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Comment by 101008 | Hacker News Reader

Good for those nostalgics like me. My experience with something similar was Escargot, a similar project but for MSN Messenger[1]:

I created a new account (old accounts do not work), I made my friends to do the same and we used it for a few hours (sharing emoticons, nudges, etc) but then the novely went away. Software alone cannot capture/reproduce the old days, unfortunately.

[1]https://escargot.chat/

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That's the thing about nostalgia. We don't miss a thing by itself, but the whole context in that given time.

I don't miss Windows 98. I miss being a child using that, browsing the old internet, the old terrible "web design" and having my friends on the same page

You can never really go home.

As adults, we have the goal of finding a new place to call home. Growing up doesn't have to mean feeling lost or renouncing to be in a warm and nurturing place.

The only difference is that I'm not a child anymore.

If you had a fixed home during your formative years, that is a special place which no longer exists except in your imagination.

Even if you physically visit, one or more of several things are drastically different.

Change is always happening.

you cannot step into the same river twice.

Not until you go to seek your great perhaps.

> I don't miss Windows 98. I miss being a child using that, browsing the old internet, the old terrible "web design" and having my friends on the same page

I do miss it - having a Windows 98 (or Windows 95) VM is so useful for running some old beloved games.

For those interested in doing something similar but with AIM (the messaging client bundled alongside AOL):

1. "Phoenix" a closed-source server reimplementation:

http://iwarg.ddns.net/phoenix/index.php

2. AIM OSCAR protocol project in TypeScript, incomplete but partially working:

https://github.com/DrewML/aim-server

MSN Messenger was the best chat software I ever used. Its abandonment was a huge loss. Thanks for sharing!

https://youtu.be/nqGJUKaaLU4

After AOL chat waned, MSN Chat was really fun too 2003-2005?. I spent a ton of time on the local chat and I really missed it when it left. I know AOL had that but it was before the great ISP unbundling and was mostly gone by 2002 IIRC. I never found a broad audience on IRC.

Reddit is close to a successor but came much later.

Craigslist personals was a good way to connect to people and of course that’s gone too.

We lost a lot of communities. Instagram, Facebook, dating apps, and just about every other social network evolved while never capturing the original excitement, IMO.

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