What is the OLDEST online account that you currently still own and still use somewhat frequently?

I bought a gmail invite from a message board. If this sequence of words makes sense to you, you're old too.

I got an invite to Gmail when I was in university. Sadly I was at inbox zero for quite some time so I don’t have the Welcome to Gmail email anymore. It’s more than likely my oldest active account. I do have a Neowin account that still works from 2002 but I don’t frequent anymore. Macrumors is my most active old forum account, that’s from 2005. I had an ancient AIM and ICQ account but there’s no way I could remember the account details.
- Ditto for the AIM and ICQ.
  I think I read recently that ICQ was shutting down.
- I mean you could always make a new account to get the welcome email and photoshop the dates and times to make it look like it's older. I imagine the look of the email now is different from 2003, tho.
:-(
TIL G-Mail was invite only back then. I am too GenZ to undersand this shit.
- A pattern they repeated with Google Wave and Google+, neither of which took off, partly because there weren't enough people using them.
  I genuinely thought G+ could have been a FB killer, if they hadn't made it hard to join.
Ditto - oldest email I still have in archive is from Nov. 2006 so at least that old
Mine was from a chain of random people posting their invite links on Slashdot. It feels like ancient history now.
- I still have a Slashdot account from 2009. Haven't been on there much in years though. Google would probably be my oldest actively used account as I still use the one I set up with the initital invite.
Shiiit, actually that does make sense. I remember when Gmail gave you 10 invites for new accounts and you didn't even get them right away. You had to earn them over time. So yeah, invites were regularly sold on the message boards I used to frequent.

My Hotmail account, which I've had since high school. Oldest email in there is from 2002, but I think I opened it up in 2000.

same, but yahoo.
- All my friends and I used to have Yahoo! email addresses. But for some reason around 2010 almost everyone’s accounts seemed to be getting compromised and sending weird messages around to their contacts… and now I don’t know anyone with a Yahoo!
  I never figured out what was going on and why Yahoo in particular seemed so affected by it.
Same, but my original Hotmail account is long lost. I still have the one I made around 2000 though.
RIP suckitdown@hotmail
Same. I use mine to log into things that require an email so they can spam you.
Same here, made one in 1999, the MSN messenger days were wild.

Probably my 2004 Gmail account, but that’s pushing the definition of “still use somewhat frequently”. I do still have my email forwarded to my current address, but most senders have been updated with my current address.

I lost control of my Hotmail, AIM, ICQ accounts years ago.

I still have my ICQ. That's one number burned into my brain.
- Didn’t ICQ recently shut the service down? Thought I saw a headline along those lines recently.
- Uh-oh! Mine was long forgotten.
- I think my AIM account is still technically active even though they shut it down. Don't know what they did with all the accounts.

Usenet account from 1987. And no, I'm not going to post what it is.

What's "on" there? What can it be compared to at this time?
- Usenet was the golden age of Reddit for its time. Before the binary newsgroups drowned everything out and web 1.0 captured everyone's attention.
  In a way, it was a lot like Lemmy. Federated servers all inter-exchanged posts to a giant, global message board of newsgroups (roughly analogous to a subreddit or Lemmy community). Anyone could create a newsgroup and there were a lot of them.
  When it was good, it fostered the same kind of genuine conversation that Reddit and Lemmy do when they're at their best. It was full of memes, too, although that word didn't exist then.
- Usenet? Most new media can be found there. The most copyright-contentious files are not on there for long so most folks use automated downloaders.
X-No-Archive: yes

My original Gmail account. I've had it since Gmail was in closed beta.

My Steam account is older though. Fucking thing is old enough to drink now (2003; from when I first had to use it for Counter-Strike when they took down the WON servers).

Any other 21 year old Steam accounts wanna play some Ragdoll Kung-Fu?

Damn, I have almost the exact same answer. Switched to Steam once WON got taken down (held out as long as I could), and had a friend send me a Gmail invite a few months later.
Only differences are that I mostly used mine for TFC, and my account won't technically hit drinking age until early next month.
I kinda wish I could say I had like a bottle of liquor I've been saving for the occasion, but the idea of a "21-year-old Steam account" genuinely never occurred to me until one day I woke up and realized it was about to turn 18. Made me realize how fast shit moves, and this is just driving the point home..
Xiao xiao?!?
.... are you me? What this guy said is also my answer.
Oh man I've not dusted off ragdoll Kung Fu in a very long time

I've got a 20 year old Gmail account that I use when I need to sign up for something.

A four letter .com domain name I registered in 2003. Supposedly worth $5000-6000 presently.

Or my eBay account I’ve had since 2001.

A word in the dictionary?
fuck.com?
(Don't click that)
- Pretty sure that’d be worth much, much more than mine :)

I've had my Hotmail amount for like 25 years

How much is too much Hotmail?
Same. Got in early, and it's just my first and last name. I use it now as a bin for accounts for websites i dont want in my main inbox.
I also have an aol email address from around the same time that im scared to open.
Who knows what's in there.
Hotmail was one of my very first email accounts but I believe Microshaft had already bought it by the time I signed up. I think I was about 12 or 13.

Steam account. Made in 2007, back then i used for a random game i bought having a cd key; but I still use it frequently.

Next month my steam account will be 21.
Created it shortly after steam launch.
I had to wait over night in a download queue to download the stream client bundled with cs 1.6 (which then also took a couple hours)
Yeah steam for me also, back in 2004 so about to hit that 20 year badge. I technically had an older steam account with the OG HL, CS, and DoD on it, but my current account had HL2 and CSS on it so I stuck with that. I think it’s even older than my Gmail account tbh.
I had steam before I had an email (with my father's email). I was half the age I am now

My AOL email. I didn't actually make it, my Dad did and I was so young I literally don't remember a time without it. I still check it despite migrating most of my accounts away.

A hotmail account from before microsoft bought it

Yep. Same. I can’t think of anything older that is still operating.

probably neopets, can't let them starve.

My Neopets account got wiped shortly before they said they'd stop wiping accounts. I'd lost the password and recovery email ages ago though.

I joined a forum about 30 years ago, and I am still a regular. I can't say the exact date I joined, nor can the forum admins, as things like that were not tracked back then. Even them having my email was a way later add-on.

I have a Yahoo email account from the mid-late 90's...

Same. It would have been 1997 or later.
- Mine's about the same age, 97 or 98. Log into it very infrequently but it still works.
  Everything else I recall having an account on from the late 90s no longer exists.

Youtube. It's roughly 20 years old.

Probably slightly less, Youtube came out publicly in 2005. But good call, that might be mine too. Or the Hotmail account I used back then.
I can't access the YT account I opened in 2006, despite knowing the password, because i changed my phone number

Possibly my Hotmail, although I'm not 100% sure when I opened it, and I converted it to an Outlook email when that became an option.

Most of the sites I used to use have shut down or migrated to new systems, so my oldest account is most likely my ModTheSims account opened in 2008. I do still use it whenever I'm in the mood for some Sims 2 retail therapy.

ebay. 1998

Same, but it isn't my oldest.

That still gets used? Probably my eBay account from 2000/2001. First thing I bought from there was a 33.6k external modem lol.

Edit: No, I take that back. I have an even older account on a MUD server from like 1996. It doesn't get used regularly, but I do log in every 6-7 months, randomly, and go on a few runs.

Same. Been using my ebay account since early 1999, literally a quarter of a century. I don't remember if it was the very first, but I know one of my early purchases was a parallel port to ethernet adapter, so I could take my already aging 486SLC/33 laptop to campus and get it on the internet using the Arachne browser. The SLC was basically a 386 on steroids, and it couldn't handle both Windows and Interwebs. I paid for the first few items by mailing off a money order.
Hell yeah. What MUD?
- Avatar
I went through the same path. Gmail came to mind first, then eBay, then a MUD I haven't actually played in ages but double check that my account is there now and then.

My hotmail account.

Signed up for it in the closed beta way before Microsoft bought it, was fucking pissed when they did.

It's my 2fa for most of my games and the emergency email for my other emails.

Nice try, Narc

Hotmail. 1997.

I opened my first Gmail account during the private beta (2004). It's not my daily driver account, but I still use it for government stuff like taxes and healthcare. It kinda blows my mind that it's 20 years old.

Same, it just hit me that it's been 20 years

Hotmail from 1996

Gmail since 2002 or something. Steam account if emails don't count.

Edit: Wow account could be older than steam account. I honestly can't remember.

Edit2: Yep, wow account is a 4 years older than my steam. Turns out I lost my first steam account that did not really have any games on it and instead of recovering it I just registered a new one. Doing this research of my own history was a questionable use of my evening but apparently necessary to get it out of my head.

My steam account might be older than my current email, come to think of it.

Nothing really, I try to switch account and delete old ones every now and again. My oldest account is my bank account.

Livejournal, 1999. I think I win.

If you're still using live journal in 2024, you should win SOMETHING.
- It was the best social media ever. I still have the same friends 25 years later.

I made my email account 28 years ago, and still use it daily.

I got my Gmail in 2005, and still heavily use it.

I want to run my own email, but I have soo much tied to it that I'm having trouble knowing where to start...

Former Hotmail, currently Outlook account. Since 2001

My Steam and RuneScape accounts are both over 20 years old, and I still use both regularly. Hell, RuneScape is even available via Steam.

As far as the actual oldest account, I think I have an old Yahoo! Mail account from like… Late 1997? Early 1998? Back when AOL was still sending out free demo discs in the mail.

I own a 6 digit steam id (500k).

I ain't much but it's honest work.

eBay is my oldest, not sure when exactly, 2001-2002-2003 something like that.

Next is my Something Awful forums account from 2005.

My gmail address with my exact full name I registered about 18 years ago by invite only.

My Google accounts have been around for a couple of decades now, my Microsoft account about the same amount of time.

Though actually I think the Xbox live part of my account predates the rest of it—iirc they weren't originally linked.

My steam account is about the same age too come to think of it, I remember getting it before hl2 was released

eBay and Amazon are older too actually, maybe made those back in 2002/2003

Does my online banking count? I've potentially had that even longer

I have an undernet from 94-95. If you don't know what that is...

Apple iTools @mac email address from 2000, eBay since some time in 98, but they don't show records that far back.

Ebay will (or used to) tell you when your account started. July 97 for me. I remember when i could skim through all of the auctions, on my lunchbreak.
- Ebay still shows your start date on your feedback page. Mine dates back to December 1999 and I believe that makes it my oldest still active online account.

Yahoo mail. Although I did literally just delete it off my phone because it was complaining that I didn't check my SPAM messages frequently enough.

The oldest email in my Gmail account is from March of 2006, but I used to delete regularly so the account is probably a couple years older than that.

YouTube account, since 2009.

Probably my yahoo mail account. I've mostly transitioned off it, but a few things still come to it and it predates even my gmail account (which I barely ever use either). Apple ID's Hide My Email ability has basically rendered all the other ones pointless though since I can just generate a new fake email address whenever I want to register for something fishy. I wish phone numbers worked the same way.

I guess technically that'd be the email account at my employer where I started some decades ago. Before Google and their Gmail was a thing, anyway. Or, livejournal, I guess. ...MySpace... Oof, AOL... Usenet, maybe...

Gah. I'm old.

Wikipedia user account from 2002.

Year one Steam account, even has a unique profile badge. It's a little over 20 years old. I only made it because I bought a copy of CS: Condition Zero, and it was needed to play online.

AOL, 2001

Email from 2001

Steam Acc from 2005 and YouTube from 2006

I have an eBay account from 2000 or so, and my email is nearly as old I believe.

I don’t use the eBay account all that often now, but on and off throughout the years. Last used last year.

Same for me. Helps that it's a pure utility account with no social interaction and no media consumption. There's no real competitor to it where I live, so no alternatives.
I've probably had three different emails associated with it through the years.

Gotta be my RuneScape account from 2006. Thanks to OSRS being a thing, I still play on it.

Maybe my Gmail account. I made it to play Club Penguin. I still use it when signing up for things.

I have some old forum accounts but I don't use them anymore. I also had a Minecraft account from before the Mojang and Microsoft migrations. That's gone now. :(

My League of Legends and Steam accounts are old too.

My email is my last name dot com. I've had it for 28 years.

Does it count if you own your own domain, but have migrated providers 15 times?

Apparently there are dozens of us still using Hotmail. 24 years strong!

Hotmail is what I use to sign up to things that I don't want to get emails from

Soemthingawful forum membership. Joined in 2k2.

Yahoo. It was from 07

Probably my google account. I'd look up the exact age but then I'd feel old.

Easily my /. account, using it daily since 1997 or something

1996 Hotmail. Created as a throwaway with no link to my work. Still working as a spam dump.

lol same with one of my yahoo addresses.

GitHub account since 2008. I think I started to use Gmail around that time, but I do not use that at all anymore.

I guess technically my KOL. account.

Here's a question for everyone who's old enough, what is KOL and what happens to it when you turn a certain age? I've yet to meet or hear of anyone knowing this answer.

I'm pretty sure I have a yahoo account rolling around somewhere...

Yahoo now deletes inactive accounts
- Well, guess I don't have one then

Facebook, 2004. Gmail, 2005. Still use both of those accounts.

E-mail account circa 1994.

EDIT: I just checked. My Amazon account goes back to 1995 for a solid second place.

I still use the same gmail I made when I was 10, roughly 2005-ish.

Not sure when I started my Gmail, but I've been using the same Xbox account since 2009.

Nope! Scratch that. I started my Blizzard account to play WoW around 2005! Still use it for Hearthstone now.

My first one that I still use is my Hotmail account, but now it's just my spam email, but still randomly have to use it to get some login codes and stuff

Nice try Robert from Iran

Yahoo email account I opened in 1997.

My Discord account, which I've had since the early 2020's.

I made my AOL mail account in 2006 and still use it. I don't use it as my primary email anymore, but I have hundreds of accounts tied to it

I think my Mail account. 23 to 25 years

Neopets for sure. Followed by Gmail account

You're still using your neopets account? What's going on over there these days, I don't think I've used it since the early 00s
- I personally do not play on the account but young family do. I know there are supposed to be some big changes with the 25th anniversary this year.

I've maintained my personal website at the same hosting provider since the turn of the millennium.

My RuneScape account

I still play my runescape account I made in November 2002

My Yahoo account has to be from at least 1999, I remember using it back in middle school.

Technically, my Microsoft account. I created a Hotmail email account around 1997, my first ever online account. At some point, Microsoft merged my Hotmail login with their Microsoft login, and I still use it today; although I've changed the email address to a more current one. Microsoft killed Hotmail a long time ago, in favor of Outlook.

I too am still using my hotmail from around 1997.
- Thirds!

Yahoo Mail from the probably mid 2000s

Strangely, the oldest thing I have left is a web hosting account by Strato that I opened around 1999. My dad still uses an e-mail adress he got with his first T-Online account when the internet became available for normal households in Germany in the mid-90s.

I have an email address and shell account on a SCO UNIX system that I've had since 1994.

Words
- Translation
  Derp derp a durr derpa 1994
  (thirty years ago)

it was kongregate i believe until that site got basically shut down

its still up and running, but the forums are gone and the chat rooms are gone

I still use a Yahoo account I created back in 95 (I think, it might be a little later).

I made my steam account in 2003 and my hotmail address is even older. Likely 2002. Its almost time for my 15 year pin in CS.

DNS reseller account I made 15 years ago. Transferred it to my corp a few years ago and still buy all my domains there.

Bank account is first, use it everyday. Second would be apple id.

Still active. Probably Steam.

Lots of people mentioning Neopets. I did have an account there but couldn't log back on when I tried a few years back, so I guess my account was deleted (or I've got my login details wrong)

Just missed my ICQ account which was about 27ish years old. Ok it wasn't in frequent use.

My gmail account has been in continuous use since 2009, although I use it less now that I used to.

YouTube! I've been using the same account since 2008. They actually had to makeup an email for it since my account was before the Google merge.

i believe my neopets account is older than my youtube account, so that. actually went to playing neopets again fairly recently to see how its changed

My proboards account, made in 2004.

My main email account, which is from the year 2000.

My fark account is old enough to drive in the US. I don't think I really use much of anything that old anymore.

I had facebook from the time when it still required a .edu email, though I quit that. I lost access to my hotmail account years ago after dropping it in favor of gmail. I had IRC accounts going back into the '90s, but I almost never use IRC anymore (and certainly not on those same networks (assuming they even still exist)).

You're like the one guy I know that actually made an account on Fark

I think a spare email I use for peripheral stuff is from mid-late 1990s. Maybe 1996.

My Yahoo Mail was opened the first week of January, 1998. Would be my Hotmail account, but I made my Yahoo account because Microsoft bought Hotmail, and stopped using Hotmail

A 2002 eBay account

iTools > .Mac > MobileMe > iCloud. Still on the original address. January 2000.

My memory is terrible, and it doesn't help that I have the world record for the most sites having signed up for (a very nerdy bragging right I have), but it has to be something like one of the Pokemon MMO's, RuneScape, or Furaffinity (RIP Dragoneer). Most of the old places I've been to are gone one way or another, for example I haven't heard from Postopia since the E3 disaster.

My Twitter account is from 2014 and I still use the same one. My youtube account is even older but no idea how old. On places like Reddit and Lemmy I make a new account atleast once a year.