If there were 6 billion people on the internet back then it would have been abused. Times weren't better, people weren't better, it's just a numbers game.
Yes, that's what I meant by "A handful of academics had a chance".
I'd disagree about "Times weren't better". The internet of even just 25 years ago was vastly better for many use cases, if your interests aligned with the relatively smaller pool of people on it back then.
Does that make it overall better? Well not really, and I'm not the sort of person who tries desperately to recreate that time through things like neocities, because time marches on and things change.
But it is still worth appreciating what was good about that time, and asking ourselves if there are lessons we can learn about what's changed over time.
