(no title)
houseplant | 1 year ago
The internet has completely consolidated itself into a few websites now, and that's the entirety of people's experience using the internet now. They go to, at most like 5 or so separate sites regularly if that many and that's it. As well, social media is made to feel ephemeral so you must check it every 10 minutes or you'll have lost loads of context or information and be out of the loop- forget about doing it only once a day. Since Twitter, tumblr, instagram etc have closed their APIs, there's no chance at accessing updates through an external reader, and you're forced to scroll and scroll to get anything, most of which now isn't even who you follow but rather just what they assume you might like or what is garnering the most rage engagement at the time.
back in the old days, "surfing" was a huge part of your internet usage: after you checked up on your forum threads and usenet keywords- which was easy to do since you were able to simply read up and then you were caught up for the day- you could check out affiliate links or webrings for new sites to enjoy. Surfing around was lots of fun and you found a bunch of new stuff all the time that way, and almost all of it was made by hand by one or a few people.
I enjoyed Live Journal, where if you were a fan of whatever early 00s TV series or movie, there'd be a community made there for you to go and instantly fold in with a bunch of other fans. No need for pretense or establishing context, they'd all watched the show as well, and you wouldn't have to tone down references or discussion for laymen who stumbled across it like you do for most social media today. You can't have an in-depth conversation about something you enjoy on social media, and if you try, you're in a crowded room yelling over other people walking by, everyone can hear and see, and you're forced to act like you're being observed by thousands of passers-by instead of having a conversation in a room.
the vibe is so different. Everyone I know who used the internet back then remembers it fondly, and kids today who never did think it's a much better idea. What do we have to do to just... go back?
082349872349872|1 year ago
Other than that, "just go back"? The old mailing lists are much quieter than they were now that quite a few of us are dead and only a few of our kids had any interest, but many of mine are still chugging, complete with high context in depth conversation.
USENET is apparently current, judging by the circumstantial evidence given by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41743206
Webrings are still extant, eg https://geekring.net/site/NUMBER/random
Blogs felt like digital degradation back when Winer was first pushing them, but as they've proven to be better than their successors I still have buckets of them in my newsboat* config.
The kids wail about "discovery". When I grew up, finding other geeks was a physical matter of 'zines and cons, uphill in the snow, both ways. Sure, now you won't get them served up in your algorithmic feed, but it's still much easier than in the old days: you go click click click click click click click click. It's real easy.
(but those clicks have to be choices, not scrolling)
> “When I use a tech,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it connects how I choose it to connect (albeit sometimes more than less).”
> “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make a tech serve so many different purposes.”
> “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.”
Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwSRqaZGsPw
* most excellent for a "check once per day" workflow
EDIT: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3243470 suggests AO3 may be a suitable forum for the sorts of conversations covered by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41539741 ; after having seen https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_... I'm just waiting for a Gen Z coup launched by cadres in fursuits who hid their plotting via thousand-page screeds in channels superficially meant to serve the Fallout/MLP crossover fandom.
p3rls|1 year ago
Did you catch the ages of the judges that decided the case? They made Biden look spry. Welcome to the system that determines the legitimacy of who gets to create media.
So now instead you get the enshittification and the media that can survive in a section 230 environment (random lossy memes, onlyfans and mr.beasts).
Personally I built a LJ-type of site for a single niche (kpopping.com if you're curious) and there's a handful of sites like mine, but you need to look hard -- in most cases they'll be buried by Google under a dozen corporate fandom-types and don't forget the wordpresses with neon backgrounds that have figured out how to install Yoast-- never can get too many of them either.
houseplant|1 year ago