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Posted by u/throwaway_08932 2 years ago
Ask HN: What are your oldest "online" accounts still in use?
I logged into GameFAQs the other day, and noticed I'd created my account in 1999.

After some poking around my password manager, the only other account I could find still "in use" was an eBay account that I also created in 1999.

I felt a small sense of wonder at having still-functional accounts that are 25 years old.

What are your oldest accounts? What do they still do for you?

solardev · 2 years ago
My Microsoft login is still a Hotmail account, and I still use my same eBay account from way back then too. There's also a forum I've been a part of since I was a kid, and I'm nearly 40 now.

My favorite account I used to have was username@ibm.net, back when they dabbled in consumer ISPs (unlimited dialup!). Sadly, they discontinued that service after a while.

I used to have really old Steam, Amazon, Slashdot, Facebook, and reddit accounts too, but deleted them all for various reasons.

Spare_account · 2 years ago
In case you're interested in finding out the exact age of your Microsoft account: A few years ago I opened a support ticket with Microsoft about how old my account was and they were able to tell me the date my account was created. In my case, it was 22nd June 1998.
gaws · 2 years ago
> There's also a forum I've been a part of since I was a kid, and I'm nearly 40 now.

Which forum?

solardev · 2 years ago
Sorry for the late reply, I was sick and on a HN break!

https://boards.straightdope.com/ is the forum... it's not tech-focused, but it has a bunch of smart, passionate people discussing everything from airplanes to history to pop culture to video games and more. Usually pretty high quality discussions, although admittedly I've been a lot less active there than I used to be.

ylee · 2 years ago
My `pobox.com` account was created in the mid-1990s. Active the whole time.

My college email addresses were created three decades ago and are active today. I could switch back to using one as my primary email address everywhere, and do use it in some places, but the pobox address became the primary one after graduation, before the college address was reenabled.

My Amazon account was also created in the mid-1990s. I applaud the company for making complete purchase histories still available.

I am not sure when my `yahoo.com` account was created but it was in the late 1990s. I have never ever used the address anywhere. It gets lots of spam.

My eBay account was created in the late 1990s. Active the whole time.

I have a low single-digit Slashdot account.

I also have a valid ICQ account from the 1990s, I think, but never used it.

fullstop · 2 years ago
> I am not sure when my `yahoo.com` account was created but it was in the late 1990s. I have never ever used the address anywhere. It gets lots of spam.

Mine has been around since October of 1996. It, too, gets lots of spam.

> I have a low single-digit Slashdot account.

A friend of mine has slashdot uid of 6. He must have known the original crew.

dopheide · 2 years ago
Damn, I thought I was doing good with a 3-digit Slashdot id.
ylee · 2 years ago
I apologize; I meant to write "4-digit" and somehow that turned into "single-digit" in my brain. Yours is older.
weinzierl · 2 years ago
I still have a DynDNS (later Dyn and then acquired by Oracle) account.

It is a bit funny since the "Dyn (company)" Wikipedia page[1] says the company was founded in 2001, but I'm pretty sure I had this account already when years started with 19.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyn_(company)

EDIT: Not an online account, but I only had a single mobile phone number my entire life.

gwbas1c · 2 years ago
I attended a talk by the founders in early 2004. It was a non-profit hobby project, so it may have existed in some form before 2001.

Deleted Comment

xn · 2 years ago
My PayPal referral link no longer works for some reason: https://secure.paypal.x.com/refer/pal=cwarden%40mediaone.net
_fw · 2 years ago
X.com points to Twitter now, so I imagine that’s why it’s broken

(Unless I’m pointing out the obvious unsaid joke)

runjake · 2 years ago
Some of my MUD accounts from 1991-1992, which I still occasionally log into from time to time, out of morbid curiousity. They're inexplicably still online, but effectively ghost towns.

Other than that, probably my Gmail account from the beta days.

quantxx · 2 years ago
A younger one here. What's MUD?
Ivoah · 2 years ago
Multi-user dungeon, basically a text-based MMORPG.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-user_dungeon

bcks · 2 years ago
A text-based, multiplayer, real-time virtual world. Sometimes more group-chat, sometimes more adventure story scenario: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-user_dungeon
plussed_reader · 2 years ago
MultiUserDomain - a precursor to today's MMO. You could connect to an ascii based adventure/roleplaying game that others could connect as well and communicate. I played astaria.net back in the late 90s.
Arubis · 2 years ago
Multi-User Dungeon; Cf. MUCK for multi-user chat kingdom and friends. Essentially a shared text-only set of chat rooms with a theme and some built-in game logic.
proaralyst · 2 years ago
Multi User Dungeons were sort of multiplayer roguelikes/interactive fiction. The text-based precursors to MMOs
throwaway_08932 · 2 years ago
My last ghost-town MUD died a few years ago :'(

http://lostunicorn.org/

Croftengea · 2 years ago
Oh, I didn't know MUDs are still a thing. Memories...
clucas · 2 years ago
swmud.org still gets active players :) Oldest player accounts are from '96 though, I think there was a big player wipe back in the mid-90s.
thetimbanks · 2 years ago
I also have an eBay account that I still use from 1999.

The other one that people seem to be impressed with is my Netflix account is from 2003. I was ordering DVDs in college and it blew people's minds that I was renting DVDs through the mail at that time. I tried to buy their stock back when they tried splitting the company into two entities. I think the stock was like $5 at the time. Unfortunately it was a lot harder to buy stock back then.

jghn · 2 years ago
I wouldn't have thought about Netflix as the service is so fundamentally different today than it was back then. I first signed up in 2003.
tkgally · 2 years ago
My personal website [1] has been hosted by Hostway.com since 1999. I still edit the HTML files by hand in a text editor, and I upload them by dragging them between the windows of an FTP client.

[1] https://gally.net

severine · 2 years ago
...and it's responsive, interesting, and up to date. Congratulations and thanks for the link!
tkgally · 2 years ago
Thank you!
msisk6 · 2 years ago
I've had my Amazon account since '98 or so. I still have items on my wishlist from the 90s.

Think of all the database upgrades over the years to move that data forward...

weinzierl · 2 years ago
I created an Amazon account when Amazon was pretty new and just sold books. Ordered a few books and then forgot about it. A couple of years later, when Amazon got popular I tried to login again and it did not work, so I wrote them an e-mail and they said it had been deactivated because of inactivity but now they had restored it. Different times.

When Amazon got really big and dabbled in the ad business I deleted it, so I don't have it anymore. Only created a new one when the pandemic hit.