Anyone here experience the late 90s wild west Cowboys Internet?

[Reverend Conehead]

When the Internet was new and most of us were using dialup with Windows 95 and huge CRT monitors, the Dallas Morning News set up a Cowboys forum. It was the old wwwboard system where you didn't register to post. You just typed a name and said what you wanted. This meant anyone else could type that same handle to impersonate you. There were multiple ad hominem attacks, impersonations, multiple handles, flooding, and screaming fights. It was the wild west on this new thing called the Internet. Cowboy hater trolls would come in guns a blazin' with sheer gems of wisdom like accusing Cowboy players or fans of engaging in gay sex or just yelling, "Cowboys suck." It was before people had figured out how to run a civilized fan forum or how to stop trolling. It was especially a mess after any loss with haters inundating the place with cat calls and floods.

The DMN board was such a mess that a fan who went by "Star Power" set up his own board. It was still wwwboard, but it showed IP addresses and IP blocked trolls. Even so, it was still pretty wild. Both those boards are now long gone, but I'm curious if anyone here was part of them. Nowadays I laugh at how ridiculously out of control fan boards used to be. Not that I want to return to those days. Today you can actually have intelligent conversations about the team and can find out good info. But it's fun to laugh at what a mess it used to be.

 

[Boyzmamacita]

More recently, I remember FWST had a wild forum with some of the foulest posters around. I found myself stooping to their level at times so I looked for another board and found this one. I haven't looked back since.

 

[Zordon]

lol I couldn't ever imagine participating in a place like that.

 

[AdamJT13]

Here's a glimpse of that DMN forum from February 1998 --

http://web.archive.org/web/19980207055212/http://football.***BANNED-URL***/forums/cowboys/

Some of us around here have been posting on various forums since before that.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Here's a glimpse of that DMN forum from February 1998 --

http://web.archive.org/web/19980207055212/http://football.***BANNED-URL***/forums/cowboys/

Some of us around here have been posting on various forums since before that.

Ha ha ha, good job. The old wayback machine. I'm trying to remember the URL for Star Power's Cowboy board. I did remember that Star Power's name was Robert Trevino, but I can't seem to remember his URL.

In fact, my handle is a holdover from the wild west days. I used to have multiple handles before that was frowned upon. Reverend Conehead was a preacher who had a Dallas Cowboys church and screamed hallelujah to the Holy Blue Star. I had another handle named Bolshevik Pack Fan, who was a commie Packer fan who yelled about exploiting the proletariat. I had a photoshopped image of the Red Army marching with cheese on their heads. I'll have to search to see if I still have that.

 

[big dog cowboy]

The DMN board was such a mess that a fan who went by "Star Power" set up his own board.

I was a longtime standing member and admin on that board.

"Star Power" (real name is Robert) is a friend of mine.

 

[WV Cowboy]

Anyone remember the message board, .. "Austin360" ?

 

[TNCowboy]

More recently, I remember FWST had a wild forum with some of the foulest posters around. I found myself stooping to their level at times so I looked for another board and found this one. I haven't looked back since.

Cowboy Roy, Pierdon, etc?

 

[YosemiteSam]

When the Internet was new and most of us were using dialup with Windows 95 and huge CRT monitors, the Dallas Morning News set up a Cowboys forum. It was the old wwwboard system where you didn't register to post. You just typed a name and said what you wanted. This meant anyone else could type that same handle to impersonate you. There were multiple ad hominem attacks, impersonations, multiple handles, flooding, and screaming fights. It was the wild west on this new thing called the Internet. Cowboy hater trolls would come in guns a blazin' with sheer gems of wisdom like accusing Cowboy players or fans of engaging in gay sex or just yelling, "Cowboys suck." It was before people had figured out how to run a civilized fan forum or how to stop trolling. It was especially a mess after any loss with haters inundating the place with cat calls and floods.

The DMN board was such a mess that a fan who went by "Star Power" set up his own board. It was still wwwboard, but it showed IP addresses and IP blocked trolls. Even so, it was still pretty wild. Both those boards are now long gone, but I'm curious if anyone here was part of them. Nowadays I laugh at how ridiculously out of control fan boards used to be. Not that I want to return to those days. Today you can actually have intelligent conversations about the team and can find out good info. But it's fun to laugh at what a mess it used to be.

lol. Late 90s? You were late to the show! The late 90s is when the Internet started to become popular. I remember when Netscape 1.0 was released. We used to use dialup BBS, the go to the PPP pass-through to get on the Internet. (there really were no dial ISPs at the time) In the late 90s I was working for one of the first major ISPs in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. (Flash Net, when they were still off Forest Park Blvd in Ft Worth) Though, I bailed about a month after they went public. I've never seen a company become a complete train-wreck in how they run their company after going public. Their philosophy did a 180. It was horrendous!

 

[EGTuna]

Cowboy Roy, Pierdon, etc?

Ha! Those dudes thought Drew Henson was destined for greatness because he was handsome. I miss Pierdon and Cowboy Roy.

 

[CATCH17]

There was nothing worse than trying to fix a computer virus with a 56k modem.

 

[YosemiteSam]

There was nothing worse than trying to fix a computer virus with a 56k modem.

I don't understand what you mean? Downloading the anti-virus software on a system that already had a virus? I used to work for McAfee Anti-Virus around 1997. I remember the woes of viruses back then. They aren't the same as they are today. :laugh2: This whole thread is a wayback time machine for me! :laugh2:

Funny thing, I left Flash Net after they IPOed, I left McAfee after they merged with Network General. (both moves were horrible with horrible outcomes)

I will say this. Working for ISPs and Anti-Virus companies (and Microsoft for that matter), I learned a ton about not just how to protect a PC, but how to avoid getting viruses even without Anti-Virus installed. I think I've had one PC virus in my lifetime.

 

[JIMMYBUFFETT]

I was there. I remember the guy Dave that used to end evey post with "Quincy freaking sucks". He was a funny dude.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Ha! Those dudes thought Drew Henson was destined for greatness because he was handsome. I miss Pierdon and Cowboy Roy.

I thought Drew Henson was going to be great. He actually did beat out Tom Brady to the the starter in Michigan. Just shows you that you can never know. I remember when Dwayne Goodrich and Kareem Larimore were going to save our secondary. Oh, the pain.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

Anyone remember the message board, .. "Austin360" ?

I remember that board. There are some posters here who I recognize and remember from that site. That was actually a pretty decent site for its time

 

[rynochop]

Yeah i was on there in 98 or 99, DMN and the FWST iirc, man what a train wreck those places were. There were some funny people on there though.

Who else clicked on a couple those threads in that link from Adam?? lol

I'm trying to think of the forum that I was on before this one opened in 04, a lot of ppl migrated to this one from that one...it may have been DMN, but dont think so.

I was drinking the Henson kool aid too, thought he would be the answer, ugh. I still contend the Romo complainers were either too young or have forgotten those years. They were showing the first Hardknocks the other day on NFLNW, that brought back memories and not good ones.

 

[trickblue]

I was also on the DMN board and the FWST board...

Both were circuses, but FWST made the DMN board look like a local carnival circus while FWST was Ringling Bros on steroids... it became unreadable...

The first "civilized" rendition of a Cowboy board I visited was thecowboys.net (now known as CowboysZone) and The Ranch Report...

 

[Cajuncowboy]

I was on the old SportsOnly Cowboys board before it went away. I know a few others here were as well. There was so many flame wars the fire department shut it down.

 

[Aikmaniac]

lol. Late 90s? You were late to the show! The late 90s is when the Internet started to become popular. I remember when Netscape 1.0 was released. We used to use dialup BBS, the go to the PPP pass-through to get on the Internet. (there really were no dial ISPs at the time) In the late 90s I was working for one of the first major ISPs in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. (Flash Net, when they were still off Forest Park Blvd in Ft Worth) Though, I bailed about a month after they went public. I've never seen a company become a complete train-wreck in how they run their company after going public. Their philosophy did a 180. It was horrendous!

Wow...Netscape...now there's some memories!

I remember checking my pine email at college and using geocities to build a webpage.

 

[WV Cowboy]

I remember that board. There are some posters here who I recognize and remember from that site. That was actually a pretty decent site for its time

Yes, it really was.