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I Miss the Old Internet

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Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#181

Post by rixed »

notJim wrote: post #5

I generally agree. I've taken to appending "reddit" to many of my search queries, because flawed though it is, reddit is one of the few places you can read an actual human thought. It feels like nearly all content on the internet is some de-personalized corporate "content marketing" blog at this point. Just give us your email address and we'll send you a PDF (and a drip marketing campaign.) I think the old internet w…

Maybe the old internet is still there but hidden behind the 100th search result page. I often times wish search result were ranked by how genuine the page seems to be, measured by the ratio of content over ads. Indeed, the less advertisement on a page and the more likely it is written by an actual human being with something to say. Sadly, I suspect ranking to works exactly the opposite.

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#182

Post by rcoveson »

ethagnawl wrote: post #117

I generally agree with the author's sentiment regarding "the Old Internet". However, using "voat" and "thank goodness" in the same breath raised a red flag for me about the author and their motives. They mentioned being kicked off raddle.me for posting links to their site (the one that's currently linked to on the top of the HN homepage); maybe that was with good reason and not a result of gatekeeping? For example, f…

I went and read _Men and Women and Marriage_. It didn't strike me as a hate piece. It's the kind of thing that I could see some version of myself writing as an angsty teenager with a Mormon upbringing that was extremely focused on gender roles.

Multiple comments on this sub-thread have gone as far as accusing the author of "hate". The parent comment stops at "this sort of trash". I don't think that the authors of these comments would use those words if they heard this piece in person from the author, in an environment where they could question its more extreme assertions. Perhaps this person has themselves been through (or had a close friend go through) a bad divorce, and is simply venting under the guise of philosophical ramblings. It's totally natural to project your personal experience on the rest of the world in this way. It's something people have to be trained not to do.

We seem to be in the habit of turning our ire all the way up as soon as somebody barely crosses some invisible threshold of harmful opinion. That habit makes us a lot less effective at communicating. If it weren't for the article title and excerpt, I would assume from some of the commentors that this person had written a piece calling for wives-as-property or genocide or something. There's just no way to tell if it's all "trash" and "hate". Isn't there such a thing as a poorly-written post with vaguely sexist undertones that _isn't_ an atrocity?

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#183

Post by redavni »

kristofferR wrote: post #171
hnick wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has all the ups and downs of humanity as a whole of course, but as other users have said specific subs (usually less popular and well moderated) are where the gold is. My main problem with Reddit is the repetitive in-culture jokes, memes, and reposts. A lot of content is pandering to the Reddit audience with a flavour that is calculated to win over the crowd (see all the complaints on /r/pics of political signs or…

If reposts are a problem for you then you're spending too much time there.

Had an account for 12 years, lurked for at least a year before. The reposts are extremely frequent. They just get lower resolution as the years go on.

Reddit is now a couple visits a week for me because of reposts etc.

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#184

Post by stelonix »

andrew_ wrote: post #175
notJim wrote: post #5

I generally agree. I've taken to appending "reddit" to many of my search queries, because flawed though it is, reddit is one of the few places you can read an actual human thought. It feels like nearly all content on the internet is some de-personalized corporate "content marketing" blog at this point. Just give us your email address and we'll send you a PDF (and a drip marketing campaign.) I think the old internet w…

Glad that you've found useful sections. I've always found reddit to be this generation's ExpertsExchange, based on quality of content. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places.

That would be Quora! But I agree, Reddit has pretty poor quality discussions, sometimes with as little depth as most Facebook comments.

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#185

Post by drewm1980 »

rixed wrote: post #181
notJim wrote: post #5

I generally agree. I've taken to appending "reddit" to many of my search queries, because flawed though it is, reddit is one of the few places you can read an actual human thought. It feels like nearly all content on the internet is some de-personalized corporate "content marketing" blog at this point. Just give us your email address and we'll send you a PDF (and a drip marketing campaign.) I think the old internet w…

Maybe the old internet is still there but hidden behind the 100th search result page. I often times wish search result were ranked by how genuine the page seems to be, measured by the ratio of content over ads. Indeed, the less advertisement on a page and the more likely it is written by an actual human being with something to say. Sadly, I suspect ranking to works exactly the opposite.

Build it!

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#186

Post by pfundstein »

drewm1980 wrote: post #185
rixed wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the old internet is still there but hidden behind the 100th search result page. I often times wish search result were ranked by how genuine the page seems to be, measured by the ratio of content over ads. Indeed, the less advertisement on a page and the more likely it is written by an actual human being with something to say. Sadly, I suspect ranking to works exactly the opposite.

Build it!

Easier said than done. How do you programmatically define "genuine" in a way that can't be easily spoofed?

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#187

Post by dang »

ethagnawl wrote: post #117

I generally agree with the author's sentiment regarding "the Old Internet". However, using "voat" and "thank goodness" in the same breath raised a red flag for me about the author and their motives. They mentioned being kicked off raddle.me for posting links to their site (the one that's currently linked to on the top of the HN homepage); maybe that was with good reason and not a result of gatekeeping? For example, f…

That would be a horrible comment to post here, but please don't do the internet thing of bringing the worst thing someone said (or the worst you can find) into an HN thread in order to make that be the topic instead. This is not the way to improve signal/noise ratio or serve intellectual curiosity on this site.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#188

Post by dang »

hnzix wrote: post #134
ethagnawl wrote: post #117

I generally agree with the author's sentiment regarding "the Old Internet". However, using "voat" and "thank goodness" in the same breath raised a red flag for me about the author and their motives. They mentioned being kicked off raddle.me for posting links to their site (the one that's currently linked to on the top of the HN homepage); maybe that was with good reason and not a result of gatekeeping? For example, f…

Can you please link to the list of Empirically Correct Viewpoints™ so that I can identify and purge myself of thoughtcrimes?

Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar. What serves the value of the site is rather to ignore provocation and invest energy in what's intellectually interesting.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: I Miss the Old Internet

#189

Post by chrisco255 »

rixed wrote: post #181
notJim wrote: post #5

I generally agree. I've taken to appending "reddit" to many of my search queries, because flawed though it is, reddit is one of the few places you can read an actual human thought. It feels like nearly all content on the internet is some de-personalized corporate "content marketing" blog at this point. Just give us your email address and we'll send you a PDF (and a drip marketing campaign.) I think the old internet w…

Maybe the old internet is still there but hidden behind the 100th search result page. I often times wish search result were ranked by how genuine the page seems to be, measured by the ratio of content over ads. Indeed, the less advertisement on a page and the more likely it is written by an actual human being with something to say. Sadly, I suspect ranking to works exactly the opposite.

Maybe we need to bring back "web rings" and blog rolls.
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