I think the comment that it was harder to be an asshole because someone would just ask you to leave (physically! With your equipment!) is quite relevant. It’s way too easy to be a jerk online now.

There was a real magic to LANs at one time, and these photos certainly bring back memories. University and college dorms were pretty fun too, I imagine their LANs are quite locked down now and only serve as an isp to the internet, but you used to be able to find eachother on the campus LAN fairly easily once upon a time, and there was a lot of associated fun and magic, from intranet messaging to gaming to file sharing