The Chronology of the Blockland Forums

[TomTheGeek²]

i had this weird realization tonight that a stuff ton of time has passed. don't get me wrong, i am very aware it's 2025 and the fact i've been around this game / community since 2008.

10 years was crazy. 15? pretty crazy too. but 20 years of this game existing is out of this world crazy to me.

if someone jumped into a time machine, went back to 2008/9, found me on a Blockland server, and told me straight up, "you're gonna meet some people that are awesome and will stick around for a long time, even 17 years later" i would of never believed them.

this hit me out of nowhere and i was talking to mod-man about it too, which he agreed it's actually nuts it's been almost 20 friggen years since the retail days started.

after thinking about this for a majority of the night, i figured i'd post about this thought that popped up in my head.
it's one of those thoughts that you really can't put into words...........

edit due to more thoughts: the forum itself is 20 years old already as that date has passed already (10/17/2005) and on April 8th next year the Post real life pictures of yourself thread was started 20 years ago as well.

holy stuff time is wild  .

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[Soukuw]

phones killed the internet.

[TomTheGeek²]

phones killed the internet.

you're not wrong. around 15 years ago (jesus it's been this long) i was hunting down Google Wave invites because i really wanted to screw with it at the time, and i had to time up a giveaway of keys on some random forum i found that was giving invites out.

did i use a smartphone? pfffffffft no i didn't even have one, it was a cheapy LG slider phone. i was doing this entirely off of 3G and a T9 keyboard. you think Gen Z could figure out how to text on a T9 keypad????

EDIT: lol i did make a post about it all those years ago




either way, the last few days i've slowly realized that i've been on the internet or playing with computers for 20 years now. crazy that all of this led me into an IT career........which this dang forum and Blockland did play a huge role in.

[Soukuw]

RIP wave that actually seemed like it could have been neat.

I remember that there was a clear difference when everyone started getting their hands on smartphones, even as a total idiot I could tell quality of comments/posts dropped hard. You could even tell exactly who was using a phone from some of the quirks of autocorrect and people would get called out for it.

[Goth77]

you think Gen Z could figure out how to text on a T9 keypad????

i've slowly realized that i've been on the internet or playing with computers for 20 years now. crazy that all of this led me into an IT career........which this dang forum and Blockland did play a huge role in.

dude I fricken hated t9 word lmao i was much faster at typing each character out even tho u had to hit the button up to 3 times to get the letter u wanted. i could text at lightning speed on my samsung smooth flip phone xD

but ya I share a similar experience. although I was always interested in technology whether it was hardware or software, Blockland is mainly what got me into in programming and 3D modeling

[Dr.Block]

phones killed the internet.

This is my theory. There's a thing that happens where when something gets too popular, it gets ruined. But once it gets ruined, it stops being popular and everyone leaves, and the only people left are the OGs from before it was popular. The really committed individuals who genuinely care about it. I think this is what happened to the internet but it's taking way longer than usual. Microsoft made it accessible to everyone, then Apple made it even more accessible to everyone, the normies got it, then the corpos got it, and now it loving blows. I'm already seeing people turning away from it, Twitter is in ruins, nobody takes Facebook seriously anymore, Youtube has become an eldrich horror and it's only a matter of time before it eats itself, and there's a growing trend among the Gen Zs to go back to "dumb phones." The internet is currently in the process of going out of style and once the process is complete, it's going to be like the 90's again. The second golden age is coming. I was this close to throwing my phone in the garbage as well until I realized that having a computer in my pocket at all times is loving awesome and I would have stuff myself when I was 11 if I knew I would have this in the future, so why should I let the musks and Annoying Oranges of the world have it? When all I have to do is use it responsibly? I like to drink wine but I don't nurse the flask for 3 hours every day. It's the people who truly only used their phones for social media who have no reason to own one anymore.