
How to Join a Social Network in 1998 - Doubleguitars
http://www.ironicsans.com/2019/01/how_to_join_a_social_network_i.html
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Fnoord
I guess we're talking WWW or Web 2.0 or HTTP(S) or whatever (ie. bloat). Cu2
was a Dutch predecessor of Hyves which were both a very popular social network
in The Netherlands before the existence of MySpace and Facebook. Eventually,
"everyone" went to Facebook though.

Both were colorful (think: IRC on DALnet, or MySpace). It was awful.

The thing is, social networks existed before the term was ever coined. They
were just called your "network". Getting to know people was called
"networking". And most people get a job through their "network". It is nothing
new. Something like Usenet or IRC or a MUD just as well fits.

~~~
marapuru
Ah CU2, the memories. It's a while ago. One of the interesting things there is
that it actually made people aware of technology. You had to learn some HTML
(for horrible purposes though), you had to read urls.

Maybe it wasn't always for the good (eye bleeding color schemes for example).
But I'm sure a lot of people learned the basics of HTMl through those types of
websites.

~~~
all2
Myspace served a similar purpose for later generations. It did for me, anyway.

There were still terrible color choices, and scrolling text, and flashing
text, and glitter that followed your mouse cursor...

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jbverschoor
Hm.. my "social network" was #coders on ircnet and efnet. NNTP, some ICQ
contacts and a few forums.

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tobyjsullivan
I (barely) recall chain letters being a very common thing back in those days.
Probably the first form of "viral content" on the internet. Reading that
email, it's easy to connect the dots of how sixdegrees probably had the idea
of capturing that viral nature in a web app. Great example of clever and
somewhat successful adaptation.

edit: internet != web

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welly
In the UK, before Facebook we had Friends Reunited which many, many people
were members of. It seemed to pass a number of hands after the original
developers sold it - ITV bought it but it was beginning to lose members and
interest, and they eventually sold it on to someone else. I reconnected with
one of my old best friends from school who I'd not seen or spoken to in about
15 years so I certainly have it to thank for that (and we're still in touch).

There was another social media/networking site called Faceparty that was a
little closer to Facebook and I used that for a short while before eventually
going on to MySpace and then Facebook. And now I've dropped social media
entirely - don't miss it in the slightest.

~~~
thewastesadtime
faceparty sounds like a fake social media site made up by a sitcom lol

~~~
welly
It's a pretty awful name but it was around well before Facebook appeared or
certainly became popular, I used it for a short while around 2002-2003. It
wasn't a great place and I'm amazed it's still online.

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ZebZ
I spent most of my time in the mid 90s through early 2000s as an op in #HTML
on Undernet. Good times. I actually got my first job through there.

~~~
myleshenderson
I spent way too much time on undernet during the same period of time, mostly
on #asp. I got my first and second programming jobs through friends I made
there.

Wasn't there a site ran by one of the #html ops, htmlcenter or something like
that?

~~~
ZebZ
There was! But I can't for the life of me remember who or what the site
address was.

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fit2rule
I've been running/involved in mailing-lists, the non-SPAM kind, for decades.

Whatever the tech you use, _its the people._

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peex
My network consisted of IRC, my huge list of ICQ contacts and a few web design
or humor related local forums.

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code_duck
I recall sixdegrees. I was invited to it by the same person who got me to sign
up classmates.com and Friendster.

As far as websites with useful social networking functionality that resembles
what we have today, I would say the PHPbb/vBulletin style forums were there
early on. Sometime around 1999, I joined a forum on ezboard.com(1) which ended
up turning into a long running discussion and meeting site. It was moved to a
private server after ezboard transitioned in some way and deleted everyone's
content circa 2003. It was the most prominent online resource in our artist
community until it was replaced by Facebook and then Instagram.

(1)
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezboard](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezboard)

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INTPenis
In 1998 here in Sweden kids were joining the Skunk network, a very early
social network. I guess it sort of exploded around that time so it's hard to
backup a statement like "the first online social network".

~~~
liquid_x
We had StajlPleijs/Lunarstorm founded in 1996
[https://www.internetmuseum.se/tidslinjen/lunarstorm/](https://www.internetmuseum.se/tidslinjen/lunarstorm/)

~~~
tapland
With up to 600k memebers in a country of 9m at the time.

Lunarstorm was HUGE.

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nutate
I remember getting that email from a friend (who's still my friend) and
thinking nah. Same with friendster which existed pre-MySpace. Folks comparing
this to MOOs and IRC are missing that this was one of those first anglings to
do what MySpace and Facebook eventually did. IRC and other online environs
weren't built to gather users and use their information as raw material for
advertisers. Sixdegrees was, it just failed earlier and faster than most.

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cmrdporcupine
My 'social network' was LambdaMOO (well, earlier than 1998 I guess), and IRC.

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brownkonas
Fakeplace.com (the example domain in the join and add metadata section).

I think I just found the working title for my screenplay of a sequel to The
Social Network.

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jeffreygoesto
[https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MausNet](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MausNet)

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coleifer
Ah, it was a simpler time..

