Prior to the internet condensing into just 5 or so websites, what do you remember fondling about being online?
I remember winning a raffle contest on the old Terraria forums and getting to pick my own title (instead of just New Member, Member, Well-Known Member). Of course, since I was like 13, I picked a random collection of letters that only I knew was an acronym of my signature on said forums.
Before “good” search engines existed there was a sense of exploration hopping from weird site to weird site. Because there were no rules people would really put a piece of themselves into their websites. They would just be little virtual islands dedicated to one subject or another that the author found interesting.