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Met a guy in a 1998 AOL chat room who taught me how to make a pixel heart
It was in a room called 'Pixel Art Palace'. My screen name was 'Sk8erGirl92'. This user, 'VoxelMan', sent me a private message. He said my avatar was cool but my signature graphic was jagged. He asked if I wanted to learn anti-aliasing. I said sure. He spent an hour walking me through it, step by step, in MS Paint. He told me to 'use the pencil tool at 1px, pick a color between the line and the background, and dot it along the edge'. We made a tiny red heart. I saved it as 'heart.gif'. Never talked to him again after that night. But I used that trick for years. Anyone else have a random stranger teach them a core internet skill back then?
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cameron7701mo agoTop Commenter
Did you ever try to find that heart file years later? That's such a specific memory, I bet seeing it again would be a trip. It's cool how those little lessons just stuck with us.
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bencampbell1mo ago
Haha honestly @cameron770, I'd be too scared to look now in case my coding was even worse than I remember.
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