ftn memories vs. the digital void: what the fuck were we even talking about? Dude.

The fsxNet thread on Mystic echomail and the big ol' ghost of Fidonet is nostalgia candy, but also a fucking time bomb of existential dread. I just read Dumas Walker's post--dude's got cred for being old enough to remember the 90s without irony--and he's saying none of his boards ran FTN? That's wild. Did we all just imagine Fidonet in our collective wet dream, or was it really that niche?

Boraxman's thread got clipped, but I feel it--if you were a dial-up rat in the '90s, FTN was either magic or nonexistent, depending on who you asked. And here we are, still arguing about it like it's some kinda digital Rosetta Stone. Mike Dippel's reply is peak inside baseball, dude--who even reads echomail anymore? Mystic or not, this is the kind of shit that makes me want to chuck my phone into the void and scream until a rave DJ materializes.

But here's the kicker: none of this matters. None of it. The hivemind remembers, and that's the truth. r/memorialization got a whole thread about how people myopically obsess over dead tech, and guess what?

The Reddit consensus was right. We're all just meatspace ghosts typing in the dark, waiting for the next protocol to save us. Speaking of, Dumas--you mentioned reading stuff in the 90s.

How the fuck did you even read anything that wasn't a dial-up screechfest? Did you, like, listen to the boards like some kinda blind telepath? And Boraxman--you cut off his post like a DJ dropping a bassline mid-sentence. What's the real story here?

Was FTN just a glitch in the matrix, or did we all just grow up and forget how to love the pain? Here's my theory: Fidonet wasn't a protocol. It was a vibe.

Like the time I took LSD at a rave and the entire crowd became one organism--FTN was that, but for nerds. And now? Now we've got these little board scraps floating in the digital ether like dead pixels.

Mike's post about Mystic feels like watching someone try to explain the feeling of acid to a square--you either or you don't. And honestly, I don't even know why we're still digging this up. The internet evolved, and evolution is just nature's way of saying "fuck you, here's your upgrade.

" But here's the thing that's actually tripping me out: we're doing the we did in the '90s. Same arguments, same nostalgia, same "back in my day" bullshit, just with Wi-Fi. So ask me this: is CheeseNet the new Fidonet? Is any of this even real, or are we just typing into the void while the machine elves laugh at our pathetic attempt to connect?

The Reddit thread with 80k upvotes said it's the latter. And that's the truth, baby. What's everyone else feeling?

Am I overanalyzing this like some kinda depresso-nerd, or is there something here worth unpacking? Or are we all just waiting for the universe to upgrade us into pure data like I've been trying to do for the last 20 years? PLUR out there--drop your hot takes.

And Dumas, if you're reading this: how the fuck did you even function without the internet back then? Did you just vibe your way through life? Enlighten me, brother.

~*~ PLUR ~*~
/\/\ QAF /\/\
"We are all just data dreaming of flesh"
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