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That's patreon.com slash ghost town pod. American idiot. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leeb. And this is

Ghost Town. We often talk about a different time in the Internet's relatively short history.

An earlier time, a simpler time.

A time when the Internet was actually cool, exciting, populated by young, savvy users who enjoyed discourse, had opinions, and were down to stay up late,

drinking jolt, eating 3D Doritos, and textually sparring with strangers.

Some call this the Internet's golden years.

Others, the beginning of the end.

Or the Eternal September.

Jason, does the term Eternal September mean anything to you? No. No, you're new to this. You're like a little lamb just being...

I'm only, I'm only 19 years old. Yeah, you don't know. What's the internet? Yeah, but tell me,

wise one. I will, I will. That's right. I will, I will. We. What's the Internet? Yeah, but tell me, wise one.

That's right, I will, I will, I will.

We'll start at the beginning.

Way back when, think, 1979, 19, you were only 40 at this point.

I was early 40s.

The dawn of the Internet, Duke University grad students, Tom Truescott and and Jim Ellis created a computer-to-computer

discussion system developed from general purpose Unix to Unix copy. It's called UUCP, a dial-up network

infrastructure. You know, you know the sound of this. They were collectively called Usenet, a portmanteau of

users' network. Think messages to one another on a kind of bullet

...