They went to various fan sites, surfed webrings that would take you down rabbit holes of related information, Often no more than 10 sites away from an atomic red pill if you picked the right ones. Went to
fanfiction.net or deviant art. Shockwave had a way to upload videos to your own website. It didn't have to follow some other site's guidelines. The problem was conversion of videos into a digital format required special equipment most people didn't have just to get it on your computer.
Go to an internet achive site. It will give you a simulation of what the old internet was like starting in the late 90s. It's not perfect and many things don't work anymore but it will give you an idea.
