Comment by mrguyorama

>Back in the good ol' days of the internet, access to the internet in of itself was a decent filter: you had to want to be online, you needed to be somewhat technical, or at least willing to grapple with technical problems, and you needed to actively seek out communities online which aligned with your interests, and there was little financial motivation to do so in bad faith

And it was horrifically expensive to be online until the mid 90s, or late 90s depending on where you were.