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The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

buzzfeednews.com

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Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#21

Post by yifanl »

esotericn wrote: post #6

Is this a joke? I mean, it's buzzfeed, so it obviously is, but seriously? That internet didn't die at all! You're looking at the same thing with different company names! Myspace and Facebook are the same thing with a different skin. I figured this would be an article about like, vBulletin forums, IRC, tilde pages, something like that. They all still exist, you're just not using them, why don't you start?

By the nature of network effects, if no one else is using them, then no one will use them. (Personally, I do still use old-school forums and IRC, but less frequently then I used to, its just far too convenient to use something like Discord instead)

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#22

Post by samb1729 »

hydgv wrote: post #16
Pigo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do pine for the days when the Undernet or Dalnet was bustling with activity. I'm always looking for a server worth hanging out on. I'm glad Freenode is doing good, but it's people working. That said, this article was exactly what I'd expect for an article from Buzzfeed.

I'm so looking forward to that one comment that always appears "no acshually this is buzzfeednews and they are great and they've won 1337 pulitzer prizes" Edit: oh there it is, hanging from my grandparent

Got you covered buddy

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#23

Post by PaulHoule »

It is ironic that when I loaded that page on my mobile device i could see those scare ads for old people and then more ads covered up the content.

Makes me think the back button is still the best thing since sliced bread and I wonder when Google is going to take it out of chrome.

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#24

Post by zozbot234 »

shantly wrote: post #8
rasengan wrote: post #4

The old internet died long before these centralized services appeared. The old internet was when we ran our own servers, built and hosted our own websites, and we were truly free in the wild wild west. Its easier than ever to run your own servers, but today few do. The old internet is dead (for now) and it looks more like the BBS era today. But we innovated past that then, and we will innovate past that now. I am gre…

If we want a (return to the) boom in open-source and paid standards-based solutions, we gotta ban collecting & monetizing user info. Monetized user info & related advertising paying for "free" walled services are keeping those down. We won't see widely-successful standards-based social networks or messaging services until that option is gone. [EDIT] and wide success/adoption matters for those in particular because mu…

The "old" internet was all static or lightly server-rendered pages, that can be developed and hosted at minimal cost today. Back in the day we didn't expect that "everyone" would sign up for whatever niche forum you were hosting, it was enough to have "everyone who's into that niche".

These services don't need "monetization", they can be kept up with minimal amounts of crowdfunding, while federating through well-known standards (ActivityPub, etc.) can help them achieve a network effect that might ultimately rival the big walled gardens and incent them to open up in turn.

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#25

Post by ekianjo »

shantly wrote: post #8
rasengan wrote: post #4

The old internet died long before these centralized services appeared. The old internet was when we ran our own servers, built and hosted our own websites, and we were truly free in the wild wild west. Its easier than ever to run your own servers, but today few do. The old internet is dead (for now) and it looks more like the BBS era today. But we innovated past that then, and we will innovate past that now. I am gre…

If we want a (return to the) boom in open-source and paid standards-based solutions, we gotta ban collecting & monetizing user info. Monetized user info & related advertising paying for "free" walled services are keeping those down. We won't see widely-successful standards-based social networks or messaging services until that option is gone. [EDIT] and wide success/adoption matters for those in particular because mu…

> we gotta ban collecting & monetizing user info

anything that runs across a network can be monitored, and such data is valuable when you are able to merge it across several data sources. It's very unlikely tracking can even be banned or un-monitized.

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#26

Post by esotericn »

yifanl wrote: post #21
esotericn wrote: post #6

Is this a joke? I mean, it's buzzfeed, so it obviously is, but seriously? That internet didn't die at all! You're looking at the same thing with different company names! Myspace and Facebook are the same thing with a different skin. I figured this would be an article about like, vBulletin forums, IRC, tilde pages, something like that. They all still exist, you're just not using them, why don't you start?

By the nature of network effects, if no one else is using them, then no one will use them. (Personally, I do still use old-school forums and IRC, but less frequently then I used to, its just far too convenient to use something like Discord instead)

Heh. To me discord is far less convenient. It's a fancy webpage that takes ages to load and bifurcates my chat experience across another platform. YMMV I guess.

It's probably more convenient to someone that has never used a chat client before? I suppose this is how I end up siloed off with all the old fogies. :D

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#27

Post by protonimitate »

samb1729 wrote: post #18
esotericn wrote: post #6

Is this a joke? I mean, it's buzzfeed, so it obviously is, but seriously? That internet didn't die at all! You're looking at the same thing with different company names! Myspace and Facebook are the same thing with a different skin. I figured this would be an article about like, vBulletin forums, IRC, tilde pages, something like that. They all still exist, you're just not using them, why don't you start?

BuzzFeed News is not BuzzFeed. They've won many journalism awards as you can see on their Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed_News I do agree that reusing the name must surely do their image significant harm.

Sure, but this article is hardly news. It's hardly even worthy of a tweet.

The "old internet" is MySpace and Friendster? Really?

"Click share if you think Google and Facebook are bad" pretty much summarizes the contents of the article.

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#28

Post by hobs »

throwno wrote: post #17
madengr wrote: post #11

Unlike that article, the old internet didn’t have inline video ads, mandatory cookies, and social media bars at the bottom. Not to mention dynamic pages that can load 100 ads if you scroll long enough. I swear my reading comprehension has been poisoned by the new internet.

I guess everyone forgot the days before pop-up blocking was built into every browser? Sure, Javascript modals are disgusting, but by definition they have to be one at a time, not a giant stack of ads every time you browse a site. Also, lets not forget the joy of being nagged to install Flash and Real Player on every website.

Yeah, how about javascript being able to move your browser window whenever it wanted?

I still remember the albino black sheep page that had dubdub by scooter and moved your window to the wave form of the song.

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#29

Post by rasengan »

7777fps wrote: post #15
rasengan wrote: post #4

The old internet died long before these centralized services appeared. The old internet was when we ran our own servers, built and hosted our own websites, and we were truly free in the wild wild west. Its easier than ever to run your own servers, but today few do. The old internet is dead (for now) and it looks more like the BBS era today. But we innovated past that then, and we will innovate past that now. I am gre…

It's easier than ever to rent your own servers, it's harder than ever to run your own servers. There was a time when you could serve anything from a home ISP connection.

Agreed. I still remember though being on dialup and using a UUCP method of mail receipt and delivery since I didnt have 24/7 connectivity. It was hard.

With everyone on 24/7 cable connections, I really did expect something different.

Its too bad IPv6 isnt taking off like it could and should.

Re: The old internet died and we watched and did nothing

#30

Post by mashby »

samb1729 wrote: post #18
esotericn wrote: post #6

Is this a joke? I mean, it's buzzfeed, so it obviously is, but seriously? That internet didn't die at all! You're looking at the same thing with different company names! Myspace and Facebook are the same thing with a different skin. I figured this would be an article about like, vBulletin forums, IRC, tilde pages, something like that. They all still exist, you're just not using them, why don't you start?

BuzzFeed News is not BuzzFeed. They've won many journalism awards as you can see on their Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed_News I do agree that reusing the name must surely do their image significant harm.

This is often repeated, but...Can you name a large news source that has not won a "journalism awards"?
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