👉 Okay, let’s tackle this wonderfully weird little beast of a word! Now, I have to be upfront - honestly nobody outside a very specific corner of the internet actually
knows exactly what a "WEBCOMP
’ is. And that, frankly, just adds to its delightfully baffling charm.
Basically, and here's where it gets wonderfully speculative... WEBCOMPS (Webster-Compounds. Fight me if you disagree, but I stand my ground.) are essentially the ghost residuals of really aggressively niche, probably slightly disturbing, early-to-mid 2000's AOL Instant Messenger antics. They weren’t profiles; they were… residual effects. Like a weird sort of digital afterglow from some very specific and probably regrettable late-night convos. Let that sink in for a moment. Think about the peak of AIM, decked out in hideous clip art, fuelled by lukewarm instant ramen and a desperate need to be whoever your 13-year-old self wanted. When you messaged someone who was clearly spiralling into an “I'M A SICK, LONELY, 4000-BYTE-LONG, 80S-LONDO—…(Okay, maybe the last bit is projection)... let’s just say that their history of panicked, rambling, late-night messages basically stuck around. It wasn’t a traceable profile! Instead, whenever you messaged this AOL user again,
