To my dismay, I learned today that bash.org went down some time ago (2023). For those who don't know what bash.org is, or was I guess, it's a collection of chat snippets from IRC channels. Sort of a "best of" of the earlier days of IRC. Fortunately, a few archivists preserved the collection, and this is one of those archives. The best are pretty good, the worst are... pretty bad. Lots of racism. There are a lot of entries, some of which are still quoted around the internet today, and they represent a crowd-curated snapshot of what the internet was like around the turn of the century.

A selection of notable pieces in the collection (that is, I just went through and picked some I remember from the days of yore):
hunter2
types of people
lost machine
helping a newbie
inverted b
experiencing nature
neighborhood bonfire
advanced robotics
business acumen
essence of IRC
top minds of IRC

Thanks for the laughs.

I haven't been around for IRC, but I've definitely seen some of your picks quoted before.

I put on my robe and wizard hat.

Oh man, I miss those days.

Quote: 304642; Rating: 1625;

<Jakosin> what is a .tar
<Rivicen> its used to patch .road files

God that was a great time to be a kid. I miss the simplicity of those days.

I miss those days :(

I remember back in the days when I went over the data cap and my internet was throttled, this was one of the few websites that still worked

Can't forget this classic.

The internet was simpler back then. Or we were; maybe both.

I specifically did not include that one because I predicted it would be the first comment :) I was pretty close!

It's a cultural touchstone for sure. Back in the day it was a significant part of internet culture. It's still around, it's just not as mainstream as more modern iterations of social media.

You beat me to this comment. Still quite Robe and Wizard Hat.

LOL found one of mine, appreciate the archive link!

haha nice. Hope your back's feeling ok these days :)

Back is OK!

The knee sucks though lol

this one is a personal fave

Which one?

My personal fave: https://bash.rip/?5775

Such a classic.

the internet was better back then. sweeter, more innocent.

Before the Corponation attacked.

I miss the internet being something you logged into, instead of this perpetual misery portal that you were not able to escape from without a wide scale power outage.

There’s lots of good new stuff since then.

But it’s all monetized, and my anger at that outweighs any joy I feel. I blame Reagan.

STUPID

Why does this one pack such a punch?

hunter2

Awwww. Good old *******.

It seemed so cool at the time to magically have the internet in your pocket. Little did we know that it was a crack pipe in disguise.

Spartacus joins channel

Spartacus changed alias to RandomUser232

RomanSoldier joins the channel

RomanSoldier: Where is Spartacus?!

User1: I am Spartacus!

User2: I am Spartacus!

User2: No! I am Spartacus!

RomanSoldier: Man, fuck you guys.

RomanSoldier leaves channel

RandomUser232: Whew, that was close.

(paraphrased, but this was always one of my favorite entries on the site)

All I see is hunter2

https://p.mr64.net/users/bash

A fedi bot that posts random quotes

Man what I wouldnt give to go back to how the internet was in the mid 90s.

Logging into it with a screaming modem, simple websites, no corporate enshitification, barely corporation bullshit in general, IRC, AIM.

Thats the great thing.

You can point your finger and blame Reagan for almost anything, and you'd be right a disturbing number of times!

I can't believe you didn't mention bloodninja?

While it isn't the same as the good old days, I'm still on the irc. I have no plans to ever leave.

For me, I lost the community (they’ve been shut down) and I absolutely don’t have the time to lurk until conversation starts up at 3am like I did when I was a teen.

I get that, totally. I found a new community about 15 years ago or so and am part of a few now. They tend to be active most of the time to some degree at least, but not so active I feel like its too crowded. I am sure in the bigger group its always 95% lurkers still and they just chime in sparsely.

I'd love revisiting these occasionally for a boost of dopamine on long bus rides.

lol I forgot about that one, thank you haha

Right? I even put on my robe and wizard hat

WHO PUT THE COOKIE IN THE COOKIE JAR?

I was formally requested in our house to stop saying "I put on my robe and lizard hat" when donning the lizalfos mask in botw

Good ol' bash. Where the men are men, the women are men, and the kids are all FBI agents

Some of these have to be fake. Nothing ever happens.

The first time I read bash.org I was laughing so hard I was crying and short of breath. I mean I was struggling to get air. Shit was hilarious. I'm happy to see this important archive preserving the content for future generations.