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I miss this.

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Reminds me of when online "life" was more manageable and less pitched.

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Regarding the cybersex bit, I still cannot take seriously anyone who uses "cyber" by itself as a word (e.g. Cyber Monday) because it still calls to mind "putting on one's robe and wizard hat".

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Oh lord, I'd forgotten about that.

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Muahahahahaha! Now you will never forget again! You are scarred for life!

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That trend in graphic design where everything resembled some real life counterpart is called skeuomorphism, if it's a thing you wanted to dig further into and needed the word to the concept.

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TIL!

although it was really FDAIL, but I'm slow at replying, so.

But yes, TYFEMADJ

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Re: porn's role in the growth of web, I could swear I heard a porn star talk about having "virtual sex" on offer on her website in the late 90s. I'm still looking for the interview but my memory with these things has usually proven correct. There was definitely an early adoption in those spaces.

And while I know Onlyfans sorry if "democratized" porn, I still remember Suicide Girls/God's Girls (and to an extent, Model Mayhem) being essential in making it more mainstream/normalized for "regular" women.

For sure there were subscription services and I know Grace Quek/Annabelle Chong offered avatars/avatar skins of herself on her site. (She's gone into web development since!)

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A long time ago I read an article about how porn sites drove *technical* developments as well.

This might not have been it, but it conveys the gist: www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/23/porn.technology/index.html

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