It must've been somewhere around 2006.
It was then when I first tried out mods. I remember that I got my hands on a really early version, but since I failed to get through act 3 hatred because I was trying to do the stat challenges (right from level 1 on. So yeah... that was my own stupidity
And I was playing a SoR barb), I stopped and tried out Zephyrus mod. I kept playing this one. Around the time Alex (the modder of Zephyrus) stopped working on the mod, Median 2008 released on D2Maniacs. And that's when I was able to play with some vets who explained the game to me and showed me around.