[jrochkind1]

Eh, URL/URI escaping is an interesting example, because people have been doing inconsistent and sometimes standards-problematic things with it pretty much as long as they existed. And indeed it's been a perpetual pain and problem. (just one example read up on `&` and `;`, and whether `&` can/should/must be escaped in what contexts; that's not the only one, `+` is another long-standing one). So not a great example of how everyone used to always be consistently standards-compliant in "earlier times", more like a counter-example. I don't think it's unique, my experience is not that everything used to be more consistent and standards compliant in "earlier times" than it is now, when it comes to the web, if anything the reverse.