The old dial-up ritual for reading long forum threads

Back in 1999, I used to print out multi-page fanfiction and slow-burn stories from a forum called The Lost Library, because my dial-up would disconnect if my mom picked up the phone. I'd sit in my room with a stack of paper and a highlighter, marking my favorite parts. Now I just bookmark tabs on my phone and read them on the bus, but I kinda miss the ritual of physically holding the pages. Does anyone else have a specific memory of how they used to read long stuff online before everything moved to smartphones?

2 comments

2 Comments

barnes.jamie13d ago

Gotta disagree with you there honestly. I remember printing out a 200-page fan theory thread on some old forum back in 2000 and by page 50 the ink was running out and the pages were all smudged together. Then my little brother would steal the stack to draw on the back. lol. Plus you'd lose your place constantly if you dropped the papers or they got mixed up. Bookmarks on my phone are way easier and I don't have to worry about the highlight bleeding through to the next page. The ritual was cool for nostalgia but the actual reading experience was kinda a pain.

richard_mason13d ago

the ink was running out and the pages were all smudged together" - oh man I feel that pain. But you're kinda putting the blame on the wrong thing there. That wasn't a dial-up problem, that was a printer problem. You were using an inkjet printer for 200 pages? That's a rookie move. I had a little Canon bubble jet that would eat ink like candy, so I learned real quick to use the laser printer at Kinko's. Cost me like 5 cents a page but it never smudged and the highlighters worked perfect. I'd grab a whole stack from the copy center after school and read them on the bus home. The ritual wasn't about the printing, it was about not having to stare at a glowing 15 inch CRT screen for hours while your eyes turned into sandpaper.