Poor bunny. Nothing was stollen. That is always the lie that allows us to blame others. It was given away or sold. Some of the greatest sites of the old days were labors of love. People wrote blogs, documented knowledge they found for others to use, did research and gathered data, they paid for a domain year after year and made nothing. As you say, they made games just for fun. Tell me Bunny- data is cheaper than ever and knowledge of coding as technology has only expanded in reach and depth with the public in general. So where are the flash type sites now? How much would it cost someone to set up an old computer with a terabyte or so in storage to run as a server from their home..?
But that’s a thankless job. Perhaps some emails, some site traffic. No likes. No endorsement deals. YouTube, Tik Toc, these platforms that can lead to riches or at least supplementary income. You could spend hundreds of hours on the old internet making fun widgets or recording hard earned specialized knowledge or coding little games and never be famous- not even internet famous. Never be rich or make even enough from that work to help pay for your weekly coffee. It was done for fun and practice and a love of creating and doing or the novelty of it.
Now… a “retro” App Store game or steam etc. will take as much or less time to make and you can at least make some money- maybe get rich. People put time to make an stl file etc. of something they want to 3D print. The file is already made and they put in the work for themselves- it can be copied near infinite times for basically free. But.. they’ll sell it to you.
The “grind” the “hustle” the “hey, I can make money off this!” People will often speak on how some change “hurts small creators ability to create by reducing/eliminating their revenue..” YouTube demonetization etc. but… most of the folks on the early net you speak of weren’t monetized. They just wanted to share things. Not all- there were plenty paid content providers and sites using ads as early as 2000, but in the grander scheme what is missing is a sense of community replaced by the drive for profit and recognition in some tangible, instant form. We still have some of that online, but as you say it is not the internet of yesteryear where you bought a game and if it had online features they were expected to be free because you.. bought the game… or where you could get lost in flash games and funny videos and little desktop “pals” etc.
Now… a “retro” App Store game or steam etc. will take as much or less time to make and you can at least make some money- maybe get rich. People put time to make an stl file etc. of something they want to 3D print. The file is already made and they put in the work for themselves- it can be copied near infinite times for basically free. But.. they’ll sell it to you.