Archive - Megaloman Internet

Case Study: The Republic of Talossa and its countless digital imitators. There is a preserved wiki page from 2005 where a Megaloman declared his suburban basement a "sovereign nation." The Internet Archive shows the edit history. You can watch the delusion grow in real-time—initial declaration, creation of a "national currency" (printed on an HP LaserJet), threats of "cyber-war" against a neighbor who parked too close to the mailbox.

You may find your own past. Many of us were Megalomen in our youth—running a Minecraft server like a police state, believing our LiveJournal was the center of the universe. The Archive is a mirror. Look closely, and you will see the tiny crown we all used to wear. The Ethics of Archiving Madness Critics argue that the Internet Archive should not give oxygen to digital megalomania. By preserving a rant where a man claimed to be the "God of AOL Chatrooms," are we legitimizing him? No. We are burying him in plain sight. megaloman internet archive

So go ahead. Type in your old username. Type in your rival’s. Type in something absurd. You won’t find the rulers of the world. You’ll find the people who wanted to be—and failed. And in that failure, preserved forever on a server in San Francisco, lies the truest history of the internet. Case Study: The Republic of Talossa and its

Explore the archive: [archive.org/web/] Dedicated to the 404’d emperors of the 56k modem. You may find your own past