By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 06/08/2026In 1993/1994, AOL connected its millions of users to the public internet. These users were unaccustomed to the internet's conversational and technical norms, and they kept coming. 39/ 1934
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 06/08/2026It wasn't that the old internet was incapable of absorbing surges of new users: every September, an incoming class of undergraduates found their way online through their universities' computer labs. 40/ 11065
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 06/08/2026But the AOL bridge was different: the flood of users was much larger, and it *never stopped*. The old internet people who struggled to transfer the culture and techniques of the internet to that flood of newbies called it the "Eternal September." 41/ 11164
