This Viewpoint turns back the clock to 1998 when a contribution by Carlucci, Ciani, Macchi and Proserpio (Chem. Commun., 1998, 1837–1838) addressed the existence of multiple properties in coordination polymer networks and the use of topology for classifying network connectivity, thereby serving as a presage of the exponential growth in the field of coordination polymers that continues unabated to this day.