But SA was so representative of that era of online culture. If you have strong memories of that era, then Lowtax's passing has got to hit you some kind of way.

It had its advantages and disadvantages.

Although I'd still rather live in the future of that world than our current identity-everywhere one.

It wasn't that anonymous on SA though. Once you paid your :tenbux: then the site admins (incl. Lowtax) had your PII, assuming you used your own credit-card, ofc.

I don't recall Lowtax et al. ever doxxed any of their own forum patrons, at least not any in good-standing, but I assume fear from the possibility of being doxxed for being an asshat on the forums kept enough people in-line - not the fact it was $10 in 2001 (hmm, that's $27 in today's money, according to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ - but that doesn't seem right to me)

You weren't anonymous on SA in the sense that law enforcement couldn't find out who you were, or whatever, unless you used a burner credit card and... never used your own wifi, or whatever.

But you were anonymous in the "Google search results" sense that nobody was expected to publicly share their real names or faces, and what you posted on SA and its ilk didn't necessarily follow you around for the rest of your life.

The thing is, this is subculture and past of some people. But not all people at the time nor likely majority of us.