User bmacho cites this Superuser question [1] in a reply to a downvoted comment at the bottom of this thread. It’s much more illuminating than the OP emails; Michael Hampton’s answer in particular is amazing. I had never heard of Jon Postel before.
Mm. I’m an older millennial, so solidly in the Web 1.0 generation, but never had the chance to use the internet before the web took off. I missed BBSs too, which were big where I’m from (probably bigger than the pre-Web internet, outside universities at least). I was fourteen when Postel died in 1998. My earliest memories of internet use are probably from ’96 or so, using library or school computers after classes.
[1] https://superuser.com/questions/784978/why-did-the-ietf-spec...