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The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

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Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#291

Post by cobbaut »

toto444 wrote: post #274

How many of you mourning the old internet frequent neocities or have their own personal website ? I don't think the the answer is 'a lot'. Everyone on HN complains about everything being turned into a business but everyone also wants to create their own start up and turn it into a unicorn.

No.

I have several personal websites, the oldest contains some fun and personal stuff since 1997 (https://web.archive.org/web/*/cobbaut.be) that is still found. One other contains books that I write and give as pdf for free (linux-training.be).

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#292

Post by qwertox »

aeturnum wrote: post #171

I have never understood people who mourn the death of the "old" internet because I do not feel I have lost it. Particular communities come and go, as they always have, but I have found that the I can find the same sorts of gathering places for the same kinds of people I always have - in about the same numbers too. The thing that has changed is that a huge swath of new people have come online and, though some of what…

The moment you are forced to install WhatsApp because it is the way the community decided to communicate about the topic for which the group was created, instead of just signing up to a site self-hosted by a member via phpBB or some other forum software, you'll know what this is about.

Now I'm granting information (IP-Address, rough location with it, content of the group) to Facebook without having the slightest desire to do this.

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#293

Post by leokennis »

aeturnum wrote: post #171

I have never understood people who mourn the death of the "old" internet because I do not feel I have lost it. Particular communities come and go, as they always have, but I have found that the I can find the same sorts of gathering places for the same kinds of people I always have - in about the same numbers too. The thing that has changed is that a huge swath of new people have come online and, though some of what…

I do not miss the old internet per se, but I do feel sad that in 1997 I had a 56K dial in modem on a Pentium II running Internet Explorer and today I have a 1Gbps connection on a M1 MacBook running a modern browser, and web performance is still more or less the same.

Instead of spending our extra processing power and bandwith on useful stuff, we spent it on tracking and JS frameworks and other bullshit.

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#295

Post by pferde »

ahefner wrote: post #252
jchw wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree that the "old" internet is not totally dead, but in my case communities I used to be in and even a couple I had direct involvement in were gutted because people left in favor of participating in communities via websites like Twitter. IRC channels I was in dwindled in numbers, draining instead to massive Discord servers. The thing is, the "old" Internet was always somewhat anemic compared to the "new" Inter…

What's the deal with these wiki sites that seem to consist entirely of user generated content, but absolutely bury it under mountains of ads? How do these places exist, and why do people continue to contribute to them?

Websites with mountains of ads have simply become normal and accepted. It's sad, but it happened.

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#296

Post by wruza »

taubek wrote: post #261
aeturnum wrote: post #171

I have never understood people who mourn the death of the "old" internet because I do not feel I have lost it. Particular communities come and go, as they always have, but I have found that the I can find the same sorts of gathering places for the same kinds of people I always have - in about the same numbers too. The thing that has changed is that a huge swath of new people have come online and, though some of what…

I do feel nostalgic about old days (I got on Internet in mid 90s) but as Internet has grown and matured so have I. I've never played MUD but I've used IRC a lot :) Internet is now so much more than it used to be. Before you had to have much more knowledge to accomplish some things. It was not hard to learn but it was not accessible to everyone. I see it like fetching a water from the creek or turning on the tap in yo…

You’re describing the internet 15 years ago. Today you come to the kitchen, and it is full of people between you and the tap. Walls are littered with advertisements, and all those people ask you if you want to try their water. Look, my water has no asbestos, only 2.79$/lbs. Wait, wait, I know everything about water, it consists of hydroxidegenium atoms, which Archimedes invented 3570BC, so…. Wait, did you know you can make water yourself? I’ll show you but you must subscribe for great watering courses. No, stop all of that. iWater. Just water. A golden touch-tap that can only be on and off, that simple (30% of your pie is ours).

When you’re away in the creek, they are discussing whether using creek water and locking them in the kitchen is at all legal or moral. Do you even have any idea how much all that costs to them, freepourer?

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#297

Post by yvdriess »

jhoechtl wrote: post #262
aeturnum wrote: post #171

I have never understood people who mourn the death of the "old" internet because I do not feel I have lost it. Particular communities come and go, as they always have, but I have found that the I can find the same sorts of gathering places for the same kinds of people I always have - in about the same numbers too. The thing that has changed is that a huge swath of new people have come online and, though some of what…

Well, the old internet was much about communities and enthusiasm. And these communities were diverse. It was feasible to operate your own blog server, where original content was published. You either knew your communities through hear-say or search engines (read "The" search engine) found them. For a long time advertisement or the "attention economy" was not a thing. Nowadays original content is hard to find and very…

Old internet is where entering the name of a product would yield reviews or discussions about the product.

New internet is where any useful information about said product gets buried in marketplaces and producer pages, following half a dozen paid-for ads.

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#298

Post by hashin »

I have maintained my blog (http://www.hashin.me) for the last 8 years without ever trying to monetize it (I am 28 now). I have written hundreds of articles there, about a lot of topics that have caught my attention. I have perhaps written hundreds of thousands of words on the internet and never earned a rupee (dollar) from them in all these years. But that's what made me who I am. I would still keep doing that. What I make at work and at business is the product of the great education that internet gave me. I live a life where I am always online, but the ads simply fail to influence my decisions. And I spend most of my time on places like HN, which is representative of the good ole internet. As someone has already mentioned in this thread, the internet hasn't changed much. It is us; but if we know what we are doing, we can definitely choose the reality we are living in.

My two cents.

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#299

Post by chrischapman »

> And, a high percentage of websites load as slowly as a sick turtle awaking from a long slumber.

I love that the full page makes just 2 requests (1 html file and one favicon). 20KB transferred. 1 second to load. No JavaScript, no cookies, no dependencies at all. This, to me, is the essence of 'respect your visitor'. Kudos.

Re: The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

#300

Post by skinkestek »

hashin wrote: post #298

I have maintained my blog ( http://www.hashin.me ) for the last 8 years without ever trying to monetize it (I am 28 now). I have written hundreds of articles there, about a lot of topics that have caught my attention. I have perhaps written hundreds of thousands of words on the internet and never earned a rupee (dollar) from them in all these years. But that's what made me who I am. I would still keep doing that. Wha…

Thanks! I'm probably not going to be a regular reader but sites like what yours seems to be brings me happiness.

It is the kind of content I enjoy finding in a search or with marginalia explore.

Edit: I too have one of these sites were I write about things that interest me, technical and political. I also have no ads but I enjoy the writing (and don't write when I don't enjoy it, since luckily it doesn't matter) and I enjoy it when people get something useful out of it.

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