A matter of perspective. The phreakers would disagree, the age of MSIE is a dark age IMO, having services enabled by default whilst connected to WAN was ridiculous, and here the laws got more and more repressive throughout the years.

If you played computer games in 90s or used a computer in general you were deemed a geek or nerd. Nowadays everyone and their mother has a smartphone plus internet connectivity at home. Meanwhile, technology gets more dystopian but that also provides moral opportunities...

I'd say the golden days were a decade or so earlier, but no doubt different scenes peaked at different times. The release of Second Reality in 93 was the high water mark for me.

It was absolutely all business 15 years ago.