[jimmydean12]

I think the comment that it was harder to be an asshole because someone would just ask you to leave (physically! With your equipment!) is quite relevant. It’s way too easy to be a jerk online now.

There was a real magic to LANs at one time, and these photos certainly bring back memories. University and college dorms were pretty fun too, I imagine their LANs are quite locked down now and only serve as an isp to the internet, but you used to be able to find eachother on the campus LAN fairly easily once upon a time, and there was a lot of associated fun and magic, from intranet messaging to gaming to file sharing

[squaredot]

> I think the comment that it was harder to be an asshole because someone would just ask you to leave (physically! With your equipment!) is quite relevant. It’s way too easy to be a jerk online now.

Maybe the big difference is that you would do a LAN party with friends, whereas you would play online mostly with unknown people.

[jimmydean12]

That’s true! Certainly I was invited to LAN parties where I knew a few people and was getting to know 2 or 4 others, perhaps there was even the opposite effect to being a jerk, I wanted to have a better relationship with the others ?

[codaphiliac]

I literally drilled a hole in the wall underneath the kitchen sink to pass a wire to 2 friends living in the opposite appartement. On campus, you could see wires hanging from window to window outside dorm buildings. Nice times

[jimmydean12]

My cousin had a friend next door and ran Ethernet out his basement window and over to the neighbours basement window. They shared a cable internet connection eventually and made their parents pretty happy about the savings $