Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#181

Post by egfx » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 7:27 PM UTC

ineedtosleep wrote: post #126

kossTKR wrote: post #9

I remember the thousands of interesting and weird pages listed on StumbleUpon - directories of obscure topics, avant garde art projects and detailed field specific blogs - many of them both pretty and thoroughly made. Mind expanding stuff. I feel like today all of that has moved to silos like tiktok and instagram, in extreme short form formats that are easily disposable - so almost no one creates truly great "compila…

IMO it's not just about being bite-sized, memeable content catering to the lowest common denominator. It's that nearly everyone making content is copying marketing strategies. Back then it was more of a show-and-tell vibe, now everything is trying to sell something.

I’ve built something different that I blog about with a show and tell. I love my product but the weird thing is dev.to the perfect portal to blog about such things is shadowbanned on HN.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#182

Post by verifex » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 7:42 PM UTC

I didn't see a conversation on this in the comments, maybe I missed it, but I think one of the reasons why you don't see as much creative control over web pages is spambots. Lots of things that I've put up on my own personal web page that let anyone add things to it also allowed spambots to invade. And since most software to repel spambots needs to be rather advanced to work effectively, you see instances where the user content part just keeps locked up until it's closed completely.

This is a problem that big companies can solve, but it's much trickier for one guy with a web page to solve.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#183

Post by dhosek » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 7:45 PM UTC

MySpace letting people put CSS and HTML into their pages was a huge security nightmare. My wife, before she left the company, led the security team and it was a constant battle to keep JS injection attacks off the site. I can only imagine how much worse it would be in 2022 vs 2008.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#184

Post by hansword » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

I think this internet probably still exists, in a different form of course (15years later).

I just think its discoverability has been swamped by the platforms overwhelming everything with low-effort-to-consume autoplay-until-I-fall-asleep content.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#185

Post by aprinsen » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 7:57 PM UTC

hbn wrote: post #100

marginalia_nu wrote: post #40

All the fun and weird stuff is still around, it just typically doesn't SEO well and doesn't show up on Google, and is too long-tail to show up on popularity-based algorithms like those of Reddit or Facebook. I've spent the last year or so building tools and algorithms specifically to dig up "fun and weird". It's still there: https://search.marginalia.nu/explore/random

There's still something to be said about the fact that all the mainstream internet platforms don't really encourage much in terms of "internet creativity" outside of the tight boundaries that are allowed (uploading a video, writing text, posting a picture, etc) The fact that MySpace was mainstream and allowed for HTML/CSS hacking did exactly what the article said -- it tricked a generation of teenagers into learning…

MySpace was my first coding experience and I think ultimately tipped me to CS in school.

I remember laying out my page like a pink and black newspaper. All that work for no one to read lol.

But now it is essentially my career

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#186

Post by aprinsen » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 7:58 PM UTC

remram wrote: post #174

I don't understand. Having those 3 quirky HTML tags is fine, but can users add other tags? How do they go about doing that? Can they enter the React definition of those tags somewhere on their site's configuration? Or in the page? Or install them from a marketplace, like the Sticker Packs of some apps? Right now this reads as "content platforms today don't let you enter code, so publish with us we don't allow code bu…

I mean, if you can write arbitrary jsx and react, seems like you can define your own components?

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#187

Post by quartz » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 7:59 PM UTC

hbn wrote: post #78

kossTKR wrote: post #9

I remember the thousands of interesting and weird pages listed on StumbleUpon - directories of obscure topics, avant garde art projects and detailed field specific blogs - many of them both pretty and thoroughly made. Mind expanding stuff. I feel like today all of that has moved to silos like tiktok and instagram, in extreme short form formats that are easily disposable - so almost no one creates truly great "compila…

Here's a site I like to link whenever this discussion comes up (not associated): https://wiby.me I love hopping in and hitting the "surprise me" every once in a while, and reading some obscure webpage written by an actual person with a passion for a subject. In the past I've seen a site dedicated to the soundtrack for a film series (I can't remember which), not even necessarily streaming the soundtrack or something,…

Wow this is fantastic!

Landed on some HAM radio operator's personal text-only site and then a site about birds in some far off place in Nova Scotia: http://www.capebretonbirds.ca/.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#188

Post by nathias » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:03 PM UTC

kixiQu wrote: post #148

kossTKR wrote: post #9

I remember the thousands of interesting and weird pages listed on StumbleUpon - directories of obscure topics, avant garde art projects and detailed field specific blogs - many of them both pretty and thoroughly made. Mind expanding stuff. I feel like today all of that has moved to silos like tiktok and instagram, in extreme short form formats that are easily disposable - so almost no one creates truly great "compila…

My site [1] tends to get linked to by these kinds of things (well, more than by normal things) so I've found a few just through referrer traffic, and joining webrings has been fun too. https://gossipsweb.net https://fediring.net https://nightfall.city https://linkbudz.m455.casa https://indieblog.page https://indieweb.xyz https://stumblingon.com https://webring.dinhe.net https://hotlinewebring.club https://handmade-we…

thx for the list, I already knew about your page, very cool

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#189

Post by ya1sec » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:09 PM UTC

I made an app called Moonjump as a tool to browse the fun/weird internet. It's a server that redirects you to a random page harvested from Are.na, Hacker News, Marginalia Search, Gossip Web, and other sources yet to be configured... I saw someoe mentioned Wiby - totally forgot to include that. Going to do it this weekend!

My project aims spark curiosity and provide a portal to the vast collection of interesting material hidden by the commercial web. The source material is compiled with care by users of these aggregation platforms. Since this accumulation is performed by hand, pages are saved because they had an effect on the users who saved them. Hopefully you will find things that have an effect on you. Everything opens in a new tab, so you can easily close and jump again. I find that it's fun to map the jump function (https://moonjump.app/jump) to a keyboard shortcut.

Try it out: https://moonjump.app

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#190

Post by ya1sec » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:11 PM UTC

kixiQu wrote: post #148

kossTKR wrote: post #9

I remember the thousands of interesting and weird pages listed on StumbleUpon - directories of obscure topics, avant garde art projects and detailed field specific blogs - many of them both pretty and thoroughly made. Mind expanding stuff. I feel like today all of that has moved to silos like tiktok and instagram, in extreme short form formats that are easily disposable - so almost no one creates truly great "compila…

My site [1] tends to get linked to by these kinds of things (well, more than by normal things) so I've found a few just through referrer traffic, and joining webrings has been fun too. https://gossipsweb.net https://fediring.net https://nightfall.city https://linkbudz.m455.casa https://indieblog.page https://indieweb.xyz https://stumblingon.com https://webring.dinhe.net https://hotlinewebring.club https://handmade-we…

Ah I just commented about my app, Moonjump, which uses Gossip Web as one of the sites to source material from. Just found Gossip Web a couple weeks ago. Great job!

Here's mine: https://moonjump.app