Compuserve Forums and a David Braben cock-up.
Initially it wasn't technically the internet until they added a Mozilla browser interface but merely global bulletin board full of wonderful moderated discussion forums. Moments that stand out.

1. Derek Smart going postal on the Battlecruiser forums after they slated his latest game.
2. Downloading my first ever high resolution porn image over about 30 minutes.
3. Downloading a 1st day demo of Elite:Frontier uploaded by Braben himself and then noticing that he'd accidentally included a swap file that contained a significant chunk of the source code along with some very unflattering comments. *I* found that. Me! I was a legend on the Elite forum for finding that as we all proceeded to pull the code apart bit by bit looking for tasty morsels.
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 23 Mar 2012, 10:34, 4 replies)

Braben...
...as an avid player of Elite and Frontier back in the day, I'd be very interested to know what kind of unflattering comments were included in the code. Nothing to do with Gametek shafting him over the bug ridden premature release of Frontier perhaps?
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 23 Mar 2012, 11:07, closed)

This was getting on for nearly 20 years ago so details are sketchy I'm afraid.
But there were certainly side-swipes, if not direct insults against his ex partner Mr Bell's coding techniques. I don't know whether any of the code in there was anything directly to do with Bell or whether Braben was just being snide for the sake of it.

I wish I'd kept that code because it was quite an eye opener at the time for an Elite fan such as myself.
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 23 Mar 2012, 11:15, closed)

Are you on pouet?

(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Fri 23 Mar 2012, 11:55, closed)

No. Should I be?
*googles*
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 23 Mar 2012, 12:04, closed)