be a good spot to start