It was amazing, so much energy and excitement. No one used HTTP, no one was selling anything. It was mainly about communication over usenet , email, and irc. Public ISP's didn't exist.

The corporations were not really the first one to monetise and usher in e-commerce/www, it was porn, this ushered in lots of new tech.

The internet switched from active participation to passive consumption, and now we have both except now everything is monetised, monitored, and moderated.

It was the wild west.