261–270 of 340 posts
For me, the internet stopped being fun after the Snowden revelations. Not only did it stop being fun, it became subconsciously repulsive I think. This was around that time.
I think the internet is less fun now -- I can't decide if its from maturation of technology or maturation of people though. (Has anyone else felt like things became less fun as they got older?) I felt a greater sense of community 10 years ago when I mostly used IRC and PHP BBs. The communities were smaller, and it was fun even if you disliked people. Flame wars and trolling were mostly for the audience's amusement, b…
I’ve actually been thinking about this recently, as I was also a heavy forum user back in the day. Why don’t we just start a forum for the HN crowd? Not a new interpretation of the forum model or anything like that, literally any instance of vbulletin or phpbb or something comparable and “traditional”. If people are genuinely interested in this, I would be up for spinning something up over the weekend.
Unfortunately, without community features it feels like slipping notes into a bottle and tossing them into the sea.
HN is the restaurant at the end of the internet.
The reason sure includes the economic recession and political failures of the present days, but the death of the early Internet culture and the promises of "cyberspace" being a cutting-edge, cool and fun place has failed in a future that never comes, is definitely an important cause.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporwave [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-11_HALL-A
- "ugh social media is terrible, remember forums"
- "aren't rss feeds great"
- "remember when sites were HTML based"
- "back in my day the internet was just me and a few cool people"
The internet is not a monolith. What people are complaining about is the corporate internet; the parts of the internet that are owned by billion dollar companies.
Here's the reality:
- there are more interesting independent blogs now than there were pre-Facebook/Twitter. Maybe less "per-capita" of total online usage, but there's still a higher volume
- every single person is capable of making an online community using cheap tech, and using corporate social media to promote it; way easier than it was in the past
- developers are still "allowed" to make sites in plain HTML/CSS that look great and load fast
Blockbuster movies are always bad, so people made indie films. Network TV sitcoms are bad, so people made online series. Pop music is bad, so people make great music and play in local bars and small venues. If you're tired of the "internet being bad", its time to put the work in to find (or make!) what you like, because it's all out there.
I think the internet is less fun now -- I can't decide if its from maturation of technology or maturation of people though. (Has anyone else felt like things became less fun as they got older?) I felt a greater sense of community 10 years ago when I mostly used IRC and PHP BBs. The communities were smaller, and it was fun even if you disliked people. Flame wars and trolling were mostly for the audience's amusement, b…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Use Discourse. It's not only the most advanced from a tech perspective, but it also aims to promote strong communities.
Am I the only one who is totally confused by discourse? Maybe it's because rhe demo instance was reset way to often or something but I've never really seen a really working discourse instance. (I think both Mozilla and Canonical (has?) run one but they weren't to active either IIRC. Anyone has examples of a working discourse community?
It seems we (or many of us) spend all our time on the internet, it no longer feels like a place to escape reality. Even when you are away from your desk, you are still connected to the internet through your phone. It doesn't have the same wonder it used to.
I think a lot of people here are missing the point. Yeah, there's a lot more content to consume now. However, it doesn't feel like a community... it feels more like watching reruns on TBS. I remember making actual friends on message boards. Friends I eventually met in the real world. I don't think relationships like that are really formed anymore. Most of social media now is a broadcast, not a conversation. People (m…
This is pretty much how I felt as a long-time TF2 player super excited for Overwatch to come out, and then very sad once I realized what kind of game it was. You grab your friends and play Overwatch, while you play TF2 and meet your friends. And also a parallel, TF2 obviously still exists, but all of the servers I used to play on are gone now. Haven’t found anything else quite yet. FFXIV actually was super enjoyable…