[questiondev]

i think they are referring what we use to be allowed to say in chat channels and on forums. it was a lot more raw, a lot of offended people starting getting online and treating the internet like it was real life, part of the beauty of the internet was how non-regulated it was, granted the quality has gotten better, safer spaces for things like business, finance and other sensitive information but we also lost the jokes that the internet use to have, on the main channels at least. back in the day you could get kicked from a mainstream irc channel but it too a lottttt to get banned from an irc network or even an online forum. which granted you can still find sub communities like you mention that still cater to hacking, off jokes and crazy information but it’s not tolerated on the main channels of communication like before, which is fine for people who weren’t into that stuff because it didn’t change for them. but overall there has been changes, not terrible but def not the same as irc/usenet/bbs’s during their hayday. information was widely accessible but a lot of it is a paywall these days, also torrenting was a lot more common and i could call someone a moron without getting flagged. but yeah we still got some freedom and there are better quality services in some ways, i guess it just depends on your personality and how much it has limited expressing ones self authentically.