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Welcome to the new web.

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101–110 of 114 posts

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#101

So what are we going to do about it? There must be a business opportunity here.

Why does everything have to be a business opportunity? Prioritizing monetary value over other kinds of value is how we got into this mess in the first place.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#102

Listen to this guy. Nils Dagsson Moskopp, what a great post. We are giving the web away because people can't handle email, address book and a blog.

> "We are giving the web away because people can't handle email, address book and a blog." How typically computer-geek of you. Users don't like our convoluted, hard-to-use systems and have abandoned them for products that are easier to use and appeal more to their perception of how technology should work! How dare they! The plebes! DO NOT THEY NOT KNOW WHAT THEY DO?! Why won't people do more work to preserve the free…

If the systems are hard to use that's our fault. We, the technically oriented geeks, failed to build something for normal humans.

But I don't think that's the case. Grandma has to be taught to use Facebook as well, it's not like it's an intuitive interface, quite the contrary IMO.

It's a problem of not realizing the danger of loosing this wonderful and fragile thing we built.

A lot of you geeks have Facebook accounts, so it's not like it's a service for the technically impaired.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#104
post #6

I'm a member of a forum for graduates of one of the schools I went to. In 2007 it was a vibrant and active forum, growing steadily, and straining its hosting account, which constantly had to be expanded. At some point, around 2009, most of the members of this forum got Facebook accounts. That forum is now completely dead. Facebook took all the oxygen out of the site, and it seems like a lot of other sites. Now very m…

Facebook is doing the same thing to your forum that your forum did to USENET. In the 90s, USENET was lively and active. It was federated, decentralized, and you could use any client you wanted to access the information. Web based forums came along and shifted that control away from the loose internet and into the owners of the forums.

That's one way to look at it.

I don't remember it quite that fondly.

I also remember the missing replies, broken threads, spam you couldn't really do much about, endless flamewars about top-quoting vs bottom-quoting, etc.

Plus the pace was just glacial - it could take hours for some posters posts to appear.

Maybe is was better in the REALLY old days - a bit of quick, non-exhaustive google groups searching shows my first usenet posts in June of 1997.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#106
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but you still have to register for reddit... reddit's owned by conde nast, it's not an open platform. Conde nast could at a moment's notice shut the entire thing down, or put it behind a paywall, or sell your 'likes' to an advertiser. This is a problem common to all centralised solutions.

Nitpick: Reddit is no longer owner by Condé Nast, they are now a subsidiary of the parent company, Advance Publications.

[deleted]

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#107
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if there are so many facts behind your assertion that Google is going in a more and more closed direction. Is it because they took more time than previously to open Android 3.0? It has been settled, right? And we know the reasons. Did they slow down on releasing open-source softwares? Maybe, I don't follow it closely enough to decide. Chromium is still open. They did shut down some APIs, but this is a no…

I suggest taking a look at http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GBSGBbc9UtA/TmexwLaJN9I/AAAAAAAAAK... for an indication of Google's current thinking on "open". Google isn't as bad as Facebook, yet. But they're not exactly as "open" as many other organizations either.

Where does that slide come from? Is the rest of the deck available?

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#108
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you expect the 'good-old Google' to come back? They have been steadily moving in a more and more closed direction for years now. What would cause that trend to change?

I don't know if there are so many facts behind your assertion that Google is going in a more and more closed direction. Is it because they took more time than previously to open Android 3.0? It has been settled, right? And we know the reasons. Did they slow down on releasing open-source softwares? Maybe, I don't follow it closely enough to decide. Chromium is still open. They did shut down some APIs, but this is a no…

Google's current 'openess' reminds me slightly of the early OSX days and Darwin being open source etc.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#109
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is doing the same thing to your forum that your forum did to USENET. In the 90s, USENET was lively and active. It was federated, decentralized, and you could use any client you wanted to access the information. Web based forums came along and shifted that control away from the loose internet and into the owners of the forums.

That's one way to look at it. I don't remember it quite that fondly. I also remember the missing replies, broken threads, spam you couldn't really do much about, endless flamewars about top-quoting vs bottom-quoting, etc. Plus the pace was just glacial - it could take hours for some posters posts to appear. Maybe is was better in the REALLY old days - a bit of quick, non-exhaustive google groups searching shows my fi…

Hmm, I graduated from college before the REALLY old days were over, apparently. :)

I don't mean to glorify USENET. The web based forums brought many cool new features -- you could post images that worked reliably, the Slashdot-style moderation stuff was a big boon, etc. I just meant to point out that the internet moves in cycles, and those cycles seem to lead towards newer technology and more centralized control.

Re: Welcome to the new web.

#110
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if there are so many facts behind your assertion that Google is going in a more and more closed direction. Is it because they took more time than previously to open Android 3.0? It has been settled, right? And we know the reasons. Did they slow down on releasing open-source softwares? Maybe, I don't follow it closely enough to decide. Chromium is still open. They did shut down some APIs, but this is a no…

I suggest taking a look at http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GBSGBbc9UtA/TmexwLaJN9I/AAAAAAAAAK... for an indication of Google's current thinking on "open". Google isn't as bad as Facebook, yet. But they're not exactly as "open" as many other organizations either.

Right - and the kind of thinking embodied on that slide doesn't inspire much confidence in their motives. i.e. they aren't being open because they believe it's good for everyone. They seem to intend it as a Trojan horse that will give them control over other people's products.
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